Funeral director helps deal with D.C. COVID-19 deaths

By Kalen McCain
Posted 5/27/20

Mark Beatty has long been accustomed to death, but nothing on the scale of what he’s seen since volunteering to join a group of 10 volunteer funeral directors in Washington D.C.

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Funeral director helps deal with D.C. COVID-19 deaths

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Mark Beatty has long been accustomed to death, but nothing on the scale of what he’s seen since volunteering to join a group of 10 volunteer funeral directors in Washington D.C.

The nation’s capital was a hotspot of the COVID-19 outbreak where local caretakers were ill-equipped to deal with the surge of deaths caused by the virus.

“The reality sets in once in a while when you read the toe tags and the ID tags and you relate that that’s somebody’s brother or somebody’s mother or grandmother, and you see 20 of them in a row,” Beatty said in a phone interview.  “That’s pretty much in your face, you know?”

Beatty, a funeral director at Beatty and Peterseim Funeral and Monument Services, said end-of-life care requires specialized personnel with funeral directors’ licenses, which are typically only valid for the state in which they’re issued, although D.C. has streamlined the process of recognizing new licenses after its chief medical examiner submitted a request to the National Funeral Directors Association for 10 outside volunteers in mid-March.

Beatty was one such volunteer, eager to ease the burden of the tragedy.

“I never received anything from the National Funeral Directors Association (about) what was entailed in the job,” Beatty said. “They said, ‘Would you be willing to assist any community that needs assistance?’ And I signed a document that said I would.”

There were several areas needing the support of additional directors, including next-of-kin support, morgue operations and verification services. Beatty was assigned to a morgue to witness and carefully double-check end-of-life paperwork essential to the proper handling of deceased remains.

“They were well ahead of this to be prepared out here for the additional deaths,” he said. “There’s quite an elaborate system of verification, which impresses me.”

The job is not without risks. Evidence exists, although inconclusively, that the novel coronavirus can still be contracted from deceased remains. Morgue staff have taken precautions accordingly, equipped with maximum personal protective equipment and decontamination measures separating secure potential virus sites from the rest of the world.

“I feel very comfortable with the level of protection that they’ve offered us out here and PPE, even at our lunch breaks, they have us separated out from each other at the designated area,” Beatty said.

The volunteers were subject to substantial health criteria before qualifying for the deployment, one of which was being under the age of 60, a requirement that Beatty narrowly met with four years to spare.

“I don’t fear it, I guess my thought is if you’re prepared and have enough knowledge, you can deal with that,” Beatty said. “I thought, well, I taught my staff, we have a good staff, we know how to handle it, and if I can be of assistance elsewhere, I’m comfortable with it … it’s one way we can kind of help out where we can.”

His deployment was originally scheduled to last two weeks before his return last Saturday, but Beatty chose to extend his stay until June 6 after seeing the gravity of the situation.

“The morgue operation doesn’t stop. I mean, it’s seven days a week, and… it kind of all just merges together and you think, ‘When was the last time I was home?’” he said. “Week 2 here will be Saturday, and it doesn’t seem like that long, it seems kind of short.”

Beatty has stayed in touch with his family in Washington, Iowa via Facetime. In addition to their support, he quickly grew close to other funeral directors he was working with, forging a support network with others on the front lines of the pandemic.

“We kind of draw support from eachother, not just the funeral directors, the medical examiners staff, the military… you kind of develop a bond between the caregivers that are there, and that is your family,” Beatty said.

When he needs to step away from it all, Mark Beatty has made a habit of putting on headphones and going for walks through the National Mall accompanied by the sounds of Boston and Credence Clearwater Revival, two of his favorite classic rock bands.

Despite the hardship, Beatty felt motivated and happy to help in any way he could.

“As funeral directors it seems like we don’t get a lot of credit for what we do, I mean we’re somewhat kind of the last responders,” he said. “I’ve always been proud of what we do, and it’s just a way to kind of give back a little bit. I’m just humbled that I can serve in some capacity in this pandemic.”