Death certificate, coroners, and inquests

[SoapOperaFamily]

DH’s dad died suddenly this week. He was taken into hospital for an unusual thing (not going to say what, as it is quite outing) that was dealt with quickly. We spoke to him next day where he was at home again. This gave us the impression that the ‘thing’ was not particularly serious. He died at home during the night, and it has subsequently become apparent that he had discharged himself from hospital against medical advice, and now there is probably going to be an inquiry. So far DH has not been able to get a death certificate. He’s quite distressed by this, as he would like to be able to get on with planning a funeral. He feels this is the job he should be doing right now. His siblings are all travelling to the UK, some live a very long way away. When my own father died, one of my siblings travelled a long way, and because it was Covid times was not able to stay until the funeral. This caused a lot of upset. DH is keen that a funeral be arranged soon so that his siblings do not need to return home and miss the funeral.

Does anyone have any experience of how long such an inquiry might take, and how long it might take to get a death certificate? The doctors are fairly certain he died of a heart attack, but how this is related to the thing he was taken into hospital for is not known. There is also some consternation in the hospital about how such an elderly immobile man managed to escape.

I would just like to be able to support DH, so if anyone has any knowledge of these situations, I would be very grateful. Thanks.

I'm very sorry for your and your DH's loss. My dad died suddenly, and that always means a PM apparently. We managed to bury him 2 weeks later (pre covid, probably longer now?)

You have to wait for the investigation to run, i think. Sorry. It is possible that they investigate quickly, and release the body for a funeral, you'd probably have to check with the coroner about that.

Getting the death certificate can take days even in relatively straightforward cases. You can go ahead with the funeral arrangements on the probability that one will be issued in time. Speak to a funeral director they will have a good idea of what the situation is in your area You do have to chase everyone.

Ive just been in hospital and o e patient discharged herself. The doctor told her that they can't stop her as its a hospital not a prison.

I'm so sorry, that sounds very distressing. The bereavement officer at the hospital should be on hand to answer questions. Once the PM is done, you will be issued with an interim or final death certificate. It's interim if test results are outstanding, and final if the post mortem gives enough information to confirm the cause of death.

Once you have the interim death certificate, the funeral can be arranged even if the inquest and final cause of death isn't confirmed.

You won’t need the death certificate with full cause of death from the inquest for the funeral.
The death will be reported to coroner, who will issue a statement of the fact of death which can be used in place of the final death certificate for quite a lot of estate settling and the funeral.

It depends on whether the patient is deemed to have capacity. It sounds like there are concerns about the way @SoapOperaFamily FIL discharged himself.

I'm so sorry for your loss.

My mum went in and turns out it was sepsis. We assumed that there wouldn't be a post mortem but they wanted one. She died 11th aug and it was a few weeks before we got the answer and certificate. We held the funeral on the next day available which was the 14 sept.

I hope it is quicker for you.

Thank you everyone. He was definitely (in my opinion) of sound mind. Extremely eccentric, but I knew him for 36 years and he had bonkers ideas for all that time! But was not actually losing his mind, if that makes sense.

Been through this recently.

you should have a bereavement officer to talk you through it.

there will be a PM, after which you can get an interim death certificate and arrange the funeral. You can do some estate admin was well, but for probate etc you will need the full certificate.

i would speak to a funeral director as soon as you can. They know all the people and all the paperwork and hoops. Ours had most of the admin done before we even knew what was needed. Worth every penny.

i would also speak to your bereavement officer about your options. When my relative died in hospital in similar circumstances- diagnosed with something not serious, then surprised everyone including the medics by dying, they offered us a PM to establish cause of death, but also said if we were happy with the dr’s opinion that it was a heart attack we could accept that for the death certificate and avoid the PM and enquiry. As they’d been quite ill for a long time and we had no concerns about the hospital admission etc we went with that and got a full death certificate about a week later.

My dad died in June in similar circumstances (also discharged himself) and we do not have a full death certificate yet. An autopsy was inconclusive and the inquest has not yet been completed. We did get the interim death certificate fairly quickly though and have been able to do all paperwork, cremation etc with that.

So sorry for your loss. I hope you have lots of lovely memories of your eccentric dad 💖

My DH died very unexpectedly in hospital following a procedure. The death had to go through the coroner. It took three weeks before they issued the death certificate. You just have to be patient.

The coroner's officer will keep you informed. You may be allowed to have a funeral with an interim death certificate. You can certainly plan the kind of funeral you would like, engage a funeral director and so on. You won't be able to set a date until the coroner's officer contacts you. (This is if you are in England).
In our case it was 4 weeks before we could have a funeral. There was an inquest and a final death certificate 2 months after that. It depends on the initial investigation.
I am sorry for your loss. It is a difficult time.

As others have said, the medical certificate can take a while even if straightforward. Ours for FIL took about a week. We were initially confused and concerned by the information you still come across online, which says you must register the death within a couple of days (which you need the medical certificate for) but as we discovered, this time limit no longer applies, and it can take considerably longer.

Agree with the advice to appoint a good funeral director ASAP. Ours were wonderful - they knew everyone, and talked us through exactly what would happen around the hospital admin and release of the body etc, and handled a lot of this themselves.

In our case, it was about six weeks until the funeral, as some family members were away, and the planning did take some time. It was helpful to have that time to plan and think, in retrospect, though of course that's hard if you've got family who are only available for a short time.

I'm so sorry you and DH are going through this.

So sorry for your loss OP. I used to be a funeral arranger. In my experience the funerals were only slightly more delayed in these situations. Once the PM has been conducted, and the coroner has enough evidence to establish a cause of death, they will issue a certificate to the funeral director that allows the funeral to proceed. This is not the actual death certificate, that will come later.

Your DH is able to visit his chosen funeral director and begin making plans. The only thing that can't be set in stone yet is the date, but I used to book something several weeks ahead and then reassess nearer the date if the coroners note hadn't arrived. Dates at crematoriums or graveyards can be changed, you just have to be careful to not have anything printed with a date eg, order of service, until your date is confirmed.

Sadly having experienced this myself, the PM should be done within the week. You’ll get an interim death certificate while you wait for the results of the PM.
You will be able to start planning the funeral once he is back with the funeral directors.

I think we buried my father 3 weeks after he died. The death certificate was handed over about 8 weeks later.

not going to lie it was a stressful time.

So sorry , what a shock for the family.
Also sorry to say that even without the complications, arranging a funeral can take a long time these days. It might not be possible to make it happen while visiting relatives are still here.

Thanks everyone. It’s all so uncertain. I’m also trying to juggle DD starting uni, and she’s giving me almost no info on that either. I have professional exams myself in a fortnight. I’ve got almost no experience to fall back on regarding funerals or death certificates as when my own father died it was during Covid and we had a very small and quick funeral (it was one of the ‘max 10 people’ ones. So none of the organising DH seems to be stressing over.

It can take a few days even without any issues. Mil’s did require “questions” and the family was asked if we wanted a pm but because she was over 85 with known medical conditions (though hadn’t seen a dr in 6 weeks) we were able to waive it, they said if she were under 80 that wouldn’t have been an option. Dc took over a week to get, 10/11 days think it was but the funeral was arranged provisionally for 4 weeks after her death in the meantime

It took 6 days to get my father’s death certificate signed when he died in hospital of an expected illness. I found that it all moves very slowly.
You can contact a funeral home now, without the certificate. We contacted one while my DF was still alive but had a short prognosis.

As far as organising, that’s down to personal preference - simple option and most popular (I organise them professionally) is a crem service with either your parish vicar or an independent celebrant followed by a reception at the location of your choosing. Ask the key people for dates but limit them otherwise you’ll never find a perfect one

Sorry it’s a difficult time for you all.

Just bear in mind (and warn your DH) that even when you have the death certificate a funeral may be at least 3-4 weeks later.

My FIL died earlier this year, an expected death, no PM and no inquiry and it was still 4 weeks between his death and his funeral.

Getting the death certificate has become a lengthy process with new legislation. My DF died on April 17th this year and the funeral was May 20th. He is not going to able to organise a funeral for a while yet.

You can, but they can’t do anything until the Death Cert is issued.

Direct DH to talk to a local funeral director.

They’ll be familiar with time frames in the area. Round us, you’re talking a minimum 3 week lead time from death to funeral.

We had to wait for the death certificate for Dm - it had to go via the coroner - since although she was 97 and had advanced dementia, she had died in her care home at the weekend, when she couldn’t be seen very soon beforehand by her usual GP, only by a locum.

In the circs it did seem utterly daft to me, but such is the fallout from the Harold Shipman business.
In the event it didn’t really matter. Since the entire family was going to be away for at least a week for a wedding,the funeral would have been delayed anyway. TBH I was just so thankful that she hadn’t died while we were all away, so one of us had been with her all the time for the previous 36 or so hours - not that she was at all aware, as far as we could see,