My mom passed away a few weeks ago. She was receiving Hospice care at a nursing home facility. A few days prior to her passing she suffered a seizure and she never recovered. She was to receive seizure medication twice daily. I was with her when she passed. On the death certificate the doctor list cause of death as heart attack. Also, time of death is incorrect. I feel the nurse staff did not alert the doctor of the seizure. I knew my mom was terminal, but something is not right. Maybe a cover up?
Been there as my dad's is almost an hour and a half after he passed away. It was at 12:36 am on Friday morning the 28th of July. His death certificate says it was at 1:50..when the Hospice nurse called it, and since he was in Hospice care..nursing staff that was right there at the time couldn't call it.
Ridiculous!!
eguillot, I was thinking the same thing, how death certificates are not specific regarding the death, how the term cardiac arrest is so quickly used. There are so many other things that could have been the root cause, which are dismissed, thus people think no one dies from such and such, when in fact it was the pathway to the fatal event .
In your case, the cause of death was a heart attack, secondary to whatever put your Mom in hospice. It wasn't the seizure - the seizure was a part of her dying process. Again, so sorry for your loss.
Did Mom have medical directives in place or a DNR? Were you or someone else POA? Most people have medical directives, they do not want many medical treatments that would only prolong life, without some sort of quality. I understand that you are emotionally tried at this time. How old was Mom? What was her quality of life before the event that led to the NH and hospice? She would not have been on hospice if it was not her time as determined by medical professionals.
Jeanne and Veronica both commented on an issue that I recall after reading their comments. In joint estate planning documents for husband and wife, there were always clauses dealing with the potential of simultaneous or near simultaneous deaths, for the purpose of the inheritance issues.
I was reading my father's trust the other day as some changes need to be made and remembered the significance of order of death in terms of the heirs.
An example would be heirs in a blended family. If the husband died first, his heirs might be his wife or his children, but not her children. Or vice versa. If they died simultaneously, there might another provision, perhaps dividing the estate among the entire blended family.
If it would make you rest easier to ask some questions then do so. However, a death certificate is a legal document and it will take a lot of time and maybe legal assistance to have it changed. After all that you've been through with your mom do you really want to drag this out?
My dad died a year ago. The weeks and days leading up to his death were stressful and heartbreaking. He was on hospice and I wasn't there when he died. If his death certificate said he died of uterine cancer I would have left it alone. I was too wrung out to draw things out any further. He was gone and there was other business to attend to.
But follow your heart. If you find that you can't let it go then you have to do what you have to do but since she's been gone and her body is gone I'm not sure how you'll ever be able to determine if the death certificate is inaccurate. Nursing charts are legal documents as well. I think you'd have an uphill battle on this one.
Mom has Alzheimer and has been bedridden for over 13years. In her death certificate, her time of death is 610pm. The cause of death: arteriosclerosis cerebrovascular and cardiovascular disease. Then on the next part on Other conditions, it has Alzheimer. // I remember when I saw this the first time, that it was wrong- time and reason of death. In the end, I just decided time of death is when the ER finally pronounced her death at 610pm, and because her heart stopped, "arteriosclerosis cerebrovascular and cardiovascular disease."
I only ask because I watched my grandmother have a brain seizure, and while she lived a little while after, her heart gave out within an hour and a half. The seizure caused the heart attack.
It doesn't seem really important to know the exact time of death (except in murder cases). Even the exact cause of death when it has been expected does not seem important. I don't know what purpose would be served by having my husband's death certificate changed to give the exact medical cause of death.
While these things seem intensely important to you now, the death certificate is just a piece of paper.
If it really makes a difference -- if inheritance would change depending on who died first of two people who died a few hours apart -- then, yes, it might be worth pursuing. But in the ordinary run of human affairs, this is not as important as I had previously thought.
Please accept my condolences on the death of your dear mother.
The time of death could have just been a mistake; if it really concerns you, contact the doctor and explain that you were there when she died and the time is incorrect. He/she may have just picked it up from the hospice records.
As to a "cover-up", I'm not sure what the purpose would be, or what issues would be covered up. But it seems you feel the seizure might have been the cause, and perhaps left untreated? You know your mother's conditions better than we, so you might want to consider that the seizure did cause the heart attack.
I'm not a medical person, so I'm only suggesting that there might be a correlation.
I do wonder though what would be the purpose of a cover-up; you write that your mother was already in a terminal condition. Your concern is understandable, especially since your mother's death was so recent.
But you might want to ask yourself what the purpose would be in pursuing a course of action beyond clarification of the time of death. What would you hope to gain beyond a corrected death certificate? Do you feel there was some misdeed, error or other issue that needs to be addressed?
You can always order a copy of the hospice records, assuming you have the legal authority to do so. Perhaps that might set your mind at ease, especially as to the administration of the anti-seizure meds.
Why do you think there was a cover-up? Do you mean that the nursing staff were negligent in not reporting the seizure to her doctor? And how are you sure they didn't report it?
I know it seems unfair that your mom is gone. Even though you knew she was terminally ill, you were probably hoping for more time with her. Looking for someone to blame won't help you, but if it makes you feel better, you can talk to the doctor who signed the death certificate.