A complete step by step guide, what to do if someone died.
No matter if a death is expected or not, the loss of a loved one is always overwhelming, especially if you are responsible for handling funeral arrangements. This guide will help you to understand what needs to do if your loved one died.
The first step that you need to take is getting a legal pronouncement of death. There could be several scenarios.
- If death occurs in a hospital or nursing home, the staff of the care facility will notify all necessary authorities immediately after death occurs. A hospital social worker will help you make some decisions, such as autopsy, organ donations, etc. Also, he will be able to help you choose a local funeral home; there are no territorial restrictions, you free to choose any funeral home.
- If death occurs at home and a person died unexpectedly call 911emedeiatly to report the death. Police and emergency medical providers will determine the next steps.
- If death occurs at home and is expected, call your doctor to inform him about the death. If you can't reach the doctor, call the police and tell them that death was expected.
The next step that you should do right after you got a legal pronouncement of death is to call a funeral home.
The funeral director will help you to obtain a death certificate and transport the body. If pre-planning were not done, the funeral director would help you to arrange the funeral service and choose a casket or urn. Checking reviews and prices for a few different funeral homes could be the right decision for you. The funeral prices could vary widely, from $4000 to tens of thousands of dollars, depend on the services you chose. A casket could be the most expensive item to be purchased for a funeral. The average price of the casket can vary from $1000 to $5000. Some of the caskets models can be made of copper and bronze and costs for those caskets can be up to $10000. You can save a decent amount of money by buying the casket online from a third-party supplier such as a Trustedcaskets.com
According to Federal Trade Commission’s Funeral Rule (https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0300-ftc-funeral-rule), to encourage fair trade and protection for the consumers, the funeral homes have no choice but to accept any casket, the urn or any other accessory you chose, whether from a third-party vendor or not.
The next necessary steps to take care of are
- Let your relatives and close friends know about the person's death;
- Notify the employer if the person was employed;
- Arrange care of dependents and pets if the person was responsible for any of them;
- Take care of the person's property: lock all doors and notify the landlord.
- Take care of social media accounts if a person had them.
Of course, the best way to avoid much of the anxiety is by pre-planning the final arrangements. It's a great idea to have family discussions about last wishes, especially if death is expected so that everyone knows what the loved one would prefer. It also helps reduce uncertainty and fear of making a decision that goes against what the loved one would have wanted.
Blog Author: Tim