For funeral directors, business can't stop during outbreak

Balancing the necessity of their business with public safety during the coronavirus outbreak is causing some funeral homes to look at changes to services and visitation procedures. Charlie Duke, who owns Duke Funeral Home in Grafton along with his wife, is also president of the Lorain County Funeral Directors Association, a group made up of representatives from most of the county's funeral homes. He said he recently sent an email to members of the association advising on coronavirus safety and is hoping to get most of the local funeral homes together to plan a unified response. At the same time, he is working with the Lorain County Coroner's Office and Lorain County Public Health to make sure the advice he is giving is in line with the government's recommendations. For now, at his own funeral home, Duke is taking extra sanitation measures and considering lengthening visitations to reduce the number of people in the building at once. Dr. Amy Acton, director of the Ohio Department of Health, has ordered that people not gather in groups of more than 50, which excludes funerals, but the safety of funeral attendees still worries directors. "I've talked to several funeral directors. We are all concerned about this. We are concerned more so about the people coming in for visitations," he said. Still, protecting himself and his wife from the virus is among his top priorities. "We're not going to do anybody any good if the next funeral is ours," he said. Some funeral homes are going even further than Duke. Hempel Funeral Home in Amherst is halting all public services and visitations and requiring private guest lists of 50 people or less, for now. That number could drop even more to stay in line with Ohio Governor Mike DeWine's recommendations for gatherings, said owner Eric Hempel. The business has been in the family since 1963, but Hempel said this outbreak is unlike any he has dealt with in the past. "This is the first time we've ever limited something like this," he said. Local funeral directors are also preparing for the prospect of having to embalm someone who dies of coronavirus. Duke said he is concerned that handling bodies during the embalming process could prove dangerous, especially in the common situation where he does not know the person's cause of death until days after he has embalmed them. "We get the body — and if I get an individual at 1 a.m., at 3 a.m. I'm usually embalming that person — I have no idea if they're infectious or contagious," he said. "...All you have to do is roll them one way or the other and you can expel something from their lungs." That concern was enough to convince Vince Giovannazzo, owner, funeral director and embalmer of Reidy-Scanlan-Giovannazzo Funeral Home in Lorain, that he needed to take further measures in the case that someone dies from coronavirus in the area. He said before anyone from the funeral home comes into contact with any deceased person, whether that person is suspected to have coronavirus or not, they will be required to change into personal protective equipment. He will also bring a hazardous materials suit along when picking up a deceased person in case it is deemed necessary. "The way that we would care for the deceased, even in removing them from their place of passing, will be a little bit different than what we normally do because, again, airborne pathogens," Giovannazzo said. He said he is "diligently communicating" with other funeral directors to find out what they are doing for safety. For now, Reidy-Scanlan-Giovannazzo is asking funeral and visitation attendees to keep at an arms-length distance from each other and not hug. Further measures Giovannazzo said have crossed his mind include closing parts of the building to guests and making sure nobody is feverish before they enter. "The last thing I want to do is come off as insensitive and not caring, but the big picture is, we care so much that we want to stop this (virus) dead in its tracks," he said. Contact Dylan Reynolds at (440) 329-7123 or dreynolds@chroniclet.com. Follow him on Twitter @drey1357.