When someone you love dies as a result of traumatic or unforeseen circumstance; which may include sudden, traumatic and accidental deaths, homicide and sometimes brief illnesses; advanced embalming techniques, or “special treatment”, beyond that of a “normal” case may be deemed necessary to restore the individual to an identifiable and viewable state.
A post mortem examination (or “autopsy”) will likely be performed on such cases for the purpose of establishing the cause and/or manner of death. Additional embalming techniques and reparation for resuming a viewable state of a person’s physical features and presentation following a post mortem examination will be necessary.
What is Advanced Embalming
When a death occurs resulting from severe trauma or exposure to various conditions from drowning, freezing, autolysed tissue and oedema (body tissues swell with excessive fluid in attempts to keep a patient alive on life-support, usually hospital-induced); along with those requiring long term preservation or to be transported over long distances, more advanced embalming skills will need to be exercised.
The qualified embalmer will carefully inspect the condition of the individual to determine the extent of treatment needed in order to meet satisfactory preservation and restoration needs. Due to the likeliness of a post mortem examination (autopsy) following these categories of death, the embalmer would use multiple injection sites to ensure thorough penetration of fluid into the vascular system of the body. Proper reparation of the autopsied body is delicately performed and further treatment, if necessary, is determined and carried out by the embalmer in order to achieve an acceptable, identifiable and viewable state. It is not obvious that a post mortem examination has taken place and a family is given the opportunity to the once-only opportunity to view their loved one, personally say goodbye and support the emotional needs of grieving family and friends.