State board suspends Henderson funeral home’s permits
A state board suspended a Henderson funeral home’s permits this week after an inspection found bodies stacked atop one another, a cooling unit that had been left slightly open and an unrefrigerated body that was covered by a blood-stained sheet.
The Nevada Board of Funeral and Cemetery Services voted Tuesday to suspend Hites Funeral Home and Crematory’s permits for six months.
“There are loved ones on the other end of this whole process who entrust you and have entrusted you with their loved ones, and you failed them,” board member Adam Garcia told Hites director Eric Lee during the meeting. “You failed all of us.”
On July 20, the board’s executive director, Jennifer Kandt, made an unannounced visit to the funeral home, which was already on probation.
In 2020, Hites and the board agreed to a six-month suspension of the funeral home’s permits if the business failed to meet the probation requirements.
During Kandt’s visit in July, she found three bodies stacked on one gurney and refrigeration rooms that appeared to be at or near capacity, according to an inspection report. On at least one shelf, she saw two bodies stacked on top of each other.
One of the coolers had been left slightly open, with the temperature reading reaching nearly 60 degrees, according to the report.
An unrefrigerated, unembalmed body was on a gurney near a preparation room, the report states. Flies were landing on the body, there was an intense odor and the sheet over the body was stained with blood, according to the report.
It was unclear how long the body was left unrefrigerated, but it was warm to the touch and staff reported it had been left out since at least the night before, according to the report.
Combustible items were touching cremation equipment and a large container of paint was found nearby, according to the report.
A baby’s body awaiting cremation was also found in a tray, stacked on top of another tray, Kandt wrote in her report. It wasn’t necessarily a violation, but it didn’t sit well with her, she told board members.
“The tray was later moved to rest directly on a shelf, but was still stored near brooms and various cleaning items,” the report states.
Funeral home records also were not maintained in a professional manner, Kandt wrote.
She found that multiple decedents did not have their information entered into a system within 24 hours for no apparent reason. Entering information into the system within that time frame was a condition of the probation agreement.
When she returned two days later, Kandt entered the crematory directly from the parking lot without encountering any staff members. Before entering the building, she could see a partially uncovered body in a box, she told the board.
The funeral home declined to comment Wednesday, but Lee, the funeral home’s director, said during the board meeting that he did not dispute any of the allegations.
“They are isolated incidents, though,” he said.
He said what was presented Tuesday does not reflect the way he trained his employees to operate and that his funeral home has faced staffing issues.
Lee said the company had recently lost access to a temporary refrigeration unit because the grant funding for the extra storage had ended, so Hites was forced to revert to its normal capacity.
The day of the inspection, Lee told board members, Hites was in negotiations to lease two additional coolers to handle a recent surge of cases, he said.
He said Tuesday that he takes responsibility for his employees’ actions and apologized for his failures as the business’ owner.
Lee told the board that the funeral home has been approached by potential buyers and that he thinks the business can be sold within 30 days.
Contact Blake Apgar at bapgar@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5298. Follow @blakeapgar on Twitter.