Professional Embalming
As an entrusted provider, our team at Tallon Mortuary Specialists regard caring for a deceased family member as an extreme privilege.
Remaining heedful of the “Grief Process” and maintaining a deliverance of meticulous care, compassion and professional standards of excellence, we avail close family and friends that once and final opportunity to secure a positive and fitting memory of their loved one.
What is Embalming?
The process of embalming incorporates the hygienic preparation and preservation of a deceased human body in order to delay organic decomposition, therefore, safeguarding those who may be in contact with the deceased against the transfer of bacteria and possible infection.
Embalming also restores the deceased to a more acceptable and natural life-like appearance which ultimately offers comfort to close family and friends.
Embalming fulfils the once-only and final opportunity to view a loved one, personally say goodbye and support the emotional needs of grieving family and friends. It confronts the reality that death has occurred (In essence “Seeing is Believing”) and is instrumental to the beginning of a positive grief journey.
What does it Involve?
The embalming process involves the following aspects of care and treatment:
- Washing and dressing of the deceased
- Arterial injection of chemical preservation
- Removal of body fluids
- Restoration of physical features
- Hairdressing and application of cosmetic as required or requested
- Respecting other personal wishes expressed by the deceased or their family
- The Value of Embalming and Viewing a Loved One
- Embalming delays the natural process of organic decomposition, therefore allowing additional time for “waking” prior to burial and providing the opportunity to share grief and offer support to family and friends
Advanced Embalming
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.
