Drama Llama Posted February 28, 2021 Share Posted February 28, 2021 (edited) . Edited May 8, 2021 by BaseballandHockey 10 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs Tiggywinkle Posted February 28, 2021 Share Posted February 28, 2021 (edited) 1 hour ago, wathe said: Ok, I'm perseverating now, forgive me. If you are comfortable answering, I would genuinely like to know: Are you seeing "natural causes" written as the cause of death (box 32 on the US Standard Certificate of Death) in lieu of a disease process (like pneumonia, or coronary artery disease, or, metastatic lung cancer, etc)? Or are you referring to manner of death (box 37)? "Natural Causes" just isn't an acceptable cause of death on a death certificate here. Our death certificates are much more streamlined. No, the doctors try to be specific whenever possible on the death certificate. They just usually tell the families “natural causes” don’t trigger autopsies. Since Covid there have been plenty of families asking if we are autopsying everyone to see if they have Covid. Obviously no because that would be incredibly expensive(the county pays for the autopsy, which is done at a hospital an hour away so they also pay for the body transport). And since all decedents are getting Covid swabbed, an autopsy for that is unnecessary. so families are often being told the catch phrase of “it was a natural death,” but the actual death certificate, when completed, almost always has a specific cause. I have seen a few “unknown” over the years, but those are always autopsy cases that just really didn’t show anything. There is one doctor that likes to write “cardiac arrest,” which always seems pretty redundant to me. Edited February 28, 2021 by Mrs Tiggywinkle 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wathe Posted February 28, 2021 Share Posted February 28, 2021 (edited) 34 minutes ago, Mrs Tiggywinkle said: No, the doctors try to be specific whenever possible on the death certificate. They just usually tell the families “natural causes” don’t trigger autopsies. Since Covid there have been plenty of families asking if we are autopsying everyone to see if they have Covid. Obviously no because that would be incredibly expensive(the county pays for the autopsy, which is done at a hospital an hour away so they also pay for the body transport). And since all decedents are getting Covid swabbed, an autopsy for that is unnecessary. so families are often being told the catch phrase of “it was a natural death,” but the actual death certificate, when completed, almost always has a specific cause. I have seen a few “unknown” over the years, but those are always autopsy cases that just really didn’t show anything. There is one doctor that likes to write “cardiac arrest,” which always seems pretty redundant to me. Thanks. That makes sense to me and matches practice here (and most places, since most countries base death certificates and certification process on WHO guidelines). "Cardiac arrest" won't fly here either as a cause of death, and would prompt a coroner to make the certifying MD revise the certificate. Need a disease process ie -> Cardiac Arrest, due to Myocardial Infarction, due to Coronary Artery Disease. ETA: Modes of death (cardiac arrest, respiratory failure, heart failure, any other organ failure/arrest) are different from cause of death (disease process). Death certificates here have to state a cause of death; substituting a mode of death is not acceptable. The coroner would make the certifier fix it. Edited February 28, 2021 by wathe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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