As for my Mom, she had a heart attack, heart stopped ,
paramedics got
it restarted but she passed before she could even be loaded into the
ambulance. It took about 7 minutes from call to ambulance arriving.
The death certificate said she died of a heart attack, which she was on
medication for. I don’t think a full autopsy was performed, just a
toxicology. They can tell some things from just tox and blood tests.
I would be surprised if they even did a toxicology. The manner of death was pretty clear.
The receiving physician would have declared her DOA either on arrival over the phone and
the manner of death would be recorded as such.
Another oddity, is that when you sell your house, at least here in
California, there is a check box on the realtor form asking if someone
died in the house.
This is accurate. It is mostly aimed at people who died in a violent crime but of course
applies to everyone. I think it stems from a case where someone was killed in their home,
the home was sold, and the perpetrators came back not knowing the home was sold and then
attacked the new owners by mistake. But don't quote me on that.
-Ali