traditional funeral. Other than getting permission to do the removal and embalming, the rest was unknown. I immediately started making calls. In talking to the church, I was told they were already aware of the tragedy and the ball was rolling on their end. I called the medical examiner to find out about the release time frame and conditions of the bodies, and of course, I called the cemetery. Our funeral home worked closely with the medical examiner’s office, so I requested to go there and take a firsthand look at the condition of the bodies so I could see what I was up against and would be able to relay any concerns to the family if necessary. To my surprise, besides a couple of minor facial lacerations and a compound fracture of her leg, the mother was in decent shape. However, I learned that the child was actually a newborn infant that was taken from the mother the night before at the hospital via emergency C-section and, unfortunately, was stillborn. While all of this was incredibly sad, it gave me more information to work with going forward. I was able to start a plan to help direct the family with options. Both bodies were released later that day. We had not heard much from the family at that point. However, the church was calling non-stop. The mother had a full post, but the infant was not posted and was basically full-term in size (about 36 weeks gestation). When we got both bodies back to the funeral home, we immediately started our work. My partner started by getting the mother on the table, opening sutures, and working on setting features while I took care of the little one. Since the infant was large enough, our intent was arterial injection. I started by bathing the infant and disinfecting the mouth, nose, eyes and body with Dis-Spray. For my arterial solution, I used a bottle of Plasdopake (18 index), 8 oz of Chromatech Pink (21.5 index), and a bottle each of Metaflow and Rectifiant to make 1 gallon of total solution. The right iliac artery was my injection point because the incision would be a bit easier to disguise with a diaper. The embalming went perfectly, and I received good distribution and firming, not too firm, which is what I was after. After aspirating, I treated the viscera with a bottle of Spectrum so I could avoid having a strong chemical smell emitting from the body. As a sales representative, I often get asked about “dipping” for an infant. So, for the purposes of this article, I will take a few minutes to cover that process as well. Dipping, or submersion embalming, is a good way to preserve a fetus if arterial embalming is not an option. I would start by using a clear plastic tub with a snap top lid to monitor the progress of the fetus better and keep any chemical smell to a minimum. Based on the condition of the case, I would start with two to three bottles of Dri Cav or Halt Cavity, two bottles of Proflow and two bottles of Rectifiant and then use water to make enough solution to fully submerge the fetus. If you are dealing with dark tissue or skin slip, adding a couple of bottles of Dryene Basic will help bleach out and cauterize the skin, thus making it more stable going forward. Check the progress of the fetus after four to six hours to see how things are advancing. Typically, you do not need to exceed 12 hours for this process. If the infant is larger and more fully formed, once the submersion process is complete, I would suggest aspirating the cavity and then injecting it with some cavity chemicals. It is also a good idea to inject up to 60cc’s of Dryene Basic into the cranial vault using a 6-inch needle and syringe entering through the cribriform plate. This will ensure that everything not preserved by the submersion is treated properly. If you can determine the family’s preference for whether the infant and mother will be in the same casket or separate ones, this will help you with positioning, primarily for the mother. Unfortunately, I was not able to establish this beforehand, so my co-worker and I made the decision to embalm with regular positioning and pivot later if we needed to. The embalming for the mother was straightforward, with the exception of treating the lacerations and leg fracture. The lacerations were minor, and I treated them with some Dryene Basic to cauterize them so I could glue and wax later if needed. The compound fracture did limit chemical distribution to the lower part of the leg, so I thoroughly hypo’d the area with Introfiant OTC to ensure proper preservation and then in my post-embalming process, I treated the open skin and tissue with a surface pack using Webril and Dryene Basic. During the embalming, there was some minor swelling in one of the eyes, so I used a small gauge hypo needle with some Dryene Basic and injected it into both eyelids followed by Webril soaked in water to help reduce the swelling. If you have extreme swelling in an area like an eye or temple, use a hypo needle (without the syringe) to channel the area and then manually push out the fluid with your hand or palm. It is a quick and effective way to remove swelling. It is important to do this immediately after the embalming and before the tissue has a chance to fixate. If you wait until later, it is not nearly as effective. After meeting with the family and exploring the options that they had, it was determined that the mother would be holding the infant in her arm in the casket. I needed to adjust the mother’s arm positioning to allow her to hold the infant naturally in the casket. Our preparation room had sandbag weights that we would use to help position Directors Digest | 19
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