One thing at a time By Tim Collison CFSP Tim is Vice President of Sales & Marketing for Dodge. He is a regular presenter at the Dodge Seminars and is a licensed funeral director and embalmer in the State of Michigan.
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think that most of us, at one time or another, have walked into the preparation room or unzipped a body pouch and wanted to turn around and walk away. Perhaps it is a case where trauma caused the death, possibly someone who is grossly edematous or has advanced decomposition. Whatever might be the situation, the overall first impression is overwhelming. Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu is quoted as saying, “There is only one way to eat an elephant: a bite at a time.” When encountering an overwhelming situation, this may be a good way to go about getting the work done. One of the opportunities we have at Dodge is to produce technical programming through th cooperation of a mortuary school. This school receives human remains which have become wards of the state, and the state, in turn, utilizes the mortuary school to provide a dignified final disposition for these individuals. The technical team from Dodge will travel periodically to the school to embalm, reconstruct, and cosmetize these individuals in order to develop educational programming. As you might imagine, we see many challenging cases, as many of these deceased individuals have not had the best care prior to their death. Recently, the Dodge team had the opportunity to care for a woman who had
died approximately 30 days previously and had been held in refrigeration almost the entire time. As we removed her from the pouch, it was evident that she was going to pose a challenge to the embalmers, as well as those readying her for viewing. In addition to being deceased for a month, she had purged and was exhibiting dehydration in the face and hands, some edema in the extremities, a green abdomen, discoloration in the face, and more so in the hands. Her lower lip was fused by scar tissue into one of her lower teeth, so the mouth closure was going to require a restorative procedure. On the front right-hand side of forehead, she had what appeared to be a healed depression fracture, approximately 3” in diameter, and ¾” deep at the center. To begin, as always, the deceased was placed on body rests and thoroughly sprayed with Dis-Spray, and the facial orifices cleaned and disinfected, taking care to remove any material remaining in the mouth after purging. To clean and treat the severe cradlecap, a 50/50 mixture of Proflow and Restorative was massaged into the scalp and hair. This mixture moisturizes the hair and will dislodge any loose tissue on the scalp. When the hair is shampooed, the mixture and the loose skin (cradle-cap) will be removed. The decision was made to dissect the lower lip
As you might imagine, we see many challenging cases, as many of these deceased individuals have not had the best care prior to their death
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