Monday, January 26, 2009
Funeral Home Investigated - Maggots On Bodies?
Emergency Action After Complaints Of Maggots - Odor From Bodies
TALLAHASSEE Florida Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink announced she has ordered a St. Petersburg funeral home, which has been the subject of complaints regarding inappropriate presentation of bodies, to immediately cease from providing any embalming and refrigeration services.
The department received complaints from members of two families claiming that they saw fly larvae, or maggots, on their deceased loved ones' bodies and that a foul odor emanated from the bodies during funerals.
Sink issued the emergency order last week against Morning Glory Funeral Chapel of St. Petersburg, located at 3301 5th Ave. The emergency order is based on complaints from two families regarding funeral services last year.
"Funeral homes should be comforting and assisting families, not adding to their suffering. Instead, we have received complaints that are extremely disturbing," said CFO Sink. "We have issued this emergency order to protect consumers while we continue to investigate and ensure quality services are provided."
CFO Sink oversees the Department of Financial Services, which licenses and regulates the funeral and cemetery industry through the Division of Cemetery, Funeral and Consumer Services.
Consumers wishing to file a complaint about this or another funeral home should visit www.MyFloridaCFO.com or call the CFO's consumer helpline at 1-877-My-FL-CFO (1-877-693-5236).
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It is shocking how often things like this happen. A good rule of thumb is to use a consumer advocacy service that specializes in funeral related issues to help weed out disreputable businesses and ensure that you are not spending any more than you truly want to, or on services that you really didn't need. And never prepay for funeral goods. Remember, preplanning is good, prepaying is bad. The Funeral Consumers Alliance is a great free resource available at http://www.funerals.org, or if you're not the do it yourself type you can use an inexpensive service such as Funeral Planners Inc located at http://www.funeralplannersinc.com
ReplyDeletesounds like the bodies where not even enbalmed if they smeeled and if they saw larve or maggots this means that the bodies never recieved andy type of prep work like removing the blood and replacing with formol bathing and cleaning and dressing. if a body smells it means its still decomposing thusthere are maggots ... the embalming process stops decomposition process alot ... sounds like they where charging for something they did not do properly
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