how does death detection work?

Hagar said:
Sir Stephen House.
John Yuill and Lamara Bell died when their car crashed into the verge of the M9 and although reported by passers by, was not found for a substantial amount of time. Bell died later from her injuries, in hospital.

OK? :o
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Oh thought you were making a cynical point hah.

Not the one I was thinking of though - some guy was discovered having been dead weeks in his car around Somerset/Dorset area - but for some reason I'm totally blanking on it search terms wise.
 
We had a driver that would leave his house (according the the tracker) at exactly 16:55 everyday. And if he hadn't received his jobs by 17:30 he would be on the phone to the call centre. I got a call from our call centre saying he hadn't called in @18:00. Checked his tracker. Still at home... I called the police to do a welfare check. Found him deceased. When I explained how regimented his routine was they took me seriously.

Smartthings can check on the elderly too... You can have sensors that you can attach to a door or a cupboard, Say the cupboard that they keep the tea and coffee in.. If it doesn't get opened it can send an alert.... Not so intrusive that your OAP feels like they are being spied on
 
Rroff said:
Oh thought you were making a cynical point hah.

Not the one I was thinking of though - some guy was discovered having been dead weeks in his car around Somerset/Dorset area - but for some reason I'm totally blanking on it search terms wise.
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Ah OK I did not see that one, but yes I was being cryptic rather than cynical and too lazy to follow it up to a specific article. Some things stick in my head as links to other things which can be useful or not.
 
mattyg said:
We had a driver that would leave his house (according the the tracker) at exactly 16:55 everyday. And if he hadn't received his jobs by 17:30 he would be on the phone to the call centre. I got a call from our call centre saying he hadn't called in @18:00. Checked his tracker. Still at home... I called the police to do a welfare check. Found him deceased. When I explained how regimented his routine was they took me seriously.

Smartthings can check on the elderly too... You can have sensors that you can attach to a door or a cupboard, Say the cupboard that they keep the tea and coffee in.. If it doesn't get opened it can send an alert.... Not so intrusive that your OAP feels like they are being spied on
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A sensor on the beverage cupboard is an excellent idea.
 
My in-laws had a neighbour that had died on his own. Not directly next door, but a few doors down. They first noticed they'd not seen him about for a couple of weeks, they didn't really know him, but knew his face and said good morning etc. I remember them speaking to a couple of other neighbours to find out if they'd seen him which they hadn't. They'd knocked at the door plenty of times with no response.

I think they eventually got ahold of someone at the council to have someone come and check, and it was discovered he'd died about a month before. No family or friends, so sadly no-one knew he'd gone.
 
throwaway4372 said:
so thinking about all the old people who die all the time, how does it get detected that those people have died?
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There's a rapid alert cadaver dog system. Approx 1 in 10 dogs is genetically predisposed to sniffing out dead human bodies, and an alert system is set up around that quirk of nature.

When a cadaver dog smells a dead body, it lets out a particular bark, which agitates any other, regular, dogs in earshot. They in turn bark, which spreads the call. Ultimately, it gets to a designated handler in the community who raised the alarm for the relevant services / cleanup crew to come in.
 
Rroff said:
If they don't have friends/family or work, etc. to notice them being missing generally when bills go unpaid or someone notices the mail piling up, etc.

Been a few cases around here where people have died though and gone unnoticed for weeks, months or even 3 years in one case.
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The problem these days is most bills are paid by direct debit, so as long as there is money in the account and the service hasn't been cancelled then the bills get paid. Also on the flip side the pension would continue to be paid into the account because they'd be none of the wiser that the recipient has passed.

I think mail piling up is unusual of this day and age. As much as we do still get junk, we don't get anywhere near as much mail as was delivered 20 years ago. It would also rely on a door with no privacy glass.
 
I'm not sure if it's still the case, but I seem to remember at one time the postie would often keep a bit of an eye open for signs of problems with the older folk on their round, more normally at least around my neck of the woods it's something like a neighbour not seeing someone for a while and looking into it.
Going back many years my father used to do window cleaning/general handiwork/carpet cleaning etc*, and more than once when out he was asked by neighbours of his customers to have a look as they hadn't seen someone for a day or two and normally saw them daily, at least once he ended up going through a window when there was serious concern and the police attended with a "we're not allowed to break in as it's not been long enough since they were seen" attitude, but quite happy for him to climb in through the open bathroom window as long as he was willing to take the risk. IIRC it turned out on that occasion that the neighbour had in fact had a fall whilst out and was already in hospital in a different area (this was back before mobile phones/easy computer checks).

A few months ago one of our neighbours realised no one on the street had seen someone for a week or more and there was a lot of calls to/from other neighbours before contacting the police who did a check and confirmed the old guy was in fact in hospital, IIRC he'd been ill and taken from the doctor's to the hospital or something.

More recently the neighbour across the road from me had a nasty fall down the stairs, fortunately his direct neighbour heard the fall and called the police/ambulance immediately after not getting a reply, unfortunately the neighbour passed away in hospital from the injuries:(

Basically, as I think pretty much everyone says, it can be until someone notices that someone hasn't been seen for a while, and these days that might be days/weeks later, I've heard of cases where it's been months/years because all the financials were done automatically and it was only when something like the utilities went to cut them off/they didn't respond to letters from the council tax or similar that anyone looked:(

*He knew many of his customers for years, and always kept an eye out for them (I'm talking the 80's and 90's).
 
It's the sort of thing that worries me a bit, my dad lives on his own and we don't speak all that often, perhaps every few weeks. Sometimes I'll phone and there's no answer, so you think "ok he's gone out somewhere" but then you phone back later and still no answer, you start wondering if maybe there's a problem. He has a mobile but he has it switched off and/or not on him a lot of the time.

He gets on well with his neighbours so I'm sure they'd raise the alarm if he didn't show his face in the garden after a couple of weeks or something (he goes in the garden pretty much every day unless the weather is bad), or one of the people he reguarly speaks to / emails would probably check it out, but obviously by that point it would be too late.
 
I have a paramedic friend who regularly gets called out to places, assisted by police where old people haven’t been seen for a few days or haven’t answered the door. Pretty grim.
 
I had them in blue banging on my door last month asking if i have seen a neighbour i am not a social worker was my thinking
As cold as it sounds once their memory starts to go a quick hello is as far as it goes i can get accused of any thing so i keep my distance or the police will be banging on my door again :(
I am selective who i do good deeds to a reputation can go quick accusations i don't have time for
Next door is a hermit and hoarder once again when worms pokes from the front door that's the cue :(
 
Lol same with my mum.
She's getting on. If she doesn't answer a Skype call, then what's app, then hasn't been on Facebook for a while, I get jittery.
She has a very distinctive routine too.
I dread the day.....
 
I remember reading a story about a truck driver who was out in Europe and had a heart attack and was in there for days. Company didn't even pay to get him brought back into the country.

Imagine being a driver being sent out there to recover the truck. Pretty grim.
 
I ring my mum at the same time every night, without fail, partly as a welfare check. Every time she takes more than 4 rings to pick up, I worry.

She had a fall a while back and, instead of ringing me 10 miles away, she rang my auntie who lives 150 miles away. Apparently she "didn't want to worry" me. Argh!
 
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