RA II Funeral Home Lighting and Jaundice Techniques

What factors into quality funeral home lighting?

• Flexibility in color

• Flexibility in brightness

• In the reposing (viewing) room the lighting should be similar to what you would expect in a warmly lit living room.

What should prep room lighting look like?

Standard fluorescent lighting

• Offers a glaring cool blue-white light

• Best option = Diffusing a recessed light with plastic panels to eliminate shadows. This increases efficiency 100%.

• Necessary because of the work being performed (embalming and restoration).

What should auxiliary lighting look like?

Incandescent, recessed lighting and cosmetic lighting consisting of three different colored lights (blue, red, green = white light when blended in equal strength).

• Offers “controlled” lighting to allow the correct cosmetic shades to be used and a natural appearance to be accomplished by adjusting for a soft, yellowish hue to compliment mortuary cosmetics.

• Torchiere lamps are a popular, and poor, choice of lighting!

How should the lighting in the reposing (viewing) room look?

•Warmly illuminated with incandescent, recessed lighting

• Uniform lighting throughout

• Auxiliary or “cosmetic” lighting consisting of red, blue and amber bulbs are helpful for natural cosmetic appearance. (In mixture they allow for light, medium and dark complexion variables).

• “Daylight,” like fluorescent lighting, radiates more blue than white (incandescent). Cosmetic lighting systems are crucial in rooms with a lot of natural light.

What is a casket veil?

A see-through piece of sheer cloth that is placed over the open or viewing side of the casket.

• Perceived as old-fashioned and basically obsolete

What is the cosmetic casket veil?

A silk or nylon netting with a four-inch ecru lace border

• The netting is colored “poppy red”

• Can be critical when changing viewing sites

  • Funeral home to church to graveside

Define jaundice

A condition characterized by excessive concentrations of bili-rubin and bile pigment in the skin and tissues, resulting in a yellow appearance of the deceased.

Define jaundice-fluids

Special arterial fluids with bleaching and coloring qualities for use on bodies with jaundice.

• They usually contain a low concentration of formaldehyde.

How should someone with jaundice be cosmetized?

Jaundice is a difficult condition to treat and overcome.

• There is no one fluid or technique that can remove the discoloration caused by jaundice.

• The best an embalmer can hope for:

  • Removal of “some” of the discoloration (via washing)

  • Counterstaining the tissue with a more natural color (red)

  • Covering the remaining discoloration with cosmetics

How should jaundice be treated?

• Pre-embalming

  • Wash the body

  • Apply a “massage-cream” pack

• During injection

  • Pre-injection (Be cautious!)

  • Counterstaining

  • Restricted Cervical

• Post-embalming

  • Remove massage cream

  • Check for color changes from embalming

  • Cosmetize accordingly (counterstain/red)

  • Use cosmetic lighting to your advantage