Suspension, fine levied against Columbia funeral home for mishandling the dead

In a bizarre case that started three years ago, a deceased Columbia nurse’s family member went to Bostick-Tompkins Funeral Home to help groom the body, but discovered the funeral home had confused her mother-in-law’s body with another woman’s body.

Managers at the funeral home attempted to cover up the mistake, according to state records, a violation of state law. The situation deteriorated further when the body was transferred to another funeral home and had to be re-embalmed because of separating skin and excessive oozing.

“I have never had a situation where a body has been misidentified, or where the person was in somebody else’s casket with somebody else’s clothes on,” said Chris Leevy-Johnson, manager of Leevy’s Funeral Home in Columbia, which accepted the woman’s body after the incident. “I’ve only read about it on the Internet.”

The incident has resulted in a suspended license and a fine for David E. Tompkins, the Bostick-Tompkins Funeral Home director.

But the case – just one of several dozen plaguing the funeral industry in South Carolina – illustrates a broader problem.

The U.S. Supreme Court this week took up a North Carolina case involving a dentist’s claims of exclusive rights to administer teeth whitening services. A ruling could determine whether state boards, which often consist of the professionals they regulate, restrain trade by protecting markets for their colleagues or protect the public’s interest.

In South Carolina, the state Board of Funeral Services is made up of 11 members – including nine funeral directors from the state’s primarily white directors association and its primarily black morticians association – and two public members. All are appointed by the governor. The board oversees the state’s 499 funeral businesses.

State boards – such as the funeral board – are under criticism from many sides for underperforming and being unresponsive, and the U.S. Supreme Court court is deciding if the state stamp of approval trumps free competition. Some say it does not.

“The board is supported by the taxpayers of South Carolina and is charged with protecting the public, but they have been almost exclusively concerned with protecting the funeral industry,” said Gere Burke, Funeral Consumers Alliance of South Carolina board president and longtime industry critic.

In the Bostick-Tompkins complaint, the daughter-in-law who went to the funeral home to style her mother-in-law’s hair was taken to a back room to view the body. Instead, she found a woman she did not know dressed in the white suit she had brought to the funeral home earlier for her loved one and lying in the casket purchased for her family member.

The daughter-in-law, who filed the complaint against Tompkins with the state funeral board, called her father-in-law to the funeral home. When he arrived, he was taken into the manager’s office, according to the complaint, to discuss the matter.

“After (the) discussion, (the deceased’s husband) was led to the back room where his wife’s body was lying in a coffin wearing the clothes the family brought for her,” the complaint said. “However, the suit was covered in fluid of some sort and the body was in general disarray,” the complaint states.

The family’s troubles were not over.

They chose to move their family member to Leevy’s. Transferred the same day, the body, according to Leevy-Johnson, was purging from the mouth and nose when it arrived and had been placed in a rubber suit to contain leakage.

In addition, parts of the deceased’s outer layer of skin were separating, according to state regulators, an indication too little embalming fluid had been used. The body required restorative work to reduce swelling, and a new casket had to be ordered to replace the coffin Bostick-Tompkins had put a different person in, the report states.

In its findings, the state said credible testimony showed a mix-up had occurred and that Tompkins misled the family regarding the mix-up.

On a phone call this week, Tompkins merely said he “had nothing to do with the case,” and declined to provide further explanation.

Tompkins had his state license suspended for two years, was fined $1,000 and was issued a public reprimand by state regulators. He also must appear before the funeral board after his suspension before his license can be reinstated.

Thirty cases are now open under the funeral board’s Office of Disciplinary Counsel, according to the South Carolina Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation, which licenses more than 350,000 individuals and companies in the state in a broad range of industries.

Those individuals and companies are licensed through one of the state’s 41 professional and occupational licensing boards, such as the Board of Funeral Services. Complaints are lodged against about 2 percent of all state licensees each year, according to the state agency.

Some of the funeral board’s open cases are similar to the Bostick-Tompkins’ disciplinary case, but cases that severe still are uncommon, according to LLR.

Still, licensing issues persist.

In another case, an Aiken funeral home and its owner last year were cited after a S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control investigator discovered an employee at the business was operating as a funeral director and an embalmer though he had no state license.

In separate citations, the G.L. Brightharp & Sons Mortuary and its owner, George L. Brightharp, each were fined, publicly reprimanded and placed on two years’ probation after regulators found the funeral director/embalmer had continued to perform those services with a license that had expired in 2006.

That employee also had been allowed to sign two death certificates for the funeral home during the period, and it is unclear how many embalmings were carried out.

The mortuary was fined $2,500 for the violation of state law, and Brightharp was personally fined $500 in the case and signed consent agreements for both. Brightharp also is forbidden from supervising apprentices during the probation period.

This story was originally published October 17, 2014 at 10:33 PM with the headline "Suspension, fine levied against Columbia funeral home for mishandling the dead."