What Would Happpen If You Died Alone
GOOD TIME TO CALL YOUR MOM
·Updated:
·

This is What Would Happen If, a close examination of mundane hypothetical situations. Each week, we look at something that you could do but probably never would, and take it to its logical endpoint. This week: What would happen if you died alone at home?​​


Living alone can be the best thing. You only need to clean up after yourself. You can freely walk naked from the bathroom to your bedroom And most importantly, you have peace and quiet whenever you need it.

But one close call with piece of sandwich getting sort of lodged in your throat has you wondering: Jeez, what would happen if I just died here in my home? 

Who would find you? How would they know you are, well, you. And how would the unfortunate news reach friends and family? To answer all of these uncomfortable questions, we spoke with Dr. Judy Melinek, a forensic pathologist and author of Working Stiff. 

Dying alone in your own home is, arguably, one of the saddest things to think about. But take solace in the fact that if it does happen, someone will, eventually find out.

Things get more complicated if your body started to decompose.

"The typical scenario we have is a neighbor is concerned that they haven't seen a person in awhile, or the person doesn't show up for work, or the mail starts piling up outside their door," says Melinek.

Just hours after expiring, a body will start to smell. Depending on your proximity to your neighbors, the smell alone might prompt them to alert someone. 

"Usually there's a call made out at some point, for what is called a well-being check," says Melinek. "Either the police will get that call or sometimes it'll just be the manager of the building."

Whomever's been assigned to perform the check will, if need be, break down your door and, well, check your home. Because you are dead, they will find your dead body. It might sound obvious, but just because someone thinks they've found a dead body, doesn't officially make you dead. Paramedics are called in to examine you, and determine that, yes, you are dead.

Once your corpse has been wheeled away, you'll be sent to the local medical examiner or coroner (yes, there's a difference) to figure out how you died and who you are.

In any case of a death, it's the job of a forensic pathologist to determine the cause and manner of death and — depending if it's a coroner or medical examiner's office — rule out foul play. Because you died alone, it's safe to assume there was no foul play. Still, they need to figure out how you died.

"In some cases, if we have sufficient medial history we won't necessarily do an autopsy, we'll just do an external examination of the bodywork signs of trauma," says Melinek. "If there is significant decomposition, enough that would obscure any trauma, or if there's any question of the cause or manner of death, then we'll do an autopsy."

How much time has elapsed between you dying and this unlucky person finding your corpse will determine how complicated the next step will be: Identifying your body. Remember: You are dead, and these are people who, most likely, don't know who you are — but they're going to try.

If your corpse is still relatively fresh, and the medical investigators assigned to your case find solid leads on contact information from families, then the process is pretty straight forward. The authorities will bring in someone who knows you to view your corpse and say that yes, this is you.

If they have trouble finding a next of kin, all is not lost. "In the majority of cases we can get fingerprints. That's another reliable scientific way of identifying people," says Melinek.

Things get more complicated if your body started to decompose. "A lot of times with decomposition or skeletonization the skin sloughs off and you don't even have fingerprints," says Melinek. "So the next step is to contact their healthcare providers and find out if they have, dental or other x-rays."

Since someone's smile is pretty unique to them, the pathologist can compare dental records with your corpse to see if you are you. Things like fillings or missing teeth or leftover orthodontic hardware can also be used as ways to ID you.

Somehow, if your teeth or head is missing, forensic pathologists still have other methods of figuring out who you are. "If they have any pacemakers or medical hardware in them, usually there's a unique serial number associated with those, so we could identify the deceased that way," says Melinek.

In some cases, the pathologist just doesn't have enough information to establish a definitive identification. "Sometimes we can only get a presumptive ID. Just based on the fact that they were known to live there, they weren't seen in awhile, and the anthropological examination of the bones is consistent with their gender and age," says Melinek. "But if we can't confirm their identity they might have to be buried as a John or Jane Doe."

So the authorities have determined you're dead. They know how you died, and they've, hopefully, informed someone that you've died. In which case, your body will soon rest in peace. If they haven't been able to contact a next-of-kin, then the government takes over handling your estate, auctions off anything of value, and arranges your burial.

So yeah, living alone: awesome. Dying alone: not the best.

Further Reading

The New York Times' 'The Lonely Death Of George Bell'

Lifehacker's Guide On Choking Alone

AARP's Primer On Writing A Will

<p>Steve Rousseau is the Features Editor at Digg.&nbsp;</p>

Want more stories like this?

Every day we send an email with the top stories from Digg.

Subscribe