Request for deceased to stay in home overnight

doodlemom · Apr 19, 2008

I've never heard of the part about the planets being aligned. I have had buddhist patients that requested not to be moved for 72 hours. Before the body was moved, they tapped the top of the head. I don't remember the significance but I'm sure if you google it, you can find out.

medsurgnurse, RN · Apr 19, 2008

I think the local coroner overrules any such practice. I am famaliar with the coroner generally wanting the body out within 4-6 hours. I never heard of any jurisdiction allowing a body to remain in home for 72 hours.

doodlemom · Apr 19, 2008

We've done it before...just did not notify the funeral home until the body was ready to be picked up. We kept the house really cool and put ice packs nearby so the body would not smell. I've had other patients who were not buddhist that requested for us not to take the body for several hours...then we've had the occasional out of town funeral home not being able to get there for several hours. We are not required to call the coroners office at a time of death...we just call the funeral home or the cremation society (they can take several hours as well.) If there was such a rule, I would tell the family not to call us to tell us the patient died until they were ready for the body to be picked up. I feel it is pretty important to honor a pt and family's spiritual/cultural needs (as well as emotional needs) and if there is a system - there must be a way to get around it. Even when I worked the oncology floor in the hospital, there were times when a family did not want the body moved.for several hours. We had a patient to die last year who's wife did not call us until the next day - she lay in bed with her dead husband all night. If there was such a rule here, I guess the coroner could take it up with the patient's wife (30 lashes with a wet noodle!)

doodlemom · Apr 19, 2008

Oh --- and I forgot to mention..We had a patient last year who wanted his family to act as his funeral home. They had researched this extensively and it is perfectly legal in most states to claim the body for yourself and not get anyone else involved in it. See http://www.crossings.net/index.html. They were working with a local crossings group who had given them all of their resources - they had the death certificate ready. Our Medical Director signed it for them. We all learned a lot from this, as none of us had ever heard of this before. There is a movement of some sort for home funerals and burials.

sfn2008, RN · Apr 23, 2008

I think the local coroner overrules any such practice. I am famaliar with the coroner generally wanting the body out within 4-6 hours. I never heard of any jurisdiction allowing a body to remain in home for 72 hours.

Where do I find this kind of a law? You said that the coroner "overrules" . .. my question is.. when I die if I wanted to practice an Irish tradition of having a "Wake", is this now against the law?

AtlantaRN, RN · Apr 23, 2008

Oh --- and I forgot to mention..We had a patient last year who wanted his family to act as his funeral home. They had researched this extensively and it is perfectly legal in most states to claim the body for yourself and not get anyone else involved in it. See http://www.crossings.net/index.html. They were working with a local crossings group who had given them all of their resources - they had the death certificate ready. Our Medical Director signed it for them. We all learned a lot from this, as none of us had ever heard of this before. There is a movement of some sort for home funerals and burials.

In one of the text books "death, dying, and bereavement", it discusses the history of funerals in europe and in the states. Funerals at home were the norm until the middle of the 1800's.

I called the family first thing in the morning, and the son in law stated that the poa called a local funeral home at 10p and the body was removed by 11p. I was concerned about her odor because she had bladder cancer with lung and bone mets, so she had an unpleasant odor before she died.

Thank you for posting the above link, i'll share it with my team members at IDT in the am.

linda

ktwlpn, LPN · Apr 24, 2008

I saw a documentary about this-until then I believed that it was state law that everyone be embalmed. I like the idea of my family decorating a big cardboard box to pop me in.No chemicals,no make-up-just me,dead ....in the dirt.This would be for me if I had a large family.As it is I'll be cremated-and someone had better scatter a handful of me in my happy place,Disney World. I find the rites of the dead in other cultures really interesting.I've been to a few Amish wakes, and I've seen a few different cultures in the LTC.Even shiva and the catholic mass seems exotic to a Methodist,you know?

justme1972 · Apr 24, 2008

Where do I find this kind of a law? You said that the coroner "overrules" . .. my question is.. when I die if I wanted to practice an Irish tradition of having a "Wake", is this now against the law?

I think that this has to do with getting the body refrigerated as quickly as possible to prevent bacteria from reaching toxic numbers to where the HANDLERS would be at a higher contact risk.

I think common sense needs to be used....What if a body was in a home with no air conditioning with it 90 degrees outside and you have to wait for the planets to be aligned.

I am all about honoring cultural funeral practices, but not when it puts those that have to care for the body at risk.

rnboysmom · Apr 26, 2008

Laws vary state to state. We currently have a family on service that has the entire funeral planned in their living room for when their family member passes. The coffin will be delivered to the home and the patient will be taken from there to the cemetary. We have checked local and state statutes and this is perfectly legal here. Funeral homes are a lot like managed care, they have taken sickness and death out of the home where it was for centuries and have effectively made it something that nobody encounters anymore, thus, everyone is afraid of the unfamiliar. Until this century, sick and dying family members were cared for by entire families, little children knew that death was a natural part of life and that you embaced your family in sickness and in health. Okay, it is late and I am rambling, so this will be my last post tonight, But, there is one positive note, there is a local funeral home here in our town that is fairly new, and they are hitting the town by storm by offering these types of "out of character " funerals. Many families don't have the money to spend 10-15 thousand dollars on a funeral and don't even know that there are options to the traditional "funeral pallor". A family can tailor the funeral, do flowers themselves or have visitation at a favorite home or gathering place and save thousands and still feel that they have honored their loved one. Families are learning there are options--a small, but noble concept that we hope takes hold---just like hospice!! :heartbeat

srvrose · Apr 28, 2008

I once had a request for keeping the deceased overnight. We didn't know of the plan before the death call. I relayed it to the coroner, who did not object, providing the funeral home would be cooperative to the plan. The funeral home director was very gracious and gave the family her direct phone number to call when they were ready to release the body. It all went smoothly and the family was very appreciative! It was summer, but the body did not smell even the next day, by the funeral home's report. We had just called to verify that the body had actually been dispatched as planned.

I am also aware of a patient who was "waked" in her own home by a group called "Christian Undertakers". They also do wakes in churches/chapels.

There must be more options out there than we are aware of.