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What Would Happen If You Died Alone?
This is What Would Happen If,
a close examination of mundane hypothetical situations. Each week, we
look at something that you could do but probably never would, and take
it to its logical endpoint. This week: What would happen if you died
alone at home?
Living
alone can be the best thing. You only need to clean up after yourself.
You can freely walk naked from the bathroom to your bedroom And most
importantly, you have peace and quiet whenever you need it.
But one close call with piece of sandwich getting sort of lodged in your throat has you wondering: Jeez, what would happen if I just died here in my home?
Who would find you? How would they know you are, well, you. And how would the unfortunate news reach friends and family? To answer all of these uncomfortable questions, we spoke with Dr. Judy Melinek, a forensic pathologist and author of Working Stiff.
Dying
alone in your own home is, arguably, one of the saddest things to think
about. But take solace in the fact that if it does happen, someone
will, eventually find out.
Things get more complicated if your body started to decompose.
"The typical scenario we have is a
neighbor is concerned that they haven't seen a person in awhile, or the
person doesn't show up for work, or the mail starts piling up outside
their door," says Melinek.
Just hours after expiring, a body will start to smell. Depending on your proximity to your neighbors, the smell alone might prompt them to alert someone.
"Usually
there's a call made out at some point, for what is called a well-being
check," says Melinek. "Either the police will get that call or sometimes
it'll just be the manager of the building."
Whomever's
been assigned to perform the check will, if need be, break down your
door and, well, check your home. Because you are dead, they will find
your dead body. It might sound obvious, but just because someone
thinks they've found a dead body, doesn't officially make you dead.
Paramedics are called in to examine you, and determine that, yes, you
are dead.
Once your corpse has been wheeled away, you'll be sent to the local medical examiner or coroner (yes, there's a difference) to figure out how you died and who you are.
In
any case of a death, it's the job of a forensic pathologist to
determine the cause and manner of death and — depending if it's a
coroner or medical examiner's office — rule out foul play. Because you
died alone, it's safe to assume there was no foul play. Still, they need
to figure out how you died.
"In
some cases, if we have sufficient medial history we won't necessarily
do an autopsy, we'll just do an external examination of the bodywork
signs of trauma," says Melinek. "If there is significant decomposition,
enough that would obscure any trauma, or if there's any question of the
cause or manner of death, then we'll do an autopsy."
How
much time has elapsed between you dying and this unlucky person finding
your corpse will determine how complicated the next step will be:
Identifying your body. Remember: You are dead, and these are people who, most likely, don't know who you are — but they're going to try.
If
your corpse is still relatively fresh, and the medical investigators
assigned to your case find solid leads on contact information from
families, then the process is pretty straight forward. The authorities
will bring in someone who knows you to view your corpse and say that
yes, this is you.
If they have trouble
finding a next of kin, all is not lost. "In the majority of cases we can
get fingerprints. That's another reliable scientific way of identifying
people," says Melinek.
Things get more
complicated if your body started to decompose. "A lot of times with
decomposition or skeletonization the skin sloughs off and you don't even
have fingerprints," says Melinek. "So the next step is to contact their
healthcare providers and find out if they have, dental or other
x-rays."
Since someone's smile is
pretty unique to them, the pathologist can compare dental records with
your corpse to see if you are you. Things like fillings or missing teeth
or leftover orthodontic hardware can also be used as ways to ID you.
Somehow, if your teeth or head is missing, forensic pathologists still have other methods of figuring out who you are. "If
they have any pacemakers or medical hardware in them, usually there's a
unique serial number associated with those, so we could identify the
deceased that way," says Melinek.
In
some cases, the pathologist just doesn't have enough information to
establish a definitive identification. "Sometimes we can only get a
presumptive ID. Just based on the fact that they were known to live
there, they weren't seen in awhile, and the anthropological examination
of the bones is consistent with their gender and age," says Melinek.
"But if we can't confirm their identity they might have to be buried as a
John or Jane Doe."
So the authorities
have determined you're dead. They know how you died, and they've,
hopefully, informed someone that you've died. In which case, your body
will soon rest in peace. If they haven't been able to contact a
next-of-kin, then the government takes over handling your estate,
auctions off anything of value, and arranges your burial.
So yeah, living alone: awesome. Dying alone: not the best.
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