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I heard an ICU physician say that here in Australia a cause of death must be put on the death certificate and that the usual choice is "myocardial infarction" (
by pdm55 7y ago
I heard an ICU physician say that here in Australia a cause of death must be put on the death certificate and that the usual choice is "myocardial infarction" (heart attack). Whereas a better choice might be simply "old age", but this is not an acceptable cause. So I guess that this is one of the reasons why "heart attack" is listed as the most common cause of death.
- vagab0nd 7y agoWhy is "old age" a better choice? Usually there's some kind of a disease that can't be handled by the aging body. Is it because it's not worth it to identify what the disease is?
- Retra 7y agoA whole chain of things need to happen for you to die, but they typically culminate in starving the brain of nutrients or oxygen. That usually happens due to organ failure, and that can certainly be the eventual consequence of old age. So tying 'cause of death' to a single factor is almost always a gross oversimplification. There are many causes for every death, and it's only important to look at specific ones should you care to prevent them or assign blame for them.