Long Term Care Residents (Part II)

I truly don't want this blog to become a nursing home care form, yet I cannot sit by and not speak in behalf of the poor in those facilities. The incident I will reveal is true while the names of people and facility are not.

Sunday, July 26th, my roommate and I returned home following a wonderful and uplifting week end at the Dubuque Franciscan (Sisters) Motherhouse in Iowa. Two hours into our unpacking and reorientation to the week's schedule ahead of us, my chaplains pager sounded. "Zeek J died a couple of hours ago." The nurse went on to relate that they had a major problem regarding the disposition of the body. There was no designation of funeral home on the admission page nor was there any mention of such throughout the chart.

The nurse mentioned the social worker believing that the body should be sent to a local funeral home while this lack of information regarding choice of a funeral home was sorted out. I asked about family and I was told that "some friend" said she would call the VA in the morning. I explained that the VA was fine for interment information but that the body needed to go to a funeral home. I called the social worker in order to explain that a funeral home needs the consent from the legal representative before a body can be transfered to them. I stated strongly that calling an unauthorized funeral home was both illegal and immoral, citing the "removal charges" that might be duplicated if the next of kin decided to not make arrangements at that funeral home.

Finally, I was able to reach the "friend or whoever" of the deceased. I asked what Joan's relationship was and she exclaimed, "I'm his wife." I could barely believe my ears! How could our staff not have asked about relationship?!!!! I identified myself as the chaplain (made no mention of being a licensed mortician) and explained that I had a great deal of experience in funeral law and practice. I further explained what the VA would provide and why a local funeral home was needed. She understood more as we visited and finally decided on a local funeral home. While we spoke, I found the phone number for her and directed her to call the funeral home and have them pick up her husband's remains yet that night.

Approximately 90 minutes from being paged, I sat at my desk and held my head as I asked myself how such a mess could have ever happened. It was later that I began to consider who the poor were in this situation.

1. Essential information re: funeral home was not obtained at the time of admission.
2. That lack of information was not addressed by social services, nursing or anyone else until
the resident died.
3. The Social Worker believed that it was undignified to cover the deceased and move his
remains (bed and all) into a private room until we found the solution to the situation at hand.
4. Furthermore, she had no idea what constitutes legal right to authorize a funeral home and
arrange for removal of the deceased.
5. No one took time to accurately determine the relationship of the person who was notified of
the death and who came to the nursing home.

Nurses, social workers, nursing assistants were all confused about how to handle a situation that never should have occurred. Admission professionals dropped the ball by not obtaining information regarding choice of funeral home, and I was not called to be with that person and assist in the process.

I believe that spirituality was greatly lacking because interconnectedness with one another and with the deceased and his family, did not exist. The deceased was pretty much "lost" during the several hours of questions, worry, passing the buck and so on. Initially, I believed this incident to be somewhat removed from my original intention for this blog, but I have reconsidered. We haven't solved the problems of the hungry, the financially poor, the homeless, the uneducated, the sick, the elderly, the mentally ill and others, because we have not truly connected with them so as to view them as equal in our sight as well as the sight of God. We have not found the human connectedness free of prejudice, superiority, pity, and preconceived notions.

If we cannot even take care of a deceased body and determine the relationship of the person who responds to a death call (whom we can see) how can we respond to one another (who we do see) and to God, in Whom we believe and put our trust?