Dying big

 

The death care industry and related services have had to adapt to the increased weight of Americans and others around the world. As Allen Steadham, executive director of the International Size-Acceptance Association, puts it, ''People are living larger and they're dying larger, and industries have to adapt to that situation.'' Here are a few of the ways they have accommodated the obese deceased:

• Ambulances: Emergency services are retrofitting their rescue vehicles, replacing them with models that can “kneel’’ (lowering 2"-3") and including bariatric vehicles in their fleet equipped with oversize stretchers and hydraulic lifts capable of transporting patients weighing as much as 1,600lbs. “Is this totally, 100% foolproof? Absolutely not. We’ve still got to get them out of the house,’’ admits Boston EMS Captain Phil McGovern.
• Caskets: Manufacturers including Goliath Caskets, Inc. offer oversize caskets in widths ranging from 29" to 52" (1st image). Owner Keith Davis reveals, "When we first started in 1990, 36" was the widest casket out there. Now we're up to 52" wide, which can hold someone who weighs 800 to 1,000 pounds. We sold 11 that first year, and we fluctuate from 6 to 12 of the biggest ones each year." 
• Cemetery plots: Cemeteries are necessarily increasing the size of their burial plots or burying oversize caskets at the ends of other rows where they won't encroach on other plots. The size of the vaults must also be increased, and the deceased may have outgrown the plot which they prepurchased. According to the New York Times, "even the standardized scoop on the front-end loaders that cemeteries use for grave-digging (it is called a ''grave bucket'') is based on outdated estimates about individual size."
• Crematories: The additional body fat causes an obese body to burn for a longer time and to give off more heat, so in addition to offering a large enough chamber, the operator of a crematorium takes advantage of certain safeguards - like cremating the obese first, so that the retort is not already hot - to avoid overheating.
• Crypts: Cemeteries like Cedar Memorial in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, U.S., are adding oversize burial crypts in their mausoleums to fit the larger caskets.
• Hearses: Cadillac and other car companies are redesigning their vehicles to transport larger, heavier bodies.
• Morgue tables: Medical examiners offices like that of Snohomish County, Washington, have had to invest in equipment to manipulate and support the weight of larger bodies without causing them damage, including wider reinforced cots and examining tables (2nd image). "It's not unusual to encounter 300-pound people now, which used to be the exception rather than the rule," says Jim Noel, executive director of the Washington State Funeral Directors Association.
• Body Donation programs: Medical schools, which typically reserve the right to refuse bodies that have been embalmed or autopsied, now have to occasionally decline the donation of the bodies of the obese. The adipose tissue makes dissection difficult and time-consuming, the anatomy laboratories do not have the equipment to handle cadavers of that size, and the medical students are unable to reposition the bodies as is often necessary during their training. "We make every effort to accept a body, if we can. I wouldn't want people to get the idea that it's a common problem," says Richard Drake, director of anatomy and the body donation program at Cleveland Clinic.

Enhancements like lifts in the ambulance and the mortuary, and power hoists in the medical examiner's office, protect the employees from back injuries, but oversize products spare larger customers their dignity. "[T]he last thing we need is a lid that will not close when the time comes," says Davis of Goliath Caskets.

The latest in hearses

A new hearse (pictured) has debuted at the TANEXPO 2012 International Funeral and Cemetery Exhibition in Bologna last weekend:

B12 Rolls Royce Phantom Hearse Maker: Biemme Special Cars
Models: Metis, Antalis, and Compact, 2- and 4-door limousine version
Length: 23' (7m)
Specs: 6.75-liter V12 engine (453 horsepower), with a self-leveling air suspension, made entirely from aluminum w/over 600 assembled parts and 650+ feet of welding, features high luminescence LEDs to illuminate the casket compartment

Company spokesman Dario Andreotto says, "For some time Biemme Special Cars have been wanting to make something extraordinary, something that didn't pass unnoticed and could not be matched by anyone else. We created the Phantom Hearse B12 with the sole intent of being the world's most luxurious hearse. It's not easy to pass near the B12 and remain unmoved." The specialty car is expected to be priced at over €500,000 (£417,000, $662,000). Alternatively, you may go out in style in a Cadillac, Lincoln, or Mercedes-Benz. And if none of these fill the bill, you can always customize.

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My friend George Higham, who x-rays the dead and has been featured in Quigley's Cabinet (see Kutna Hora Ossuary, Jan Svankmeyer, and Two tarots), offers the following comment:

"You are once again making my train rides to the morgue much more interesting - started your new book yesterday!"

More follow-ups

Odd animals 11/4/09 An Australian girl is injured attempting to rescue an echidna from a storm drain.

Leonardo's lion 8/17/09 A portrait of Cosimo I de Medici (not by da Vinci) features the earliest depiction of a watch.

Adventurers Club 8/9/09 Neighbors of a man in Worcester, U.K., object to the multi-level treehouse he built.

Stain 8/6/09 Scientists prove that the ashes of the dead still emit radiation 60 years after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Weird watercolors 8/1/09 A 10-year-old British piano prodigy has been compared to Mozart.

Cenotaph 7/31/09 A recent article about the measures undertaken to conserve the cenotaphs at Congressional Cemetery in Washington, D.C.

Creative cremains 7/24/09 A series by Irish photographer Maeve Berry takes as its subject the reduction of the human body in the crematory retort.

Bog bodies 6/19/09 The preserved remains of 17th c. Gunnister Man are returned from the National Museum of Scotland to Shetland, where he was discovered in 1951.

Birthing and hoarding bunnies 6/18/09 It's not hoarding yet, but a 20-year-old British woman has acquired 24 of these pygmy hedgehogs.

"Seven Pounds" 6/14/09 A blood-red jellyfish that has recently come to the attention of scientists.

Elusive animals 6/4/09 Three new species of caecilians - something between a snake and a worm - have been discovered in India. Some 850 new invertebrates have been found in the Australian outback. And 40 new species are discovered in a remote volcano in Papua New Guinea.

George Gaylord Simpson 5/25/09 An independent assessment has refuted the idea that the fossil known as "Ida" is the so-called missing link.

The house that May (re)built 5/23/09 A woman in Lawshall, Suffolk, England, has built an extension to her historic home using human hair.

Chihuahuas in the weird news 5/2/09 Nine chihuahua puppies are led down a busy highway to a Texas animal shelter by their dad.

Robo-animals 4/9/09 Prosthetics for a calf that lost its hind legs to frostbite.

Fossil fuels 3/25/09 Swedish researchers find that it does not require fossilized animals and plants to generate crude oil and natural gas.

Poisonous fumes 3/17/09 An illustrated list of the 33 deadliest substances on earth.

Spider prey 3/7/09 Biologists have discovered the largest orb weaver spider yet. And British Airways cancelled a domestic flight in late October after a passenger had an unconfirmed sighting of a tarantula.

The Mole People 3/4/09 Like those living in the subway tunnels of New York, people are setting up house in the drains beneath Las Vegas.

Tool use and innovation in wild bottlenose dolphins 2/10/09 Dolphins play, using jellyfish as a ball! Unfortunately, a tourist died while swimming with dolphins in New Zealand in October.

Morbid motorcycles 1/28/09 Like the motorcycle hearses in this post, a psychelic hearse fills a certain niche market. Meanwhile, the family of an avid racing fan arranges for him to make a final lap around the local racetrack in his hearse.

Hedgehogs 1/8/09 In Edinburgh, a pregnant hedgehog wandered into the lobby of a luxury hotel and gave birth to triplets!

Cleaning skulls is a dirty job 12/7/08 Mike Rowe of "Dirty Jobs" has launched a website to help people find work.

Albinos 11/18/08 In September, 3 Tanzanian men were sentenced to death by hanging for killing a 14-year-old albino boy. And a story about a Brazilian woman who has given birth to 3 albino children.

Morbid motorcycles

Thanks to former curator Paul Sledzik, I now know that the National Museum of Health and Medicine has an unofficial blog, appropriately named A Repository for Bottled Monsters. In my first few minutes of exploring, I found this anatomical motorcycle, and decided to couple that with some motorcycle hearses, which are also customized. The skeleton cycle was photographed at the Peterson Automotive Museum in L.A., but I hope it tears up the road every now and then. Motorcycle hearses do get out, but mainly to the cemetery!