Quote:
Originally Posted by Rain Man
Yeah, I've discovered over my career that most types of data compilation are more complicated and subjectively defined than they would seem at first glance.
For example, I had a very elderly relative who died in 2021. (I never met him - he was my father's cousin or some such thing.) Anyway, the guy was 90+ years old and he got Covid and was apparently feeling very poorly. He got up in the night and either passed out or fell, and ultimately died as a result of the fall. Covid caused the fall, but the fall actually killed him. So where does he count in the statistics?
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Death certificates list immediate cause of death and underlying cause, with steps in between if they exist.
No idea if your relative's certificate listed COVID-19 as underlying cause, of course.
My father's certificate showed immediate cause of death as "necrotizing pneumonia" and underlying cause as GBM with something else mentioned regarding the chemo that destroyed his immune system. So, he died of pneumonia, but that pneumonia happened because of the chemo, and he was on chemo because of GBM.