Death in pregnancy, sudden death, among 18 reasons for death examination in hospitals —Forensic expert

A forensic pathologist, Dr Uwom Eze, has listed 18 reasons why a death investigation must be done to ensure the living can speak for the dead and that the dead are always treated with dignity.

Eze, who spoke at a Hospital-wide grand Round entitled “Coroner’s Case in the Hospital: Facts and Myths” at the University College Hospital, Ibadan, said the reason death examination is done is to know its cause because death is a label and death does not kill people.

According to him, deaths that coroners must investigate include those with reasonable cause to believe the cause of death was unknown, sudden or unexpected and unnatural, unreported death after occurrence, due to violence, accidental or misadventure, resulting from non-conventional medical procedure or medication

He added, death due to unknown diseases; due to neglect during surgery or before recovery from anesthesia or diagnostic or therapeutic procedure; industrial disease, accident at work or industrial poisoning; neglect due to medical intervention, misconduct or malpractice, due to an ailment within 24 hours of hospital admission and `suicide, or suspected suicide or assisted suicide.

“When you see that the patient may have marks on their body. It may be evidence of reinforced trauma. That is a coroner’s case. It has to be investigated.

“We have got people whose hands or a part of their body were chopped off. Workplaces should be safe. That is what coroners want to investigate. If we don’t do that, other people may also die. Not only in that industry, but in other industries that are not safe for work.

“Any woman who dies during childbirth, or is related to childbirth, or shortly after childbirth, is an automatic coroner’s case. It has to come for investigation.”

Dr Eze said that an autopsy is not the same thing as post-mortem examination and assured that these examinations do not harvest organs or keep any tissue taken from the dead person.

“We can just look at the external features of the body and document such. That is post-mortem. But when we say autopsy, it means we are doing a surgical operation on the dead. We must look inside.

“As we do the investigation, we return the organs to the body, just like surgeons will do. We only take a little bit of it for investigation. If there’s a reason to keep tissue, we take permission from the coroner. And the next of kin must know what tissue we are taking. When we finish with the tissue, we must hand it over to them if they want it for proper burial.”

UCH’s Chief Medical Director, Professor Jesse Otegbayo, who was represented by the Deputy Chairman, Medical Advisory Committee on Clinical Services, Professor Olusola Olawoye, said healthcare professionals must ensure that they provide the best care possible for patients, even in the most challenging circumstances.

She added, “By understanding the role of coroners and our obligations in supporting their investigations, we can work together to provide excellence in patient care.”

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