Not that long ago 15:44 - Oct 18 with 3140 views | bollockchops | Say 30/40 years , when someone passed away the cause of death was either a, cancer or b, "old age" but these days nobody dies of "old age " Is there anyone out there who knows the answer ? | ![](/images/avatars/12996.gif) | | | ![](/images/icons/ignore-user.png) |
Not that long ago on 16:08 - Oct 18 with 3059 views | danehoop | Suspect its probably that old age technically isn't probably see as a cause of death of death anymore, merely a contributory factor. So probably more likely to be listed as something stopping working (e.g. heart, lungs, liver etc. failure) or disease/complaint e.g. pneumonia etc. as being the actual cause of death. That said, as we learnt from C19, different countries can take a different approach to recording death. Some have had no C-19 cases, but lots of death by influenza, pneumonia and heart/lung failure this year. | ![](/images/avatars/1395.gif) |
| Never knowingly understood |
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Not that long ago on 16:08 - Oct 18 with 3058 views | daveB | I'd assume advances in medical science mean you are more likely to know a cause of death now than 40 years ago. | ![](/images/avatars/1922.gif) | | ![](/images/icons/ignore-user.png) |
Not that long ago on 16:08 - Oct 18 with 3060 views | Esox_Lucius | RTA | ![](/images/avatars/9990.gif) |
| The grass is always greener. |
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Not that long ago on 16:23 - Oct 18 with 3016 views | BrianMcCarthy | I'm old enough to remember when old people "took to the bed". That would be it for them. They could last years on the meals being brought up to them, but they wouldn't surface again. They had their time done. | ![](/images/avatars/1570.gif) |
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Not that long ago on 16:28 - Oct 18 with 3003 views | terryb |
Not that long ago on 16:08 - Oct 18 by danehoop | Suspect its probably that old age technically isn't probably see as a cause of death of death anymore, merely a contributory factor. So probably more likely to be listed as something stopping working (e.g. heart, lungs, liver etc. failure) or disease/complaint e.g. pneumonia etc. as being the actual cause of death. That said, as we learnt from C19, different countries can take a different approach to recording death. Some have had no C-19 cases, but lots of death by influenza, pneumonia and heart/lung failure this year. |
When my father died the doctor signed it off as heart failure. This was rejected as the registry office as you have to say why the heart stopped! Back to the doctor's for another certificate before a return trip to the registry. The alternative to this would have been a post mortem & possibly Coroners Court. We all knew that the main cause of death was old age! | ![](/images/avatars/0.gif) | | ![](/images/icons/ignore-user.png) |
Not that long ago on 18:34 - Oct 18 with 2802 views | Boston |
Not that long ago on 16:08 - Oct 18 by danehoop | Suspect its probably that old age technically isn't probably see as a cause of death of death anymore, merely a contributory factor. So probably more likely to be listed as something stopping working (e.g. heart, lungs, liver etc. failure) or disease/complaint e.g. pneumonia etc. as being the actual cause of death. That said, as we learnt from C19, different countries can take a different approach to recording death. Some have had no C-19 cases, but lots of death by influenza, pneumonia and heart/lung failure this year. |
Actually old chap, we learned that from AIDS. | ![](/images/avatars/0.gif) |
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Not that long ago on 21:41 - Oct 18 with 2651 views | stowmarketrange |
Not that long ago on 16:28 - Oct 18 by terryb | When my father died the doctor signed it off as heart failure. This was rejected as the registry office as you have to say why the heart stopped! Back to the doctor's for another certificate before a return trip to the registry. The alternative to this would have been a post mortem & possibly Coroners Court. We all knew that the main cause of death was old age! |
My dad had advanced lung cancer that had spread,but when they took him into hospital they said he had septicaemia too,and that would finish him off before the cancer would,so my mum told the doctors to just make him comfortable and he died about 6 hours later. I think the death certificate said that it was septicaemia that killed him. My mum too had advanced lung cancer 11 years later,but she died from heart failure rather than the cancer as I had to tell the paramedic over the phone that she didn’t to be revived if anything happened to her.She died a few minutes later and we’ll before I got there. Her death certificate said heart failure rather than cancer. | ![](/images/avatars/4993.gif) | | ![](/images/icons/ignore-user.png) |
Not that long ago on 12:02 - Oct 19 with 2451 views | DaBurgh |
Not that long ago on 16:23 - Oct 18 by BrianMcCarthy | I'm old enough to remember when old people "took to the bed". That would be it for them. They could last years on the meals being brought up to them, but they wouldn't surface again. They had their time done. |
Very true Brian, in the mid 60's when I was around 9 or 10, we would go to my maternal grandmothers house for Sunday dinner a couple of times a month. I always remember upon arrival being herded upstairs with my brother and sister to view my sickly old great grandfather in his bed. Never knew the guy and I never remember him saying anything to us. It was a bizarre situation, we just looked at him in bed, the room, only slightly lit with some daylight coming through the gap in the curtains. Then one day we didn't have to go see him, obviously he passed, don't remember a funeral or anyone really talking about it. Always thought if that was me one day, I would wait for the kids to lean over the bed, then shout 'boo' and scare the beejezus out of 'em, just for fun. | ![](/images/avatars/7800.gif) | | ![](/images/icons/ignore-user.png) | Login to get fewer ads
Not that long ago on 12:13 - Oct 19 with 2425 views | californiahoop | The other argument is, plenty were labelled as, “old age” because we didn’t the ability to work out the actual cause of death? | ![](/images/avatars/0.gif) | | ![](/images/icons/ignore-user.png) |
Not that long ago on 12:14 - Oct 19 with 2425 views | MrSheen |
Not that long ago on 16:23 - Oct 18 by BrianMcCarthy | I'm old enough to remember when old people "took to the bed". That would be it for them. They could last years on the meals being brought up to them, but they wouldn't surface again. They had their time done. |
My kids are like that. More seriously, I read an interesting article about capacity in American hospitals. If you make it to the ICU alive, it's very difficult to die without someone choosing to switch off the machines. Where families refuse to do this, people can linger for years, with a continual need to be monitored, fed, bathed, turned etc, which according to the hospitals is highly dispiriting for the staff. There's a crisis coming between the right to life and...resources/scarcity/convenience/efficiency, delete according to your beliefs. [Post edited 19 Oct 2021 13:01]
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Not that long ago on 12:56 - Oct 19 with 2380 views | Phildo | In Ireland people did not used to get dementia. They just 'went a bit doting' (doting to rhyme with voting). | ![](/images/avatars/1558.gif) | | ![](/images/icons/ignore-user.png) |
Not that long ago on 13:24 - Oct 19 with 2325 views | LazyFan | Old age is a useless statement as is it really that? We need to know the underlying cause in more granular detail, sometimes we may get that underlying cause wrong, but only by looking at the cause of death can we then see patterns and determining trends to try and find the causes of that. Once we have this information we can look at trying to remedy this and generate long lives for all of us. To me "old age" is some sort of quaint/woke saying and not an attempt at obtaining useful scientific evidence with which we can determine probabilities and patterns. | ![](/images/avatars/1596.gif) |
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Not that long ago on 14:47 - Oct 19 with 2257 views | Boston |
Not that long ago on 12:14 - Oct 19 by MrSheen | My kids are like that. More seriously, I read an interesting article about capacity in American hospitals. If you make it to the ICU alive, it's very difficult to die without someone choosing to switch off the machines. Where families refuse to do this, people can linger for years, with a continual need to be monitored, fed, bathed, turned etc, which according to the hospitals is highly dispiriting for the staff. There's a crisis coming between the right to life and...resources/scarcity/convenience/efficiency, delete according to your beliefs. [Post edited 19 Oct 2021 13:01]
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Hmm, private health care or public? Edit. For public read state run / paid for. [Post edited 19 Oct 2021 14:48]
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Not that long ago on 15:17 - Oct 19 with 2228 views | MrSheen |
Not that long ago on 14:47 - Oct 19 by Boston | Hmm, private health care or public? Edit. For public read state run / paid for. [Post edited 19 Oct 2021 14:48]
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Don't know! I imagine private hospitals won't object while you're still in credit, but apparently the care costs millions per year per patient and I doubt private hospitals have the right to pull the plug when the money inevitably runs out (could be wrong). | ![](/images/avatars/1288.gif) | | ![](/images/icons/ignore-user.png) |
Not that long ago on 15:36 - Oct 19 with 2196 views | LazyFan |
Not that long ago on 15:17 - Oct 19 by MrSheen | Don't know! I imagine private hospitals won't object while you're still in credit, but apparently the care costs millions per year per patient and I doubt private hospitals have the right to pull the plug when the money inevitably runs out (could be wrong). |
Your insurance will run out and then they will start to bill you directly and then when you run out of money they will turn it off. Also, they may start removing some support degrading over time to the patient as your money runs out so when it does you cannot sue them later as you have no money by then. | ![](/images/avatars/1596.gif) |
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Not that long ago on 16:11 - Oct 19 with 2163 views | MrSheen |
Not that long ago on 15:36 - Oct 19 by LazyFan | Your insurance will run out and then they will start to bill you directly and then when you run out of money they will turn it off. Also, they may start removing some support degrading over time to the patient as your money runs out so when it does you cannot sue them later as you have no money by then. |
This suggests not, as they could be sued for wrongful death, though they can deny entrance except as an emergency case. https://www.quora.com/In-the-USA-is-life-support-turned-off-for-patients-who-can In the piece I read (Economist, paywalled), they referred to a child on life support in Texas for two years at the cost to Medicaid (ie the State) of $24m. Texas is one of three states (with California and Virginia, that allows doctors to apply for court approval to turn off machines without family approval, which they have done in this case. Application in April, decision due in January (!). | ![](/images/avatars/1288.gif) | | ![](/images/icons/ignore-user.png) |
Not that long ago on 16:57 - Oct 19 with 2110 views | stowmarketrange |
Not that long ago on 15:36 - Oct 19 by LazyFan | Your insurance will run out and then they will start to bill you directly and then when you run out of money they will turn it off. Also, they may start removing some support degrading over time to the patient as your money runs out so when it does you cannot sue them later as you have no money by then. |
A one way ticket to Switzerland is cheaper. | ![](/images/avatars/4993.gif) | | ![](/images/icons/ignore-user.png) |
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