Of the more than 160,000 deaths per year in the Netherlands, an autopsy is performed on approximately 3,000, of which only 250 to 300 are judicial autopsies. Which means that we don’t know exactly what the cause of death is for 98 percent. If someone is found dead at home and there are no indications of a crime, we ‘invent’ a cause of death. A cause that is completely wrong in more than 20 percent of cases, according to various studies. At the request of next of kin, the NFO has already performed many autopsies, in which the cause of death turned out to be incorrect in several cases or other very valuable information was missed.
Heart disease the number 1 cause of death? Not according to the NFO and colleague Frank van de Goot. Based on our experience, we would say: infectious diseases. People have bad hearts, but die from a virus. A number of practical examples: People were examined who died of Creutzfeldt-Jakob and mumps. You will not find those diseases on a cause of death form. In the week that it became known that the number of men with lung cancer was falling, postmortem lung cancer was discovered in three men, without a diagnosis being made.
The cabinet wants to reduce the number of road deaths to zero by 2030. All kinds of road safety measures are being taken to achieve this. Policies are made based on statistics. Why not investigate all those road deaths? You can make a road safer, but that doesn’t prevent someone with a heart attack from driving into the crash barrier.
The NFO looks with surprise at campaigns that state that the number of suicides in the Netherlands has never been so high. No, the number of people diagnosed with suicide has never been so high. In recent years, dozens of people have been investigated who had wrongly been labeled suicide. Another case study from not long ago: a young lady, depressed, dead in bed. Empty pill sets next to it. One and one is three: suicide. The family was convinced that this could not be true, and requested an autopsy. The body was examined by Frank van de Goot, and guess what? Died of a cerebral hemorrhage.
The health insurance should not stop at death, but should continue until the funeral. That pays for itself twice over. We can learn so much from the dead. For example, what an expensive cancer therapy has really done to tumors. We can detect a hereditary heart defect, which allows us to screen brothers, sisters and children and perhaps already place a pacemaker. And for relatives it is a huge relief when they hear that the ‘suicide’ of their loved one turned out to be a natural death.
Relatives can contact the NFO for an autopsy and all questions regarding the death of their loved one. Feel free to contact us with questions 035-820 0347 / [email protected]