Death Certificate Query

[sadtoday1]

My elderly relative was found dead at home at the weekend. Police and ambulance called. The dr has stated “found at home” on the death cert but 3 days prior. I am heartbroken that the date of death is just an estimate, as nobody is sure when relative died. There was no doctor in attendance as it was the weekend.
i am really struggling with the thought of relative being alone for 3 days, when it may have happened 1 or 2 days before.
has anyone come across this, and how did you make peace with the conflicting dates?

I hope your relative had a peaceful death. We had a situation where someone wasn't found for several weeks, and the date of death was an estimate. It is hard, and shocking to the survivors, but means nothing at all to the person who was gone, whether they were found after a few minutes or a few months.

xx

i Wish the dr had just put found at home on the date relative was actually found at home.
I feel I can’t accept the estimated date and the “found” date is the real date (to me).

It’s the practicalities too! What date to put on the order of service etc? I’m just finding it really difficult to put anything but the date they were found. The earlier date doesn’t seem “right”.

Could they have made an estimation based on feedback from those who attended the scene or a post-mortem?

I’m sorry, it’s a very shocking thing to happen, especially when it’s someone you were close to.

I've experienced exactly this situation so sorry you're going through the. For me, the found date was recorded as the official date of death while I know it's not accurate. So I felt the opposite to you - the inaccuracy bothered me. I'm so sorry though, it's a very distressing time. Playing over the 'what happened?' scenarios again and again. But those feelings will pass.

It’s the practicalities too! What date to put on the order of service etc

You could put either date down, noones going to know about the potential discrepancies. Put whichever dates makes the situation easier for you.

Alternatively what about just putting the years on it.

Sorry for your loss

Thankyou for responding. I haven’t slept much since it happened, and this is the main thing that is going over and over in my mind.

I think I will stick with the “found” date. I don’t want their friends all worrying the same way I am! I will ask the celebrant to just say “found at home on x date”.

To answer a pp, there was no post mortem. There was ambulance and police but no dr saw the body as it was the weekend. I’m not sure if the paramedic would have any input?