1 post tagged “barouche”
For those of you who regularly read this blog, you would know that I have very recently become a funeral director. I officially start next Tuesday however I am on call over this weekend to help with body transfers should the need arise. At 2:30pm today it did.
I was up to my elbows in mineral turpentine, oil and grease (don't ask) when the call came through. I hurriedly showered and put on my suit with the tie causing me no end of trouble. I quickly gave up and and put on one that I had already pre-tied. I jumped in my car and drove to the particular funeral home branch that was handling the deceased, which happens to be a forty five minute drive away from where I live.
Once I got there my colleague who I was meeting there had already prepped the 'transfer wagon'. She gave me a quick tour around the mortuary before instructing me on funeral director protocol. We left for the nursing home where the person had died.
Once we arrived at the aged care facility, we were quickly instructed by one of the nurses where the person was located. She was in a shared room. Her room mate seemed blissfully unaware that there was a deceased person, whose privacy was protected only by a curtain, was lying only meters away from where she was sitting. She was gently ushered into another room by a nurse while we did our work.
We drew back the curtain and there in front of us, quite obviously dead, was the frail figure of a unusually tall lady who would have been perhaps in in mid eighties. She had a yellow complexion and her eyes were still open.
My partner and I checked her for valuables such as jewellery (to be returned to the next of kin) and the such, found none however we made sure that her dentures were safely stored. We drew a sheet over her. My partner tucked the sheet in one side of her body and when she finished I rolled the body on her side and did the same on my side. Once we had done that we retrieved the patient transfer board from our gurney (called a barouche). We carefully lifted her onto the board and the board into the body bag that was on the barouche. We strapped her in tightly. From there we weeled her out to the wagon.
My partner informed me that when driving with a body on board, you have to take the corners slowly otherwise the barouche (with the body) may topple over, and that will cause a world of trouble for everyone involved. On the way home the deceased started to expell gas that was building up in her stomach. It wasn't pleasant. Luckily the trip back to the mortuary wasn't long.
When we got there we quickly removed the body from the back of the wagon and transferred her to another type of board. We applied special cream to her face and especially to her eyes. This prevents the skin from dehydrating and therefore helps when preparing the body for the funeral. When we finished that we put her into the fridge. We wiped down the equipment and changed any linen that we used. My job was done.
While this person was quite simple to do, I am under no illusions that they will all be like that. There will be times when a person of ample carriage passes away and that will make life just that bit more difficult for us. There will be times when the person has purged or defecated themselves upon death. However being a funeral director is something I do think that I will be good at. If anyone is interested I will update you on how I go. Bare in mind that I have signed a confidentiality agreement with my employer so at no time can I discuss names, prices, trading practices etc.
