Author: John

Categories
Burial Death + Disaster

Envisioning the Death Toll in Haiti

Haiti’s Many Troubles Keep Bodies Uncounted
Simon Romero and Neil MacFarquhar, New York Times (January 21, 2010)

Haiti quake toll ‘may be 200,000’
BBC News (January 18, 2010)

I have a hunch that for years to come, the final death toll in Haiti will remain unknown. As the tagline for the above New York Times article states: The simple truth is that no accurate death toll exists. This isn’t some keen observation on my part, rather mass fatality situations are always difficult to tabulate. And the situation in Haiti is offering up its own unique problems, such as the sheer volume of corpses, and the rapid burial of those dead bodies without any record keeping system.

During this week alone, the numbers of dead have fluctuated by several tens of thousands at a time. The BBC News article at the top quotes a US General who says the death toll may reach 200,000. That was on Monday of this week. By Thursday, the New York Times had an article which pointed out logically (if not tragically) that tabulating the death toll will be extremely difficult.

Regardless of the final, agreed upon death toll, another problem with these fluctuating body counts involves the question of human perception. In a nutshell, how can people understand a number such as 100,000 or 200,000? What do that many dead bodies look like?

I’ve thought about this question over the years, since it seems that part of the problem with any really large death toll is that it becomes so big that it can’t be envisioned.

The one way that I have figured out how to describe these numbers is by using a concept which I call the Stadium Equation. In order to understand how many bodies 100,000 or 200,000 represents, imagine yourself standing in the middle of a packed stadium. Then imagine everyone sitting around you as a dead body x the total (or projected) number of dead bodies.

This Wikipedia page lists American athletic stadiums and each stadium’s seating capacity.

In the UK, Wembley stadium (above) seats 90,000.

Categories
Burial Cemeteries Death + Disaster

Haiti’s Anonymous Dead

As Haitians Flee, the Dead Go Uncounted
Damien Cave, New York Times (January 18, 2010)

Last home of country’s most famous families turns from place of respect and mourning into installation of horror
Ed Pilkington, The Guardian (January 18, 2010)

Following up on yesterday’s Haiti earthquake post, these New York Times and Guardian articles expand upon the rushed burial of the dead.

Categories
Burial Cemeteries Death + Disaster

The Impossibility of Identifying the Dead in Haiti

How can a country in the grip of an apocalyptic tragedy deal in a dignified way with its victims?
Paul Harris, The Guardian (January 17, 2010)

The current stories emanating from Haiti are incomprehensibly awful. This Guardian article uses the word apocalyptic and that seems utterly appropriate.

A crisis situation of this enormity is compounded by the sheer number of immediate human needs. One of those key requirements is the rapid identification, removal, and burial of dead bodies. The problem in Haiti is that an already weak infrastructure is unable to handle the number of dead bodies produced by the earthquake. In this crisis situation, the normalized rules for handling the dead cannot cope with all the corpses.

And yet, something must be done with the dead bodies.

Part of the assistance being sent by the United States involves dispatching Disaster Mortuary Organizational Response Teams or DMORT groups to Haiti. DMORT is part of the US Department of Health and Human Services and specializes in handling mass fatality situations. These are the kinds of individuals on DMORT Teams (as listed on the HHS website):

funeral directors, medical examiners, coroners, pathologists, forensic anthropologists, medical records technicians and transcribers, finger print specialists, forensic odontologists, dental assistants, x-ray technicians, mental health specialists, computer professionals, administrative support staff, and security and investigative personnel.

Here is an article about a University of Florida Forensic Entomologist, Dr. Jason Byrd, who is already in Haiti with a DMORT group.

Private companies are also sending groups to Haiti. The main provider of mass disaster/fatality services in the private sector is Kenyon International Emergency Services. Kenyon is based in Houston, TX and owned by Service Corporation International (SCI). SCI is the largest global provider of funeral, cemetery, and cremation services and got into the mass fatality business in the mid-2000’s. I will write more about SCI and Kenyon at a later date.

For right now, both DMORT and Kenyon will be attempting to do the following things:

1.) Identify any of the dead that they can
2.) bury the dead in an organized fashion
3.) use a tagging system of some kind so that the dead can be (possibly) identified at a later date.

These tasks are made vastly more complicated by the rush to bury bodies in mass graves. There is a common misconception that dead bodies spread disease. That’s not entirely true and this CNN article covers these points. What dead bodies do create is a terrible smell. Decomposing dead bodies are also difficult to look at. When you multiply these problems by 100,000 dead bodies (this is just the body count estimate at this point) then immediate disposal of the corpses becomes easier to understand.

The following video clip from CNN sums up the situation:

Categories
Death + the Law Death Ethics

Live Free and Die in Montana

Ruling by Montana Supreme Court Bolsters Physician-Assisted Suicide
by Kirk Johnson, New York Times (January 10, 2010)

Last September I posted an article on a Montana man who took his right-to-die case to the Montana State Supreme Court. The case involved 76-year old Robert Baxter who, sadly, died of leukemia before the case made it to the court. I say sadly because it’s clear that Mr. Baxter felt strongly about an individual’s inalienable right to both die on his or her own terms AND to seek out medical assistance with that death.

The Montana State Supreme Court mostly agreed with Mr. Baxter, saying that the current state law does enable doctors to assist with dying BUT the court declined to state that physician-assisted suicide is a Constitutional right.

Here are more articles on the case:
Washington Post: Montana 3rd state to allow doctor-assisted suicide

Christian Science Monitor: Montana becomes third state to legalize physician-assisted suicide

We will see more of these assisted dying cases in the years to come. This much I know.

Categories
Death + Biology

Corpse Flower Blooms in Milwaukee

Corpse flower to Bloom at Milwaukee Museum
Associated Press (January 12, 2010)

It seems only too fitting. That a seven-foot tall Sumatran “Corpse Flower” will soon bloom at the Milwaukee Public Museum. I’m from Wisconsin so I can make all the jokes I want.

Oddly (or perhaps not so oddly) it turns out that the Corpse Flower has made its way into the Death Reference Desk before. Last September, Death Ref Superstar Kim wrote the following:

The fascinating and frighteningly named “Corpse Flower” or amorphophallus titanum, as it’s scientifically known, will affront your sense of smell like no other plant on earth. Indigenous to the tropical forests of Sumatra (but grown in a few horticultural centers stateside), the Corpse Flower emits a rotten flesh smell that has people gagging for air within 10 feet of it.

You can read the whole post on death and smell here.

So remember everyone: when you go to Milwaukee don’t 1.) drink the water and 2.) don’t get within 10 feet of the local Amorphophallus titanum after lunch.

Categories
Death + the Economy

Minneapolis Indigent Burials Increasing

Indigent burials, and cost to public, on rise
Kevin Duchschere, Star Tribune (December 27, 2009)

This is a story which persists in the news. County morgues all across America continue to deal with unclaimed dead bodies. I have been writing about these cases on Death Ref’s Death + the Economy section.

Minneapolis is the featured city this time (my home for many years) and the Hennepin County Morgue. As always, I will continue to track these stories for the Death Reference Desk.

Categories
cremation Funeral Industry

Cremating Supersized Dead Bodies

Bath Cemetery Refused to Cremate Man Because He Was Too Heavy
The Bath Chronicle (December 14, 2009)

Every once in a while, a dead body story brings home the following point: all the issues that surround the living world don’t entirely stop when a person dies. Indeed, funeral directors and crematorium operators encounter most aspects of the human condition but out of sight. And most certainly out of mind.

So, it came to pass, that a UK man weighing 40 stone (560 pounds) died and he wanted to be cremated. Once he was in his coffin, his total weight became 50 stone (700 pounds) and the local crematorium said that they couldn’t take his corpse because of his size. The crematorium is in Bath (where I live) and the story was reported by both The Bath Chronicle and the BBC (Obese 40-stone Somerset man ‘too heavy to cremate’).

Correct lifting

You can read either article for the full details. Here’s the thing: this isn’t a new problem, or at least, it has been an ever increasing problem for the last ten years. In 2003, the New York Times ran the following article on Goliath Casket Company: On the Final Journey, One Size Doesn’t Fit All. Here is the gist of the article:

Perhaps nowhere is the issue of obesity in America more vividly illustrated than at Goliath Casket of Lynn, Ind., specialty manufacturers of oversize coffins.

There one can see a triple-wide coffin — 44 inches across, compared with 24 inches for a standard model. With extra bracing, reinforced hinges and handles, the triple-wide is designed to handle 700 pounds without losing what the euphemism-happy funeral industry calls its ”integrity.”

Safety Lifting

When Keith and Julane Davis started Goliath Casket in the late 1980’s, they sold just one triple-wide each year. But times, along with waistlines, have changed; the Davises now ship four or five triple-wide models a month, and sales at the company have been increasing around 20 percent annually. The Davises say they base their design specifications not on demographic studies so much as on simple observations of the world around them.

”It’s just going to local restaurants or walking in a normal Wal-Mart,” Mrs. Davis said. ”People are getting wider and they’re getting thicker.”

And even though the owners of Goliath Casket Company made these observations at the local Wal-Mart, supersized dead bodies are an increasingly common UK phenomena.

In fact, The Guardian newspaper printed the following article in 2006: Obesity is undertakers’ fresh burden.

I totally understand why the crematorium officials at the Haycombe Cemetery and Crematorium initially declined to cremate the 40 stone dead body: lifting and transporting XXXL dead bodies is potentially dangerous for the workers. Lifting an object that heavy can cause back injuries. 50 stone weightlifting (remember that that’s 700 pounds) is best left to the gym.

Ferno Maxx Cart

In the end, everything worked out because the funeral home got hold of a special cart built for transporting large dead bodies.

And this is the moral of the story: as human waistlines increase so does the demand for heavy load bearing dead body equipment.

XXXL dead bodies translate into supersized profits for some death industry sectors.

Categories
Death + Popular Culture

Santa Muerte…Saint Death Accepts Everyone

Devotion to Saint Death
William Booth, The Washington Post (December 6, 2009)

I don’t really know a lot about Santa Muerte or Saint Death. After I read this article, I remembered seeing the various Santa Muerte statues in Mexican stores but never really thought twice about it.

Santa Muerte

This Washington Post piece (linked above) brings a whole new angle to worshiping (some use the word “cult”) Saint Death. The article also includes an amazing photo montage of the monthly Saint Death festivities in Mexico City.

And, as always, YouTube has something to contribute…

Categories
Death + the Economy Death Ethics

Some Unclaimed Dead Bodies Buried in Detroit

Detroit finds dignity in death
Poppy Harlow, CNNMoney.com (November 16, 2009)

This article is a few weeks old so it isn’t breaking news. That said, I just noticed the video and watched it. The images of all the unclaimed bodies stacked up in the morgue freezer is a tragedy. I’ve been covering the unclaimed body situation in Detroit (as well as across America) in the Death + the Economy section of Death Ref since the summer of 2009.

It is a telling moment for any nation at a crossroads with itself when a charity is started not to help the living in need but the dead. Of course the living still need to bury the dead (so this isn’t clearly a life vs. death issue) but the formation of the May We Rest in Peace charity to help bury the unclaimed dead bodies in Detroit is a sign of what is to come.

Watch the video. We’re in the middle of a tragedy. Soon enough, it will become a farce.

Categories
Death + the Law

Swedish Woman Killed by Elk (possibly) Drunk on Fermented Apples

Sweden woman’s ‘murder’ committed by elk not husband
BBC News (November 28, 2009)

Mean Ferocious ElkSo yeah. There are a number of more important articles that I SHOULD be posting to Death Ref right now, but I couldn’t resist this one. Especially since Swedish officials are saying that Elk can become aggressive after eating fermented apples.

I like to think that this is a warning. Eventually the animals will all strike back against the humans for all the hunting, the terrible t-shirts that use their images without asking, and five pound bags of beef jerky. LOOK OUT Wisconsin!!!!

If the dogs in Japan lash out, it’s going to be really really bad…

Categories
Death + Popular Culture Death + the Law

How to Marry A Dead Person…ROCK SOLID.

French woman marries dead partner
Lizzy Davies, The Guardian (November 17, 2009)

Over the weekend, I posted an article about how the Governor of Rhode Island vetoed a bill that would have granted same-sex partners legal claims for final disposition of a dead body. This is only an issue because same-sex marriage isn’t legal. Once two people are married, they have next of kin rights, which significantly includes legal claims for a dead body.

Then I saw this article about posthumous marriage in France and I had an epiphany. Same-sex marriage needs to be extended and recognized for dead partners. It is the least America can do once same-sex marriage becomes universal across the United States.

Posthumous Wedding in France

This is the best section from the article:

Under French law posthumous marriages are possible as long as evidence exists that the deceased person had the intention while alive of wedding their partner. According to Christophe Caput, the mayor who married Jaskiewicz, her request was “rock solid”.

At the very least, posthumous same-sex marriage acknowledges that even though two people who loved each other in life could not get married, death does not mean the dream will be forever denied.

Categories
Death + the Law Death Ethics

Governor of RI to Gays and Lesbians: You Cannot Claim Your Partner’s Corpse

R.I. governor vetoes ‘domestic partners’ burial bill
Katherine Gregg, The Providence Journal, (November 10, 2009)

When a person dies, his or her body needs to be claimed by the next of kin. If no kin can be found, then that dead body is handled by local authorities. The legal question of who (or whom) qualifies as next of kin is a real dilemma when it involves domestic partners who have been together for numerous years but lack any say over the final disposition of the body. Asserting a legal claim over the control of the corpse is a key issue for same-sex marriage proponents as well as domestic partnership advocates (which would cover heterosexual couples too).

Last week, in Rhode Island, the Governor vetoed a new Domestic Partners bill that would have granted same-sex and opposite-sex partners next of kin status for claiming dead bodies. This Providence Journal article discusses the veto and why Governor Carcieri did what he did.

I promise that in the future, people will look back and read these histories with disbelief.

You need only read this section to understand why:

At a hearing this year on one of the stalled bills to allow same-sex marriage, Mark S. Goldberg told a Senate committee about his months-long battle last fall to persuade state authorities to release to him the body of his partner of 17 years, Ron Hanby, so he could grant Hanby’s wish for cremation — only to have that request rejected because “we were not legally married or blood relatives.”

Goldberg said he tried to show the police and the state medical examiner’s office “our wills, living wills, power of attorney and marriage certificate” from Connecticut, but “no one was willing to see these documents.”

He said he was told the medical examiner’s office was required to conduct a two-week search for next of kin, but the medical examiner’s office waited a full week before placing the required ad in a newspaper. And then when no one responded, he said, they “waited another week” to notify another state agency of an unclaimed body.

Rhode Island State Flag

After four weeks, he said, a Department of Human Services employee “took pity on me and my plight … reviewed our documentation and was able to get all parties concerned to release Ron’s body to me,” but then the cremation society refused to cremate Ron’s body.

“On the same day, I contacted the Massachusetts Cremation Society and they were more than willing to work with me and cremate Ron’s body,” and so, “on November 6, 2008, I was able to finally pick up Ron’s remains and put this tragedy to rest.”

“I felt as if I was treated not as a second-class citizen, but as a noncitizen,” Goldberg told the Senate Judiciary Committee, an hour into the first hearing this year in the 13-year push by gay-rights advocates for the right to marry in Rhode Island, and the pushback from the Roman Catholic Church and other opponents.

Kathy Kushnir, executive directive of the advocacy group Marriage Equality of Rhode Island, called the governor’s veto “unconscionable” when “people are trying to piece their lives together, which is what Rhode Island is requiring them to do without legal recognition,” and then when “faced with a time that could not be more difficult or more painful, not even being able to take care of funeral arrangements for their loved ones.”