14
votes
12
votes
Accepted
Deciphering cause of death?
1a Left Ventricular Failure
(b) Myocardial Degeneration
(c) Arterio sclerosis
Certified by C. J. C. Leggins MRCS
In other words, left-sided heart failure.
- 18.7k
9
votes
Accepted
Identifying cause of death on Scottish record
Paralysis.
Determining the underlying cause is pure speculation, but suffice it to say that the person had some sort of neurologic disorder. Causes could range from trauma to infectious or ...
- 18.7k
9
votes
Lunacy - what does it mean?
While the exact diagnosis is almost certainly impossible without data from elsewhere that probably doesn't exist, we should at least attempt to see how the words were used at that time.
Anyone ...
- 11.5k
8
votes
Deciphering cause of death and surname of informant
The cause of death is 'senectus', or put more simply, just 'old age'.
The grand-daughter's surname appears to be 'Brumley' (most of the letter-forms appear to match other examples in that sample)
- 5,165
7
votes
Accepted
Burial of a person who committed suicide in 18th century England?
At that time, a suicide would not have been buried in consecrated ground. Suicide was both a sin and a criminal offence. Burial in consecrated ground was only permitted after 1823 without ritual, ...
- 1,370
7
votes
Methods to organize medical genealogy information?
You are correct. Most genealogy programs are not designed specifically for medical data.
However there are at least a few programs that you can try that specifically say they are designed for health ...
- 16.7k
7
votes
Accepted
Determining cause of 1958 death in England?
There are several places one might find information about a cause of death for a person who died in England and Wales in the 1950s:
Death certificate: As per Adrian's answer, the death certificate is ...
- 18.7k
7
votes
Determining cause of 1958 death in England?
The death certificate itself, surely.
I am assuming that what you have seen is only an index to the death certificates, as I have never seen death certificates without cause of death. We can't be ...
- 11.5k
7
votes
Deciphering cause of death?
The numbering a,b,c indicates the way the conditions relate to the death, and should always be read "backwards".
So - Arterial sclerosis caused Myocardial degeneration, which in turn led to left ...
- 1,356
7
votes
Accepted
What is the cause of death on this certificate?
I agree that it reads Chronic Rheumatism.
While the rheumatism itself was unlikely to have been the actual cause of death, it could have been any one of several other common co-morbidities of ...
- 18.7k
6
votes
Accepted
Reading the cause of death for an acute type of pneumonia
As a side note - the causes should be read from (c) to (a).
So she was suffering from influenza, which led to cardiac failure, which in turn caused acute lobar pneumonia (which was the actual cause ...
- 1,356
6
votes
Accepted
Determining cause of death from Spanish death certificate
I'm no great shakes at Spanish but fortunately many medical terms derive from the same Latin and Greek roots:
coma urémico, esclerosis generalizada
Translates to: Uraemic coma, generalized ...
- 18.7k
6
votes
Meaning of "kitumat" for cause of death in Finland death record
This (Finnish) word is an abbreviation for the word "kitumatauti". This is a word that is not used anymore but it is still easy for a Finnish speaker to understand the rough meaning. The last part - "...
- 61
5
votes
Accepted
Deciphering death certificate writing
I think the first part is:
Of 17 Meadow Cottages
The Friary (?)
Salisbury
and (? or 2nd ?)
Wife of ----
Scammell
a ----
I would guess from this that her husband's surname was ...
- 4,427
5
votes
Finding medical records for Richmond State Hospital patient?
According to the Indiana State Family and Social Services Administration website, many of the early patient records were destroyed. Their site says:
There are some archive books listing very limited ...
- 25.4k
5
votes
Accepted
Grandmother died in 1910 of bowel paralysis - what is that exactly?
The modern term is paralytic ileus. According to this Medline Plus article on Intestinal obstruction:
Paralytic ileus, also called pseudo-obstruction, is one of the major causes of intestinal ...
- 25.4k
5
votes
Reading 1870s cause of death in Canada
Severe Biliary "Biliary tract infection is a common cause of bacteraemia and is associated with high morbidity and mortality." https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2750926/
- 4,685
5
votes
Accepted
Deciphering handwritten cause of death on death certificate
I read that as:
Peritonitis (1 week)
Perforated Ca - sigmoid (7 mos)
The sigmoid presumably refers to the sigmoid colon having been perforated leading to peritonitis.
- 4,438
4
votes
What was "Chronic Endeidis"?
I agree with other comments/answers, that this is probably due to misreading t's as d's, and you are looking at Enteritis.
Here are some resources to double check, or for future issues:
Genealogy ...
- 818
4
votes
Finding cause of death in 1909 for Scotsman James McMillan in Nagasaki, Japan?
My first port of call to find a cause of death would be a death certificate. As this person was a Scot and he died abroad this may not be as straightforward as it seems.
Fortunately McMillan appears ...
- 18.7k
4
votes
Lunacy - what does it mean?
We can assume that your ancestor suffered from some kind of mental condition. Please see Lunatic (English Wikipedia). Given the poor state of psychiatric knowledge and care at this time, it will be ...
- 5,427
4
votes
Finding other sources for the information on a death certificate?
The GRO's new website with a searchable index that offers a means to order certificates online has a FAQ which includes What information will I see on a certificate? The GRO has a guide to death ...
- 25.4k
4
votes
Accepted
Reading cause of death?
Paresis, which is nerve-related weakness or partial paralysis.
From the dates of onset you can see he was suffering from the toxaemia for two months but the paresis only onset in his last week. It ...
- 18.7k
4
votes
Date and Cause of death numbers on New York Passenger list?
I don't think those numbers refer to deaths. I believe they are related to later compilation of statistics, and the statisticians used the blank space in that column for their notes. Recording of a ...
- 146
4
votes
Decipher cause of death 1924
Given that this is from 1924, the International List of Causes of Death list from 1920 (ICD-3) should have been the one that was used.
However, that big 146 written on top indicates "Puerperal ...
- 891
3
votes
Accepted
Does Cause of death being Convulsions suggest Cholera?
Cholera often leads to derailments in the electrolyte balance of the body, which can also lead to neurological symptoms. According to Sack (The Lancet, 2004), "severe muscle cramps of arms and legs ...
- 5,427
3
votes
Determining cause of 1958 death in England?
As already stated in previous answers, the obvious course of action is to use the reference in the registration you've already found and order the certificate from the GRO's Certificate Ordering ...
- 25.4k
3
votes
What is the cause of death on this certificate?
I also agree with @Harry Vervet that chronic rheumatism was unlikely to have been the actual cause of death.
The next lines in the death record reads to me '...exhaustion 2 years...certified by...(...
- 41
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible