New York Funeral Home Covid-19 Body Obsession

In the past few days, Wilson Mak often falls asleep after 14 days working at a funeral home in New York, USA. USA Images of the Covid-19 victims constantly appeared in his thoughts.

“When I closed my eyes, I still saw those horrible scenes. It was unbearable, ”said Mak, manager of the funeral services company Ng Fook in New York.

The four funeral homes in the Ng Fook system located in New York City’s Chinese communities are just miniature models of an overburdened industry as the corpses were piled up in hallways and cars. Temporary charge and morgue at the critical points of Covid-19 in the United States.

The overcrowding forced authorities to transport bodies to remote morgues and reduce funeral services, especially in New York, where more than 25,000 deaths were attributed to Covid-19, more than everyone. all other states in the United States.

Still, the bodies continued to be released.

“Cemeteries and cremation houses are full. Hospitals don’t want to hold bodies. We got caught in the middle. I’ve never done so many things in my life, but I’m not done yet, “said Mak.

According to CNNThe Covid-19 epidemic wiped out more than 80,000 people and infected more than 1.3 million people in the United States. This is an expensive price for ineffective White House administration, a cracked healthcare system, and political pressure to reopen the economy.

Even when President Donald Trump praised the United States’ response to the epidemic, the federal government quietly ordered an additional 100,000 bodies and opened offers for about 200 refrigerated cars to be “mobile morgues.”

Funeral directors in New York had to wait 3-4 weeks to get a place in the cemetery or crematorium. Earlier this month, authorities revoked licenses for a Brooklyn funeral home, after residents complained of the stench and dripping water from two trucks carrying dozens of bodies. decompose

“I’m sure it’s not just a funeral home that uses trucks to hold bodies,” said Mak.

Photos taken from unmanned aerial vehicles show cardboard coffins piled in mass graves on Hart Island, a place that is often used to bury unrecognized or poor people in New York for the past 150 years.

Change traditional funerals

In some cemeteries, new rules have been established that require family members to stay in the car to follow the process of burying loved ones from afar. Funeral home administration in places as far away as Australia also offered to help New York, while the creams were open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and discouraged the use of wooden coffins because it took longer to burn. with a cloth coffin or board.

New York authorities have proposed a temporary burial of the bodies in city parks. Students of scientific mummification are also recruited to handle bodies in hospitals, while the number of refrigerated trucks contracted to store corpses doubles the morgue in hospitals.

The number of bodies to be handled at Hannemann Funeral Home in Nyack, upstate New York, increased by 500%. For the first time in 36 years, Keith Taylor, the owner of this funeral home, had to reject family members who died.

Taylor said he was heartbroken, but could not accept receiving the number of bodies beyond driving ability.

“I can’t bury all the bodies. I’m not thirsty for that amount, ”said Taylor.

John D’Arienzo, manager of the D’Arienzo funeral home in Brooklyn, said he worked so hard that he forgot to eat and lost 9 kg. Funeral home administration said they were having more trouble when many of the dead were members of the same family.

Recently, Taylor received the body of a man when asked to postpone the funeral, because his wife was in critical condition and had to be treated with a ventilator. A few days later, the wife died.

Another family was even worse when the husband, wife, and daughter died in 8 days.

“It’s crazy,” said Taylor.

The increasing number of corpses forced funeral homes to avoid holding funerals together. The bodies were transferred directly from the hospital to the cemetery or the crematorium. No more than 10 people are gathered next to a closed coffin.

Although the risk of corpse infection remains relatively low, researchers in Thailand have recorded the first case of Covid-19 infection of the dead. Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that relatives do not say goodbye to deceased people.

The importance of social space became even more remarkable, after Illinois and Georgia funerals in February became “super infectious” events when hundreds of people who attended funerals became infected with the virus. Taylor said the funeral home officials had become “police officers,” and reminded those who attended the funeral to keep a safe distance.

Technology is also on track to support funeral services. Zoom, Google Hangout, and other tech platforms are booming at online funerals. To help families who took their relatives to the hospital and never saw them again, Taylor photographed the bodies and sent them to her.

Thanh Dat

Summary