Post-mortem/autopsy

Dottynan
Death is natural, circumstances make the difference'

After Shipman, I think more autopsies are carried out.

Yes, when there is no obvious cause of death.

I think because of Shipman there were wholesale changes in the power of doctors to write death certificates that went unchecked.

I think they’re an awful lot more cautious since Shipman.

My mother was 97, with advanced dementia, when she died in her care home, but it had to go to the Coroner because (I gather) the doctor who’d seen her 36 hours previously (and who’d said she was dying and there was nothing to be done) was an emergency weekend doc, not her usual GP.
There was no question of a PM, though.

When the Bodach died we had to wait an extra day for the death certificate, as they have apparently started doing random checks, looking for things like more deaths than normal occurring in certain wards/hospitals, or being certified by a certain doctor.

Do Jewish people have rules about post mortems Suzie? I didn’t know that. Does it apply to other religions too?

My dear Dad died in hospital at nearly 90 years old. He was admitted with heart failure, but developed a chest infection, and because of the two conditions he had to have a post mortem, which upset my mum and myself. We just thought, poor old man, what a shame, it didn’t matter to us whether it was the infection or the heart failure, we’d still lost our lovely man. It turned out to be the heart failure. Nonetheless Dad looked beautiful when we went to see him later.

Yes Moslems as well. This is a summary from when the changes came in in 2009
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/jews-and-muslims-succeed-in-bid-to-avoid-post-mortems-1672110.html

We are unfortunately going through this with my dad who has died and he has to have a post mortem - we have no say in the matter. He died at home.

Thank you all for the information, not what I wanted to hear but I won’t mention anything now to my AC.
They hate it when I talk about my death.

You have the solution now @annesixty thanks to @suziewoozie.
Conversion!

Thanks for the link Suzie, I knew about the preference for quick burial but didn’t know about the post mortems.
We waited a fortnight for my Dad’s cremation, it did seem rather a long time, but I think that’s the norm nowadays.

It’s nothing new. Back in the 14c they used a ‘corpse examiner’ to fulfil the same function.
All I’ll say is if there was something odd about a death isn’t it best that it’s exposed.

Here in the UK it's a matter of law, rather than preference. The coroner is required by law to carry out a post-mortem when a death is suspicious, sudden or unnatural.

Hospital post-mortems, though, can only be carried out with consent. The consent of a relative will be sought. You can make your wishes clear but there is no legal obligation for them to be followed. Laws tend to apply to the living - not the dead.

Perhaps the best way to avoid the possibility of a post mortem is to maintain regular contact and appointments with a doctor. If a doctor hasn't seen you for several months, there's likely to be questions about the cause of death.

It's quite simple to record your decision about organ donation. I assume that you'd rather opt out, annsixty:

www.organdonation.nhs.uk/register-your-decision/refuse-to-donate/refuse-donation-form/

I wish I’d known that Hetty, when my Dad died. My mother was very upset that Dad had to have a post mortem, but it was presented to us as it had to happen. He had been in hospital for one week following a serious ‘heart event’ and then sent home for a week. He then fell and was readmitted to hospital, but developed an infection. It wasn’t known whether the infection or the heart failure killed him. To us it didn’t matter which it was, he was old and worn out, poor old man. I wish I could have saved my mother the additional distress, if only I’d known we could say no, we weren’t asked for permission.

Unnatural Causes by DR Richard Shepherd is an incredible book if anyone is interested in the subject.