Posted on 01/08/2003 7:06:26 PM PST by NormsRevenge
Mistake Ends Woman's Wish To Donate Body To Science
Grandmother's Body Accidentally Embalmed
POSTED: 4:35 p.m. PST January 8, 2003 UPDATED: 4:45 p.m. PST January 8, 2003
ELK GROVE, Calif. -- An Elk Grove family who had been grieving over its grandmother's death are now grieving over the fact that her body will not be able to be used the way she wanted it to be.
On Jan. 2, surrounded by her family, 82-year-old Luz Cara del Castillo died peacefully. Her family says that she didn't want a funeral. She had made plans to have her body donated to science. But the day after she died, her family got a phone call that there was a problem.
"She said the doctor called and said something went wrong with my mom. And I said, 'what could go wrong? She's dead.' She says 'no, they made a mistake,'" said del Castillo's granddaughter, Cinthya Ontiveros.
The Sacramento funeral home had accidentally embalmed the body, making it ineligible for donation. The family claims the funeral home was apologetic at first, but then got defensive.
"He was very standoffish. He wasn't concerned about our feelings, about what happened. You could tell he was being aggressive and gruff about the whole issue. He was there to more or less intimidate us," said del Castillo's grandson, Sergio Castillo.
The family claims that the funeral home initially offered to pay for an elaborate service, but that the grandchildren declined that offer, asking for an amount money equal to the service, estimated at $5,000, to be spent on a donation to education. The family said that by doing that their grandmother's wishes would still be honored in some small part.
The family claims the home agreed then backed away from the offer.
Thompson Funeral Home's director, Ladonna Olden, said that when she met with the family, she made no promises to make a large cash donation. Olden showed KCRA 3 notes from her meeting with the family that showed that she had agreed to make two charitable donations for smaller amounts -- two $1,000 donations.
The director says that the home offered to cover all costs to have del Castillo cremated and placed in a local cemetery.
"It was an unfortunate mistake that was made here. I've offered to work with the family and have proposed a dignified burial for their grandmother," Olden said.
"It's not how much you spend on my grandma; it's how much you spend on the donation. My grandmother's purpose was to be donated to science," Ontiveros said.
Donated to science means having your naked corpse dissected and gutted by a bunch of pimple-faced liberal med students. I'd rather they fed my corpse to the hogs.
When my mother died 12 years ago, she wanted her body to be given to the University of Rochester. She never had any life insurance, and she thought that by leaving her body to science, she wouldn't be a burden on her children. My sister ended up paying the funeral parlor to pick up her body from the hospital and preparing it for the college's medical division. Whatever that incurred, it was required by law as I remember. It was already agreed to, that her body would be returned to us once they were done with it, so she could be buried next to my father. A year and a half later, her ashes were returned to us and she was placed in the ground next to my Dad. It wasn't a pleasant experience knowing that your mother's body was off somewhere being used (or abused) by medical students. It all would have been so much easier if she had just let us cremate her right after her death and then put her to rest. When I finally get to see her again, I'm going to tell her so ;-)
I guess surgeons can just practice on plastic people and just hope that they get it right. Personally I would prefer to have my doctor trained on a donated body.
That is the case with my mother. She is allergic to everything except rice and poodles.
She has to take shots to be able to eat other foods besides rice, and she will never be able to have a pet other than a poodle.
She has a living will, and is donating her body to science; so they can try to find a permanent cure for the allergies.
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