Page A24
SEPTEMBER 2015
FUNERAL HOME & CEMETERY NEWS
S ec t i on A
903-641-0383
e-mail:
John A. Chew is a Funeral Service Education Specialist, Consul-
tant, Tutor, Thanatogeneticist, and a Licensed Funeral Director and
Embalmer. He is a retired former Associate Professor and Director of
Funeral Service Education at Miami Dade Community College as well
as the Institute for Funeral Service Education and Anatomy at Lynn
University (1967-1997). He is presently Director of Education at Em-
balmers Supply Company, Recinto De Ciecias, Medicic, UPR, ESCO/
OMEGA, and the Academy of Restoration and Embalming.
By John A. Chew
Etiology of Disease and
the Practitioner:
Practitioner’s Natural Defenses
against Disease (Continued)
PHYSIOLOGICAL
Coughing and sneezing – These are actions that tend
to remove foreign objects and other irritating sub-
stances from the digestive and respiratory systems.
Closing of the glottis - This covers the trachea to pre-
vent entry of food during life. At death the glottis falls
posterior covering the esophagus opening thus allow-
ing the practitioner to pour two or three ounces of dis-
infectant down the trachea into the bronchi network.
The purpose is to control possible expulsion of micro-
bial infectious agents during handling prior to the ac-
tual preparation procedure.
Blinking of the eyes –Blinking is a reflex action that
keeps the eyes free of irritants After death, the natural
defense lubricant ceases to function and the eyes can
become a source of microbial growth.
Understanding
Basic
Sanitation and
Embalming
Practices
(Part 12)
BIOLOGICAL DEFENSES
These are the actions during life which tend to reduce
the susceptibility of the body to disease processes. An
example is Phagocytosis which is the ingestion of bacte-
rial or other foreign agents by leukocytes (white blood
cells).
FEVER
Fever is an abnormal rise in body temperature. Mi-
crobes exist and reproduce best at 98.6F as does the
normal functional human body. Elevation of tempera-
ture is a defense process that stops microbial reproduc-
tion. M Fever is also known as pyrexia. Long periods of
fever is associated with specific/various diseases cause
dehydration which can be a major concern following
death.
AEROSOL TRANSMISSION
Transmission of respiratory diseases is a major risk to
removal service personnel, embalmers, cosmetician/
hairdresser and the family if the body is not properly
disinfected. Individuals viewing the body could be at
risk. Proper care is the responsibility of the practitioner.
POTENTIAL HAZARDS
These hazards may exit the body in many ways. These
exit points include orifices, draining from lesions asso-
ciated with specific diseases, intestinal waste by way of
diarrhea, urine and body fluids which contain opportu-
nistic blood borne microorganisms. Once any material
leaves its host, it may be ingested from contaminated
food or water. PPE is essential if there is direct contact
with the body or contaminated equipment.
IMMEDIATE CAUSES
These are the causes which are directly responsible for
the manifestation of specific microbial conditions asso-
ciated with diseases of traumatic deaths. Motor vehicle
accidents are a major concern. When an autopsy is con-
ducted, it adds to the release of intestinal flora contain-
ing opportunistic clostridia into the tissue. The possibil-
ity of tissue gas is of concern due to its rapid movement
throughout the embalmed body. An example is clostrid-
ia perfringens which is contained within the intestinal
tract during life and controlled by natural defenses of
the body.
The most important asset a practitioner can have is the
ability to assimilate information and put it into practi-
cal use. THE KEY WORD IS – THINK. Treat each
body as a potential hazard and do not develop a cavalier
attitude with regard to safety.
Part 13 will deal with potential common disease pro-
cesses and how the embalmer and all staff members can,
in the course of their daily work, protect themselves,
their colleagues and their families to prevent the spread
of disease.
Could Boulder be a Beacon for the Consciousness Movement in the U.S.?
By Rev. Maria Dancing Heart Hoaglund
Ever since coming to Boulder, CO last Thanksgiving, I
have been impressed by how much is going on in the Life
and Death – or
Consciousness Movement
here. There are
many women and men doing a variety of things to help
us create a deeper consciousness around how we see death
and how it relates to life. It has been good to see how an
Crist Mortuary
in Boulder.
On a recent weekend the Conversations on Death
group organized the
Before I Die Wall
to have a pres-
ence at an Arts Fair. I was able to “woman” their booth
for a while and was deeply moved by it.
Particularly special about this event was how “invita-
tional” it was. There were several black chalkboards set
up like sandwich boards at the end of the street where the
arts fair was going on. People had the choice of having a
look around, and then if they chose to, coming to get in-
volved in reading and/or writing something on one of the
boards.
The boards all began with:
Before I Die I want to...
People were invited to finish the sentence. People of all
ages came by: the young, the old, and the in-between.
Many came by as couples or families, and some came by
as friends. Some were interested enough that they came
by the booth to check out our information; some just
simply read and/or wrote what they chose to as they won-
dered about their bucket list, sometimes asking each oth-
er questions out loud, and then moving on. I loved the
fluidity and the flow of the whole area and experience.
What a lovely way to invite and inspire people into a con-
snowing – perhaps in early February? I heard about the
film
Death Makes Life Possible
that
Deepak Chopra
and
Marilyn Schlitz, Ph.D.
helped put together through the
Institute of Noetic Sciences. It was going to be show-
ing at the Unitarian Universalist Church and that day we
happened to have a small snow storm. However, I was
planning to go and decided to move through the snow
and go anyway. I was very glad that I did: The film was
beautifully put together, as you might imagine. It began
with a 53-year-old physician, sharing that he was dying.
He was quite candid, as well as positive about it all. The
film covered a great deal on consciousness, as well as life
and death. The physician who was shown at the begin-
ning of the film continued to be woven into the film: His
decided it was about time I visit the church. Upon look-
ing at the bulletin, I discovered that there was going to be
a local film – one in a series of three, as it turned out - be-
ing shown that evening at the United Methodist Church
of Longmont called
The Art of Dying
! Though not as
professionally done, this was a very fine film about death
as seen from various religious perspectives.
This is just a smattering of my experiences since com-
ing to the Boulder, CO area. I have been deeply im-
pressed by what I’ve seen and witnessed. In an article
entitled
Death from a different viewpoint
from 2014,
Cindy Sutter
of the Boulder
Daily Camera
states that
Conversations on Death was put together in 2012 by
Kitty Edwards,
a death educator, and
Kim Mooney,
a hospice community relations person who had just
been let go of her job. Today Conversations on Death
offers at least three monthly Death Cafes in Boulder
alone. There are more happening in Longmont and the
she wanted to offer grief support to those who have
in Boulder. There are other death educators in town
who teach conscious living and dying – to people
around the country. The city of Boulder is filled with
many who support conversations around death, grief,
conscious living, and everything in between.
May Boulder, CO be a new beacon in the approach the
people of the United States will be taking to enhance our
lives, our deaths, and our entire consciousness in living!
Rev. Maria Dancing Heart Hoaglund
is an international author, trans-
formational energy healer, U.C.C. Minister and ceremonialist, spir-
itual counselor, and end-of-life coach who honor the body-mind-
spirit holistic approach. She was born and grew up in Japan, lived in
Seattle for many years, and moved to Colorado from Sedona, AZ last
Thanksgiving. She is enjoying the beauty of the Boulder-Denver area,
sharing her passion about “conscious living and dying” and developing
her other businesses around energy work and healing: Forgiveness and
Reconciliation Ceremonies and Dancing Heart Ceremonies. She also
enjoys bringing peace and healing into people’s lives through holistic
modalities. You can see more about her work a
and
