850-Pound Wisconsin Woman Dies In Mother's Home, Funeral Homes Refused To Take Her
A Wisconsin woman, who weighed 850 pounds and died in her mother's home, required dozens of men to remove her body.
Cassandra Ortiz, who died in late May, was called a "beautiful soul" with "contagious laughter" by her mother, Carolyn Alverio.
"I don't wish what we are going through — I don't wish that on anybody," Alverio said to 'Fox 6.' "There's not a funeral home that would take her."
After her Ortiz's passing, Alverio said it took around 12 hours to get her daughter out of the home.
"To walk in that room and just keep seeing her there, and it's like, 'Oh my god, when are they going to get my baby out of here,' " Alverio said. "They need to get her out of here."
Church & Chapel Funeral Services and the Cudahy fire and police departments eventually moved Ortiz.
"There were at times 20-30 people in this house trying to help this family address this situation," Ted Larsen, the owner of Church & Chapel Funeral Services, said.
Larsen told the outlet there wasn't a crematory in the Milwaukee area large enough to cremate Ortiz. She was transferred to Illinois, but only after her body remained in a van overnight for safety reasons after the fire department was called to a fire.
"With her having sat so long in the bed, and having sat so long in the van, even if we wanted to, we couldn't do a funeral," Ortiz's mother said.
Alverio urged other families to plan arrangements ahead of time for their loved ones.
Alverio suggested the state of Wisconsin create protocols for situations like her daughter's, so families already struggling with grief doesn't have any additional challenges.
