The National Association of Medical Examiners Position Paper on the Investigation and Certification of Pediatric Deaths From Environmental Neglect.

ABSTRACT: Pediatric deaths that occur because of environmental neglect often involve 4 common scenarios: (1) hyperthermia due to environmental exposure, (2) ingestion of an accessible drug or poison, (3) unwitnessed/unsupervised drownings, and (4) unsafe sleep practices. Given the same fact pattern, the manner of death will vary from accident to homicide to undetermined based on local custom and/or the certifier's training and experience. Medical examiner/coroner death certifications are administrative public health determinations made for vital statistical purposes. Because the manner of death is an opinion, it is understandable that manner determinations may vary among practitioners. No prosecutor, judge, or jury is bound by the opinions expressed on the death certificate. This position paper does not dictate how these deaths should be certified. Rather, it describes the challenges of the investigations and manner determinations in these deaths. It provides specific criteria that may improve consistency of certification. Because pediatric deaths often are of public interest, this paper provides the medical examiner/coroner with a professional overview of such manner determination issues to assist various stakeholders in understanding these challenges and variations.

Evaluation of Concordance Between Original Death Certifications and an Expert Panel Process in the Determination of Sudden Unexplained Death in Childhood.

Importance: The true incidence of sudden unexplained death in childhood (SUDC), already the fifth leading category of death among toddlers by current US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates, is potentially veiled by the varied certification processes by medicolegal investigative offices across the United States. Objective: To evaluate the frequency of SUDC incidence, understand its epidemiology, and assess the consistency of death certification among medical examiner and coroner offices in the US death investigation system. Design, Setting, and Participants: In this case series, 2 of 13 forensic pathologists (FPs) conducted masked reviews of 100 cases enrolled in the SUDC Registry and Research Collaborative (SUDCRRC). Children who died aged 11 months to 18 years from 36 US states, Canada, and the United Kingdom had been posthumously enrolled in the SUDCRRC by family members from 2014 to 2017. Comprehensive data from medicolegal investigative offices, clinical offices, and family members were reviewed. Data analysis was conducted from December 2014 to June 2020. Main Outcomes and Measures: Certified cause of death (COD) characterized as explained (accidental or natural) or unexplained, as determined by SUDCRRC masked review process. Results: In this study of 100 cases of SUDC (mean [SD] age, 32.1 [31.8] months; 58 [58.0%] boys; 82 [82.0%] White children; 92 [92.0%] from the United States), the original pathologist certified 43 cases (43.0%) as explained COD and 57 (57.0%) as unexplained COD. The SUDCRRC review process led to the following certifications: 16 (16.0%) were explained, 7 (7.0%) were undetermined because of insufficient data, and 77 (77.0%) were unexplained. Experts disagreed with the original COD in 40 cases (40.0%). These data suggest that SUDC incidence is higher than the current Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate (ie, 392 deaths in 2018). Conclusions and Relevance: To our knowledge, this is the first comprehensive masked forensic pathology review process of sudden unexpected pediatric deaths, and it suggests that SUDC may often go unrecognized in US death investigations. Some unexpected pediatric deaths may be erroneously attributed to a natural or accidental COD, negatively affecting surveillance, research, public health funding, and medical care of surviving family members. To further address the challenges of accurate and consistent death certification in SUDC, future studies are warranted.