Unacceptable Causes of Death That Need to be Reported to the Coroner
Today in my ongoing series of photos from my travels over the years, this provocative list of "Unacceptable Causes of Death That Need to be Reported to the Coroner," spotted in the office of the Hackney Registrar in Hackney, London. Link
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Is 'brain failure' really a medical term? Given all the other words are more typical terminology, I'd expect 'cerebral failure'.
"Well like I said mate, one minute he was chattin' away, and boof - Like his brain just stopped!"
Best one I have seen was "Adult Failure to thrive" which I questioned more than the coroner who explained it as "an old person that doesn't want to live anymore". Apparently you can die from simply "not wanting to live anymore". I still don't get it.
There are similar lists for every county in the US. They're all unacceptable, because they're not specific enough. Asphyxia can happen for natural reasons (as a complication of dementia usually), and obvious unnatural reasons, such as drowning. The cause of death for a death certificate has to be specific enough to demonstrate that it was a natural death, otherwise, the coroner needs to investigate.
You can't die of 'natural causes' any more. My father pretty much died of complications arising from dementia, basically 'old age' in earlier times, but the cause of death given was a chest infection relating to a build up of fibres in his lungs. He had worked in the textile business all his life and it was no surprise that he had fibres in his lungs, but he had never had problems arising from it.
Brain failure. Yes.
Errr... What was I saying?
Can one die from RSI?
That's a bit hackneyed.
Yeah, brain failure seems a tad suspicious as a cause of death. I think George Bush proves that it's far from fatal.
You know... cardiac arrest/failure always struck me as a bogus cause of death. As I understand it, clinically speaking death is defined, basicly as "your heart stoppping" - ie. cardiac arrest.
So, if you put "cardiac arrest" as the cause of death, you're basicly saying "the cause of death was death".
Personally, I don't consider somebody dead until the brain fails. Otherwise the guy I know who went under the ice as a kid and got his heart started 15 minutes later is either a zombie or the second coming. Maybe both.
" is either a zombie or the second coming. Maybe both."
Sweet Zombie Jesus!
;)
Are there also acceptable causes of death that need to be reported to the coroner?
Thanks, jamesmusik. I was caught by the term "unacceptable", as if we could bring them back to life by not accepting the cause of death. I should've seen that it's a paperwork thing.
Muckypup,'cerebral' refers only to the cerebrum, not the whole brain. 'Brain' is probably fine, I'd have thought, but you could go for 'encephalitic failure' maybe?.
As for 'cardiac arrest', daemon, you would suppose they are referring to the stopping of the heart actually being the cause of rather than just a result of death, what with the list referring to 'causes' of death.
Dying of Brain Failure seems kind of like watching the tape in The Ring but with Chinese punk:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain_Failure
And further the Wikipedia deposeth not.
Asphyxia is unacceptable, but *brain failure*? Isn't that just general failure to live? Your brain dies and you die. End of story etc.
I'd like to see "failure to live" as a cause of death, though I suppose, in the end, it is more of a result.
This looks like someone's slapped together list for a student or someone's secretary. An actual pathologist wouldn't need this paper.
An actual, official list of 'causes of death to refer to the coroner' is avaliable on request from your local coroner and is more interested in the circumstances of the death than the cause. The cause must be recorded, but the interest of the coroner is in whether or not anyone caused the death or is liable for it's having happened.
For everyone complaining how bogus some of the list is, like "brain failure" or "cardiac arrest", and how it looks like it was written by a student or a secretary, as Jamesmusik said, that's the whole point of the list. It's a list of words that can't be used when filling out the "cause of death" section of a death report because they're too bogus. It's not meant for the coroner to read, it's meant as a cheat sheet for the person filling out the death report (in the US, usually a nurse), so they'll know what NOT to write.
It might seem like it should be obvious to the person filling out the form what they SHOULD write (the actual cause of death), but often it's not. People often come into the hospital with multiple potentially fatal things wrong with them, and then get a "celestial discharge" in some vague manner that makes it hard to tell why they really died. Plus usually the paperwork is the last thing on one's mind just after a patient dies and is rather hard to concentrate on-- so a cheat sheet of what not to write is actually pretty useful.
I'm surprised "life failure" isn't on the list.
"Failure To Thrive" is a legitimate diagnosis. In the industry, it's referred to as "The Dwindles."
The problem with the terms on the list is that they are either too non-specific or represent modes of death not the underlying cause of death. I could put down "Cardiac Arrest" secondary to "Multiple Organ Failure" on virtually all the death certificates I write in Intensive Care (fewer than you might think :) ), but that would fail to recognise the disease process that tipped the patients down that final common pathway to their end.