Burying the Dead During the Pandemic: An Alternative View

A general guide of necessary and respectful management of those that have died in a disaster of significant size.
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Burying the Dead During the Pandemic: An Alternative View

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By Dr. Grattan Woodson, MD
by: The Doctor
Thu Dec 14, 2006 at 11:47:04 AM EST

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We will need an alternative way to manage our dead during the pandemic and current law and customs do not take pandemic conditions into account. Deceased remains must be disposed of with dispatch in order to prevent the spread of disease. It is a public health imperative that remains not be stored in homes or basements where conditions are unsuitable for preservation of the deceased. Doing so will risk contamination of the area and those within it and will not be very pleasant psychologically or esthetically. This diary provides a few suggestions on alternatives to consider during the pandemic should our conventional and even extraordinary mortuary services become overwhelmed.
The Doctor :: Burying the Dead During the Pandemic: An Alternative View
Please Note: The views expressed in my book and here in this diary on burying the dead in temporary neighborhood cemeteries is not in concert with current law or the recommendations of county coroners. The method of preparing and handling the deceased’s remains prior to burial and the advice given on how to bury them here are based upon my opinion of the conditions we are likely to face during the pandemic and are not consistent with state law or custom. These suggestions are meant for use only when the usual methods of body disposal have become exhausted and a family is faced with the need to do something, and fast, about their deceased loved one.
What follows are several edited excerpts from Chapter 12 in The Bird Flu Manual.

Mortuary Preparations

Regrettably, a marked increase in deaths compressed into a short period of time is an undeniable feature of pandemic. You may have to bury a number of the dead during the pandemic….
Routine mortuary services may be unavailable due to demand, lack of electrical power, embalming supplies, caskets, and staff. Months may pass before a person who has died can be embalmed and receive a proper burial or even be issued a death certificate.

The authorities plan to set up temporary morgues in refrigerated trailers to hold the deceased. These plans work only so long as there is sufficient diesel fuel to operate the electric generators needed for the refrigeration units. The demand for these trucks will be very high and they will quickly become fully utilized. At that point or when the diesel fuel runs out, the only option will be mass burial. Inevitably there will be great confusion surrounding an event like this. The identities of many of those buried will not be known and even when they are, the location of the burial spot of a deceased family member may not be. In some locales, body pickup may become temporarily unavailable. County coroners will be reluctant to issue death certificates without proof of death. Without this, a family’s options in probate court and their chances of collecting life insurance proceeds become enormously complex.

These concerns make it prudent for your group to consider burying their own dead in a temporary cemetery located within your neighborhood.

Cremation

While a funeral pyre is another option for dealing with a body, you should avoid this. The authorities may want to satisfy themselves that the person who died is indeed who you say they were, and that their manner of death was as stated. If you cremate the body, there may be inadequate remains left to make a positive identification of the deceased….
Burial of the body permitting exhumation and complete forensic examination of the remains would avoid these problems and be the best way to facilitate a criminal probe.

A Quick Burial is Best

How long it takes the body to putrefy depends on the ambient temperature of its location. The warmer it is, the faster decomposition will happen. Avoid allowing the body to putrefy because a corpse in this state is more difficult to handle both from a physical and a psychological standpoint. It is in everyone’s best interest to rapidly prepare the dead and bury them quickly.

Preparing The Body For Burial

Those dying from influenza are no more dangerous deceased than when they were alive as long as the body has not begun to decompose. Because they do carry bacteria and viruses and might even have active bird flu virus in their secretions and other body fluids, routine precautions are called for—however, not more than would be the case if you were taking care of the same person with flu during life. Burial should be performed as soon as possible. Embalming the body is unnecessary since you will be burying the body quickly….
A coffin is unnecessary.

Burying The Dead

A good location for a temporary graveyard is one that is well drained, away from occupied housing, vegetable gardens, and especially from streams or wells. As the need arises, members of the watch or others within the community can dig graves. An average adult fits well in a 3 feet deep x 6 feet long x 3 feet wide grave… lower the wrapped body into the bottom of the grave, cover it with 20 lbs of quick lime and fill the hole with soil. Be sure to mark the grave and keep a means of positive identification for the corpse in a safe place for the authority’s use after the conclusion of the emergency.

Exhumation After The Emergency

Once the emergency is over, you are required to notify the authorities about any deceased people you buried. They will need to have the details about the person and their manner of death before a death certificate is issued and the body can be exhumed and reburied in the cemetery or cremated. In rare instances, the coroner may wish to perform a post-mortem examination on the deceased in which case they will be responsible for recovering the body from the burial site. In most cases, however, this task will fall to the local mortician who is likely to have a backlog of bodies to attend. For instance, the British Government reported that burials could be delayed by 16 weeks during a moderate pandemic (1). If the pandemic is severe, the wait will be even longer. So it will be important to bury the dead well because they may need to reside there for quite a while before being moved to their final resting place.

Reference
(1) Stones A., Mass graves planned if bird flu pandemic reaches Britain. Daily Telegraph 2Apr2006

Grattan Woodson, MD, FACP

Tags: death, burial, cremation, exhumation, state law, coroner, morticians, (All Tags)

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