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houseman1131 t1_j2v6dnb wrote

Reply to comment by livethelifeyoulove in Former Colorado funeral home owner sentenced to 20 yrs for selling body parts by Ice_Burn

I found out my aunt asked the funeral director to see my grandma's body a few hours before bural during covid mask restrictions and they told her no. I do wonder if she's really in the casket.

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docmedic t1_j2vbz12 wrote

The water heater contractor was telling me how his grandfather was swapped out for someone else. Granted a lot of people were dying of covid (including the grandfather), but mixing up bodies is utter bullshit given what funeral homes charge. In any case, he was able to check.

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malphonso t1_j2wlcbo wrote

There's absolutely no excuse for that. When we take someone into our care, the first step is to put a hospital style tag around their ankle. On it is their name and date of death. We do that in their homes before we even lift them onto a stretcher.

In addition, we ask the families to bring in an ID or photo of the decedent so we can have something to compare them to at every step.

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Ghost_of_a_Black_Cat t1_j2x0g6e wrote

>There's absolutely no excuse for that. When we take someone into our care, the first step is to put a hospital style tag around their ankle.

I've worked in hospitals for years. The last one at which I worked would put a toe tag around one ankle and another around the opposite wrist.

We attached another to the zipper of the body bag, and then clipped one more toe tag to the decedents door in the morgue (we had stainless steel stalls with big refrigerator doors).

The toe tags were made from heavy-duty tag board and we used thick rubber bands to attach them. They weren't going anywhere unless manually removed.

Anyway, four levels of ID right there. No excuses. The Sisters didn't fuck around.

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LuangPrabangisinLaos t1_j2yhpjb wrote

That's how we do it in Canada.

And don't forget the dentures if they have them! They look weird without them, and trying to get them in after they stiffen up is brutal.

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ctesibius t1_j2wgux6 wrote

I’m a funeral officiant in the UK. During lockdown, the bodies in my region were in double body bags. That’s all bodies, not suspected COVID cases. It would not have been possible to see your grandma. I do know that there is a robust method of tracking here, so I’m confident that the right people were buried or cremated, and in any case we are back to allowing viewings.

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Winendinen69 t1_j2x3yll wrote

My now-husband (then boyfriend)'s Holocaust surviving Grandpa died in Vienna, Austria a few years ago - when the head of a local Orthodox jewish temple found out that he the deceased was Jewish, the man stole my husband's grandpa's body from the hospital. The guy REFUSED to give the body back to my husband's family because the grandpa wanted to be cremated, and you aren't allowed to be cremated in the Jewish faith

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Junior_Builder_4340 t1_j2zfy05 wrote

Wait. What?? The man wasn't even a Rabbi (not that it would make it better)? I hope your husband's family filed charges against the man and sued the hospital. I can't fathom something like that happening to one of my family members. My condolences to your family.

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