Notärztliche Leichenschau

Abstract

The primary goal of an emergency medical mission is to save life. However, often only death can be determined or failed reanimation attempts have to be aborted. A carefully executed external postmortem examination makes demands that require a certain minimum amount of time. In particular, these demands cannot be fulfilled when an emergency physician must immediately be available for the next emergency situation. Several German federal states have introduced the option of issuing a provisional death certificate without, however, exempting the physician from any of the notification requirements pertaining to external postmortem examinations. Furthermore, attention should be paid to the numerous problems accompanying cases leading to potential death investigation proceedings and in dealing with the investigating authorities.