Patient and mortuary neglect

Neglect is defined as giving little attention to or to leave undone or unattended to, especially through carelessness. Mortuary neglect can comprise many things, such as bodies being stolen from the morgue, or bodies being mixed up and the wrong one was buried. When a mortuary fails to preserve a body correctly, it could also be considered neglect because of the consequences.

Patient neglect is similar to mortuary neglect with one major difference: that patient neglect has to do with people who are still living and that neglect could ultimately lead to their death. Patient neglect concerns people in hospitals, in nursing homes, or being cared for in home. Usually in nursing homes or home-assisted living, neglect would consist of patients being left lying in their own urine and/or feces, which could, in turn, possibly attract flesh flies and lead to maggot infestation. It also encompasses patients getting rashes, lice, and other sores from being improperly cared for.

The general sign of mortuary neglect (in terms of forensic entomology) is an infestation of maggots or some other insect (such as cockroaches) of a corpse. This should not be confused with insects found on a body before they are transferred to the morgue. The following examples are forms of mortuary neglect that pertain to the ethical treatment of a corpse.

Improper embalming is the utilization of embalming techniques that cause premature decomposition of the body especially in cases where the body in question is to be presented in an open-casket funeral. In addition, not refrigerating the body immediately following death, but before the embalming process could lead to rapid deterioration of the human remains as well.

On August 29, 1994, widow Marian Washington filed suit against funeral home, John T. Rhines Co., for improperly embalming her late husband Vernon W. Washington. She claimed that the embalming fluid was leaking and that her husband’s skin was decomposing at an alarming rate. John T. Rhines Co. re-embalmed Mr. Washington in efforts to make his body presentable. However, they failed to restore Mr. Washington’s body completely.

On May 3, 1956, Cooley, a petitioner of a particular funeral home tried to appeal the revoke of his license by the California state board of funeral directors and embalmers. The case reveals the reasons as to why the license was revoked. Cooley’s practices were described as unsanitary for the following reasons: an infant was discovered improperly embalmed after maggots were seeping out of its orifices, commingling of bodies, blood stains were found on the walls, and tools used were not cleaned from one autopsy to the next. Needless to say, the appeal was not granted.

This form of abuse consists of selling body parts stolen from carcasses that are sent to the morgue for embalming.

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Wikipedia