Witnessing My First Embalming

Last week, I was asked by the dean to sit in on an embalming. Due to illness, I had missed a presentation embalming which the whole school sat in on the week prior. At the time, I was pretty bummed to miss out on the opportunity to be involved in that presentation, but honestly, I think I got the better end of the deal. Being in a smaller setting, I got to be more involved in the process and ask as many questions as I wanted without the judgment of my fellow classmates. Not to mention, I could also focus on what was in front of me rather than the reactions happening around me.

Having never seen an embalming be performed, or even taken a Gross Anatomy class, I was a little nervous to go through with the viewing. It wasn’t really the whole “dead body” part that freaked me out. I’ve seen dead bodies in the past, both embalmed and unembalmed, but I knew this was going to be on a whole other level of death that I wasn’t sure if I was ready for.

Now I know what you’re thinking, “Nikki, why did you decide to go to mortuary school if you can’t handle working with dead bodies?” Well, stranger on the internet, I knew when I applied to mortuary school I would have to learn this process. So, even though I feel more drawn to the front end of the funeral home processes, I also know I’m stubborn enough to get through this part too. I also like learning new things, so I look at it as an opportunity to gain a new skill. Helping families plan arrangements feels like something I am more familiar with, professionally and emotionally, and it’s an important part of the process, but all of these skills together build a better funeral director.

The gentleman I witnessed being embalmed had been autopsied before he was sent to the school. I had gotten to the lab a little late, and while the dean introduced me to the instructor and I got dressed in my PPE, they had already started opening the Y incision leftover from when the hospital had performed the autopsy. So my view walking into the embalming room was mainly of an open chest cavity. This was definitely a shock to my system, to say the least. The only other time I’d seen something like that had been on TV and even then, it was way different seeing it in person.

According to the instructor, autopsied bodies are a really good first introduction to embalming because it’s easy to see where the important arteries and veins are. During an autopsy, each organ is taken out of the body, weighed, inspected, and tested to narrow down the cause of death. After they’re taken out of the body, each one is placed inside of a biohazard bag which is then placed in the chest cavity before they suture it up again and send the body on to the funeral home. After taking that bag back out of the body, you have a pretty clear view of where you need to start working. So, as jarring as it was to walk into the room where he was situated, I think his case gave me a lot of opportunities to see and experience a lot of different circumstances that I could come across over time.

This gentleman seemed to have died in the hospital where he had had needle and IV marks scattered up and down most of the skin on his arms which made embalming his arms a little more difficult. The embalming fluid couldn’t make it through the arteries clearly because of leaks from these punctures. I mean, there’s no chance in healing those punctures when you die after all, so getting an even distribution the old fashion way, just wasn’t going to happen. Using the trocar, a long needle-like rod, the instructor showed me and the other students how to fill those areas that the embalming fluid couldn't reach. I learned a lot about how to get creative to work around these roadblocks, and I’m sure this is just the beginning when it comes to problem-solving on the fly during the whole process.

As much as I was just trying to take in all of my surroundings, I was, and still am, really glad that my school provides this service to families and individuals who might not be able to afford this in the first place. This gentleman would have a beautiful funeral where his loved ones could see him one last time and share in the grief process together. So, even though it was a messy, ugly, process for us, the end result is anything but.

As I’ve said before, I feel more drawn to the realm of funeral directing and helping families plan those arrangements. This is mainly because of my experiences with customer service and professional reference work within a library setting. I’ve never seen myself working in a medical heavy line of work, but after witnessing this case, I can’t help but be more curious and interested to learn and see more. I know that some smaller funeral homes have more of an “all hands on deck” approach where you step up and take on tasks as they are needed, and I think I could fit in well in that setting. I know myself pretty well and I know that I do like to mix things up and learn new things instead of staying in one position/role for a long time. I think it would benefit me to have something new to take on every once in a while too.

Overall, I am surprised at my reaction to witnessing this embalming case. I now feel confident in my skills and abilities to go through with all the challenges PIMS is likely to throw at me. I think this kind of experience really puts everything else into perspective within this educational journey and I look forward to getting through them all and learning more about myself along the way.

Memento Mori,

Nikki