In all my years of working for a LTC facility i have never had a medical examiner call until today. One of our residents expired in the nursing home the family lived in the northern part of the state and we recieved a call from the medical examiner!!! can anyone tell me why they would even call as well as do an autopsy!!!! any help would be appreciatedthanks
snowfreeze, BSN, RN 948 Posts Specializes in ICU, CCU, Trauma, neuro, Geriatrics. Has 16 years experience. Apr 9, 2005 I have had a few residents who had genetic based terminal conditions who were part of a study and would have an autopsy upon expiring. A few others were in our care after an accident and an autopsy was done on one and we just had to notify the coroner in the county the accident happened on a few others.
Lawnurse 129 Posts Apr 10, 2005 the purpose of an autopsy is to determine the cause of death.why would they call you? they need the family's permission. Seems anything they want to know from you is evidenced in the body.were they just calling to let you know?
nursemid02 11 Posts Apr 10, 2005 the purpose of an autopsy is to determine the cause of death.why would they call you? they need the family's permission. Seems anything they want to know from you is evidenced in the body.were they just calling to let you know? They called to find out the History of the pt and what happened during death today
suzanne4, RN 26,410 Posts Apr 10, 2005 the purpose of an autopsy is to determine the cause of death.why would they call you? they need the family's permission. Seems anything they want to know from you is evidenced in the body.were they just calling to let you know?A Medical Examiner autopsy does not require family permission. A routine autopsy at the hospital, when requested by the physician does. A Medical Examiner must be notiifed of any patient that expires within 24 hours of surgery, traumatic deaths, unexplained deaths, etc. The M.E. can refuse the case, but they need to be notified. It is their rite to refuse the case. If the M.E. is going to do an autopsy, there is nothing that the family can do to prevent it. At least this how it has been in any state where I have ever worked, and this includes working ER in all of them.........
RoxanRN 388 Posts Specializes in CCRN, CNRN, Flight Nurse. Has 10 years experience. Apr 10, 2005 A Medical Examiner autopsy does not require family permission. A routine autopsy at the hospital, when requested by the physician does. A Medical Examiner must be notiifed of any patient that expires within 24 hours of surgery, traumatic deaths, unexplained deaths, etc. The M.E. can refuse the case, but they need to be notified. It is their rite to refuse the case. If the M.E. is going to do an autopsy, there is nothing that the family can do to prevent it. At least this how it has been in any state where I have ever worked, and this includes working ER in all of them.........Also, a M.E. must be notified of all out-of-hospital deaths... including LTC. Generally, they will release the body if it is an expected death/terminal illness. As a paramedic, we release the body to the L.E.O. who responds (so we can get back in service) and they make the necessary notifications. The M.E. gathers information (usually by phone) about the PMHx and surrounding circumstances. If no foul play is identified/suspected, the body is released to the mortuary.RoxanEMICT, RN
Lawnurse 129 Posts Apr 11, 2005 A Medical Examiner autopsy does not require family permission. A routine autopsy at the hospital, when requested by the physician does. .........You're right - I was confusing that with the M.E. talking about the case. Got foiled by that at work the other day when I called an M.E. for his opinion on a case I was working on.Thanks for clearing that up.
bobnurse 449 Posts Apr 22, 2005 Did the family call the M.E. and cry foul play? Or death by negligence? Many times a family Demands an autopsy, maybe for future litigation....Ive seen many times where the M.E. will decline a case, but the family goes ahead and pays for an autopsy to be done.
CoffeeRTC, BSN, RN 3,734 Posts Has 25 years experience. Apr 22, 2005 We do not contact the coroner/ ME for all LTC deaths. Heck I haven't in the last 10 years. This is in PA and all of the deaths have been natural/ expected.
bobnurse 449 Posts Apr 22, 2005 theres criteria for calling the ME....1) Death within 24 hours of admission2) Unexpected death3) Questionable death4) Cant remember this one.........But something like this.........So im sure in LTC most people die due to old age, or die due to their disease process..........So no need to call M.E.
mattsmom81 4,516 Posts Apr 29, 2005 I will share a true story which still troubles me. I was working a new job in a LTAC, first few days on the job and still fumbling with all the paperwork, when I found a poor woman hanging off the bed in a posey restraint, apneic and pulseless. I was the only RN in the building, called 911 and started CPR but I could not revive her. This is the kind of death that goes to the ME. I had to file beaucoup paperwork and be interviewed over the phone. Later the ME called me himself to tell me the patient had a massive MI and the restraint was ruled out as causative....I was heartbroken over this and this eased my mind somewhat. Of course I would have been responsible should he have found otherwise, even tho I hadn't restrained the woman (the aides had, I was not told, nor were they making sufficient rounds). This was before all the 'new' restraint rules and incidents like this is likely why they were instituted.I decided if I was to be responsible for restrained patients I wanted a say in it... where I could directly observe my patients...in ICU or similar. To this day a report of a restrained patient 'down the hall' scares me to death . I see this occasionally in my agency travels.
