#funeralfactfriday — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #funeralfactfriday, aggregated by home.social.
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#FuneralFactFriday: Bodies Can Turn GREEN 🍀
Yes, it’s true, and not just on St. Patrick’s Day. It happens when a person with jaundice is embalmed using high index formaldehyde fluids.
Jaundice is a yellow discoloration found in both living and dead people. It's caused by a buildup of bile pigments in the skin, eyes, bodily fluids, and tissue, often resulting from problems with the liver, gallbladder, or pancreas. A person with liver failure, cirrhosis, or hepatitis is often yellow tinged.
During embalming, formaldehyde can change the yellow bilirubin into green biliverdin. It can range from mild to moderate to extreme. Special embalming fluids (like glutaraldehyde) exist to help mitigate the color issues, but the primary concern is preservation. Color correction is secondary. If the color can’t be addressed with proper fluids and internal dyes, we can use cosmetics and colored lighting to help mask the green.
Fun fact: old school embalmers perpetuated a belief that we could flush jaundiced bodies with milk before injecting embalming fluid. That’s just preposterous. Don’t do that!
#HisAndHearsePress #StPatricksDay #Green #StPaddysDay #StPattysDay #WearGreen #Jaundice #Embalming #MortuaryScience #MortuarySchool #Formaldehyde #Glutaraldehyde #Funeral
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#FuneralFactFriday: I missed posting this yesterday because, uhhh newborn kittens, obvs. However, today is National Battery Day, which brings me to this lesson: pacemaker batteries explode it cremated!
Pacemakers must be removed from bodies prior to cremation because their batteries will explode (damaging the chamber and/or injuring the operator).
Pacemakers are easily removed by funeral staff and can be recycled, refurbished, and sanitized. Since the FDA prohibits reuse in the USA, they can either be implanted in dogs or sent to impoverished countries.
#HisAndHearsePress #Funeral #Cremation #Pacemaker #Defibrillator #NationalBatteryDay #Embalmer #Mortician #MortuaryScience
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CW: Information about cremated remains (consistency and amount generated)
#FuneralFactFriday: Cremated remains aren't "ashes" (plus, how much do you get?)
Cremated Remains = mostly bone fragments, plus some ash from the cremation container and trace particles of brick from the chamber. The fragments are pulverized in an industrial blender (called a cremulator) into a coarse, sand-like consistency. Surgical implants, like hip replacements, are pulled out of the fragments before processing and are usually collected for recycling.
General Guideline: One pound of pre-cremation weight yields approximately one cubic inch of cremated remains. A 150 lb. person = 150 cu. in., now weighing about 4-9 lbs. This varies slightly based on height, bone density, and whether the person was cremated in a cardboard container or a solid wood casket.
This information is critically important if you're shopping for an urn online! If you order one that's too small, the crematory must attach the excess in a cardboard or plastic urn and include it with the chosen urn. An average urn should hold about 200 cubic inches. Watch out for "keepsake" urns which are designed to only hold a token amount (usually 3-20 cu. in.).
Bonus fun fact: the alkaline hydrolysis method (AKA water cremation) yields approximately 20-30% more cremated remains than flame cremation! The process is gentler, so more of the delicate bone matrix is preserved. It's not lost to the air currents.
#HisAndHearsePress #Cremation #CrematedRemains #Cremains #Ashes #Urn #Crematory #Funeral #Death #FunFacts #WaterCremation #Aquamation #Resomation #AlkalineHydrolysis