Although the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention maintains the risk of contracting the virus from a dead body is low, there is no government agency tracking COVID-19 infection rates among last responders in the U nited S tates.

Unlike many other front-line workers exposed to the virus, their risk of infection was largely overlooked. Like healthcare workers who tend to the living, last responders - medical examiners, coroners, embalmers, funeral directors and other trained mortuary workers - faced overwhelming challenges as the pandemic death toll mounted, from exploding caseloads and shortages of personal protective equipment to mental health co ncerns. “It was not normal.”įor Simon, that first COVID-positive body was a harbinger of things to come. “The blood clots were tremendous, unlike what I had ever seen in the embalming room,” she said. Simon proceeded with the embalming process. Stephanie Simon, an embalmer at Rhodes Funeral Home in New Orleans, had been dreading the day since hearing of the deadly, flulike virus that had landed on the East and West Coasts. The first body arrived on a mild Saturday in March 2020. In the Black community the work of skilled embalmers “often involved masking the effects of violent deaths, such as lynchings,” while the rituals and elegance of Black funerals helped to provide dignity and reverence that too often evade the Black body in life.Editor’s note: The following story contains descriptions of postmortem procedures. This is not to say there are never reasons to embalm, most notably the use of embalming in doing complex restorative work on a badly injured body.

Embalming is what, in the early 20th century, turned funeral homes from small community offerings into an industry, and funeral directors into paid “experts.” Entrepreneurs could see there was money to be made in convincing the public that embalming was necessary for sanitation and appearance of the body (the first is untrue, the second debatable). Even at the time, complaints were registered that “the expense of this process, in most cases, places it advantages beyond the reach of people of moderate means.” By the time President Abraham Lincoln’s embalmed body was taken on a two-week tour of the U.S., embalming had already captured the popular imagination. If they are honest with you about the condition of the body, in an ideal world you should be able to make an informed, supported decision about what you are willing to see.Įmbalmers would follow battles and set up their tents, preserving the bodies of fallen soldiers so they could be transported by train back to their families up north. The funeral home may feel that the body is experiencing some decomposition that makes embalming necessary, or that the viewing is two weeks away and the body will change too much in that time period. If keeping the body unembalmed is deeply important to you, you will either have to change funeral homes or not view the body. Ask about their policies on unembalmed viewings right at the top of your call or arrangement conference. Have an honest conversation with your funeral director. Unethical and illegal are not always the same thing. If they want to prevent you from having a viewing if your mother is unembalmed, they are allowed to do so. That means they get to decide their individual policies and requirements. However, in the current funeral system, funeral homes are private businesses. It is never legally required to embalm a body. Unfortunately it is all too common to be told by a funeral home that you will not be able to see or have a viewing for your loved one unless they are embalmed.

Dangers of embalming fluid