Does anyone have experience with a death being investigated by the coroner. I'm in Vic and was just curious into what depth they go into and how long it takes?
Does anyone have experience with a death being investigated by the coroner. I'm in Vic and was just curious into what depth they go into and how long it takes?
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4 Replies
My grandmothers death was referred to the coroner.
The answer is it depends greatly on the situation.
You can be referred simply because a person happened to pass within a certain time frame of being seen in the emergency department. In our case that was because my grandmother was expected to pass but a relative panicked and called the ambos despite DNR and do not treats being signed.
In our case it was a rubber stamp, done in a few days.
My sister has been involved in a case that went on for many many months. It was a case of an unexpected death of a young person that most likely could have been prevented if certain systems had been in place in a medical department.
It’s basically like any court case where a trial can take 10 minutes or many many months.
My Nans death went to the coroner as she had a sudden heart attack. I was also a witness to the death of a premature baby born on the side of the road and I needed to provide witness statement. It's just to find out the exact cause of death if not known. My Nans was quick, the baby took a few months I think as there were a few factors at play. She only lived for about half an hour so I kind of liked that she was treated the same as anyone else who died suddenly. They will release the body for burial ASAP so you don't usually have to worry about that unless needed for evidence.
A family member’s baby died (in Vic) and was with the coroner for 5 weeks until they released her body for burial. However it took a very long time for a report and they still haven’t given an exact cause of death - it was medically related and there’s a lot of inquiries happening so they can pinpoint who, what, where etc. and if it was avoidable.
Ive seen 2. My sister died while under an involuntary order in hospital so there was an inquest. They went through her entire medical history. It was probably less than a year after her death. It was straight forward as it was her illness that ultimately killed her.
The other one was a death of a child in care. I had to give evidence even though I was not involved. It was horrible for me so I can't imagine how others felt. That was 2 years after the death.
The second went for 2 days, lots of witnesses and the correnor hands down his report pretty quickly.