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Reporting Guidelines
These guidelines are intended to assist in determining what constitutes a Coroner/Medical Examiner Death Case and how to report a case.
The medical examiner has direct jurisdiction for Jackson and Cass Counties and is empowered by Missouri State Statutes # RSMo 58.720 to investigate deaths as a result of:
- Violence by homicide, suicide, or accident;
- Thermal, chemical, electrical or radiation injury;
- Criminal abortions, including those self-induced;
- Disease thought to be of hazardous and contagious nature or which might constitute a threat to public health;
- Any person dies suddenly when in apparent good health;
- When unattended by a physician, chiropractor, or an Accredited Christian Science Practitioner, during a period of 36 hours immediately preceding death;
- While in custody of the law, or while an inmate in a public institution;
- In any unusual or suspicious manner;
- All child deaths, involving individuals below the age of 18 years:
- These deaths include maternal or fetal deaths that may be caused from illegal interference with the pregnancy or from criminal activity, trauma or illicit drugs.
- These include deaths caused by rapidly fatal illnesses, such as fulminant meningitis. Any death caused by highly infections agent capable of causing an epidemic should be reported to the Medical Examiner.
Note: Deaths due to Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) are usually not reportable. - Deaths that occur during employment or that are related to employment or deaths that occur in public places, such as buildings, streets, parks or other similar areas, must be reported.
- Sudden and unexpected deaths,
- Deaths for which the attending physicians cannot supply adequate or reasonable explanations,
- Persons found dead without obvious causes of death
There Is No 24-Hour Rule in Missouri
A death occurring less than 24 hours after hospital admission is not necessarily reportable unless:
ER & Surgical Deaths
A death occurring less than 24 hours after hospital admission is not necessarily reportable unless:
ER & Surgical Deaths
- Deaths while under anesthesia, during the post-anesthetic period, or during induction of anesthesia, regardless of the interval between the original incident and the death,
- Deaths during or following diagnostic or therapeutic procedures, if the death might be related to the procedures or the complications resulting from the procedures.
- All deaths occurring in correctional institutions, reformatories, or other incarceration or detention areas are reportable. Deaths of persons under police custody or police hold, regardless of the probable cause and manner, are also reportable.
Law enforcement officer, hospital personnel or any person having knowledge of such a death shall immediately notify the office of the Medical Examiner of the known facts concerning the time, place, manner, and circumstances of the death. Immediately upon receipt of notification, the Medical Examiner or his designated assistant shall take charge of the dead body and fully investigate the essential facts concerning the medical causes of death.
Outside Jackson County
If an injury occurs outside of Jackson, Platte, Clay, or Cass counties and the victim dies while in transit to a medical facility in Jackson, Platte, Clay or Cass Counties, the jurisdiction of the death belongs to the Medical Examiner or Coroner in the outside county. The Medical Examiner assumes jurisdiction in any case from an outside county when the subject is institutionalized within Jackson, Platte, Clay, or Cass counties. The Medical Examiner then is required by law to immediately notify the coroner or Medical Examiner or the county where the injury occurred. An emergency room admission for emergency room treatment is not considered institutionalization.
Death by Injury
Any death suspected of being caused by injury must be reported to the Medical Examiner, even if the injury occurred days, weeks, months or years before the death. Even if an injury only contributes to an otherwise natural death, the death should still be reported.
Outside Jackson County
If an injury occurs outside of Jackson, Platte, Clay, or Cass counties and the victim dies while in transit to a medical facility in Jackson, Platte, Clay or Cass Counties, the jurisdiction of the death belongs to the Medical Examiner or Coroner in the outside county. The Medical Examiner assumes jurisdiction in any case from an outside county when the subject is institutionalized within Jackson, Platte, Clay, or Cass counties. The Medical Examiner then is required by law to immediately notify the coroner or Medical Examiner or the county where the injury occurred. An emergency room admission for emergency room treatment is not considered institutionalization.
Death by Injury
Any death suspected of being caused by injury must be reported to the Medical Examiner, even if the injury occurred days, weeks, months or years before the death. Even if an injury only contributes to an otherwise natural death, the death should still be reported.
Examples of Reportable Injuries
- Falls
- Blunt force or crushing injuries
- Sharp force (cutting, stabbing or chopping) injuries
- Injuries from firearms (handguns, rifles, shotguns or other)
- Explosions
- Electrocutions and lightning strikes
- Asphyxia (suffocation, strangulation, hanging, exclusion of oxygen poisoning by gases (carbon monoxide or other), poisoning by cyanide
- Vehicular accidents (automobile, bus, railroad, motorcycle, bicycle, boat, aircraft, or other craft), including deaths of drivers, passengers, pedestrians, or non-occupants involved in the accidents
- Drowning
- Weather-related injuries (lightning, heat exposure, cold exposure, tornado, or other)
- Drug use, prescription or illicit
- Poisoning or chemical ingestion
- Burns (chemical, thermal, radiation, electrical, etc.)