Coroner and funeral

[Thingsthatgo]

A very elderly relative has died, he was 98 years old. He was not unwell, and although he was old it was a bit sudden.
As he was alone when he died, the coroner needs to look into the circumstances.

Can anyone give me an idea of what happens now? Will this delay the funeral?

Their might be a postmortem. There might be a inquest.

If no inquest you get the cause of death and death cert within the week normally.

Inquest you get a interim death cert on the same time frame which is all need for funeral and to wrap up estate

I'm waiting on mum's inquest, it's 12-18 weeks but funeral is over, probate started. I have no idea of cause of death and coming to terms that I might never know

It's a normal formality of the deceased hadn't seen a doctor in X amount of time. They'll probably just put cardiac arrest on the certificate.

Thank you. I'm really hoping that it doesn't delay the funeral, but I've never been in this situation before.

@DyslexicPoster that sounds incredibly difficult. I hope that you are ok?

My dad died in hospital but as he had two hospital-acquired infections that contributed to his death it had to be referred to the coroner. The coroners' officer was lovely and there was only a delay. of a day or two in getting the death certificate.

The likelihood of conducting an inquest into the ‘sudden ‘ death of a 98 year old is vanishingly small, unless there were obvious signs of a crime being committed.

don’t worry, OP. In my experience, the funeral director you have appointed would liase with the coroners office, arrange for the pick up from the mortuary etc. They do it all the time.

💐

DH's death in hospital was referred to the coroner because one of the causes required it. They were brilliant and it only caused a 24 hour delay as they agreed no inquest was needed.

This happened to us about ten years ago; 85 year old who died suddenly in the night, and hadn't seen the doctor for several months.

There was a post mortem, which identified a natural cause of death, so no need for an inquest. The post mortem was good for two reasons: we knew there was nothing we could have done, even if there was someone in the room at the time (helps with any sense of guilt!), and it turned out it was genetic and has led to his descendents being screened for the same issue (it could have killed him much younger than it actually did).

I don't remember it adding a significant delay to the funeral.

My dads death had to be referred to the coroner as he hadn't seen a doctor in the last 2 weeks. It was only a couple of days though before the coroners office phoned to say that in conjunction with his GP they had decided it was in line with his many chronic illnesses so could release him. MIL died of a reportable cancer which demands an inquest, and even that didn't delay the funeral as they knew what she had died of and it was very fast.
In both cases the coroners office were very kind and helpful

I'm very sorry for your loss. In my experience with our Coroner's office they were very efficient, helpful and kind. Any delays should be minor and the funeral director can usually do most of the liaison.

We had this with my Mum. She was 82 with several serious conditions and had 2 paramedics with her when she died, her GP refused to sign the death certificate.
The Coroner said that it might be necessary to have a PM but that they would do it as quickly as possible so as not to delay things and that they would treat my Mum with respect and dignity - the lady on the phone was lovely!
The same lady phoned me back next day to say that she had phoned The GP and he had agreed to sign that certificate.
It might be worth speaking to your local Coroners office

My FiL died this year under negligent circumstances and the coroner wanted to find out what had happened. The hospital my FiL was in also did a bad PM which delayed releasing the body further. We waited six weeks from death to funeral. To be fair to the coroner, he was very good, and kept my FiL's wife informed throughout.

Thank you for all of your help and kind words.

I'm really sorry for your loss too. Time is helping g, but there's a background dread about will or won't be found. My mum was almost 80 but without any cause of death nothing makes sense

My father died in hospital after being taken there from the nursing home when he had a cardiac arrest. He hadn't seen a doctor recently so there had to be a PM, and it did delay the funeral slightly but ultimately it wasn't a problem it wasn't by much , sorry for your loss

DF (89) fell and fractured his skull, so when he died in hospital a week later we had an inquest and the coroners office issue his death certificate about two weeks later.

The inquest was not for another 4 months. The funeral had been long over by then.

Just been thru this.

As others have said, a postmortem is usually required if there's not been any doctors or hospital involvement within the previous fortnight. There will only be an inquest if there's suspicious circumstances or if certain industrial diseases contributed to the death. In that case, once the pm has been done, you can ask for an interim death cert to allow the funeral to go ahead while you are waiting for the inquest.

If the coroner has already requested the postmortem then it should be done fairly quickly, usually within a couple of days (tho I dont think they work weekends).

In my case it got delayed because his GP had to be contacted to ask about his medical history, and there was a bit of a hiccup in the system so this wasn't done for over a week. They don't work weekends which also delayed things.

You need to register the death, or get an interim death cert from the coroner, before you can go ahead with the funeral. But you can start planning it beforehand, bearing in mind that for most funerals nowadays (other than for religious reasons) you're probably looking at least a 2/3 week wait anyway. Our funeral was 3 weeks after the coroner gave the go ahead.

If you're worried about the timescale, phone the coroners office. Mine was super helpful explaining things.