When to Report a Death

The following deaths are reportable to the Coroner as determined by State Statute 55 ILCS 5/3-3013:

• Traumatic or violent deaths suspected of being an accident, homicide, or suicide including but not limited to deaths caused or contributed to by fall with hip fracture, head injury or other trauma, thermal, chemical, electrical, or radiational injury or a complication of any of them, or by drowning or suffocation, or as a result of domestic violence
• Sudden death where the circumstances are suspicious, obscure, mysterious, or otherwise unexplained
• Death that occurred in prison, jail, or police custody
• Death that occurred under anesthesia or in the post-anesthetic period prior to regaining consciousness
• Death that occurred within 24 hours of hospital admission
• Death that occurred in a hospital emergency room
• Death that occurred during or as a result of a diagnostic, therapeutic, or surgical procedure
• Death in which an injury or disease acquired during employment may have caused or contributed
• Death of an individual either unattended by a physician within 30 days of the date of death or attended by a practitioner who is legally unable to complete a death certificate
• Criminal or self-induced maternal or fetal death; may include mother had a positive drug screen upon admittance into the hospital and had a fetal death, mother is assaulted a few days prior to being admitted, mother is involved in a traffic crash or any other traumatic event shortly before labor began
• Death in which alcohol or any drug may have contributed
• Death that occurred in a state institution, private care facility, or program funded by the Department of Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities or the Department of Children and Family Services
• Death that occurred at a residence or nursing home
• Death after which the individual is to be cremated