Number of corpses discovered at home rises 70pc over pandemic
THE number of people not found “for weeks” after being left to die at home rose dramatically during the Covid pandemic, the first study of its kind has shown.
Cases of bodies found markedly decomposed after the UK went into lockdown on March 23 2020 increased by 70 per cent on the year before.
In every case, the deceased lived alone, found the study by pathologists at Imperial College Healthcare Trust that was published in the journal Clinical Pathology.
Some of the deaths that occurred in private dwellings during the pandemic would have normally occurred in hospital, the authors concluded. But had some of the patients been in hospital it is possible “they would not have died at all”, they added.
Post mortems were carried out on severely decomposed bodies, so families may not have learnt vital information about their loved ones’ deaths, the authors said, and such details might include whether they had a genetically transmitted disease they might pass on to relatives, cancer or may even have died in suspicious circumstances.
The authors said they hoped the findings would provoke discussion around palliative care at home in England and cases of people dying alone during the pandemic “that may have been preventable”.
Their findings come as official figures reveal that there have been more than 75,000 excess deaths in private homes in England and Wales since the start of the pandemic, raising questions about the quality of end-of-life care.
Charities have said the new research, which revisited some 260 post mortems held in London, “clearly shows a system failing people when they are most in need”.
“This excess in severe decomposition following death is generally a sign of the body not being found for a long time, in excess of at least a week,” study coauthor Dr Theodore Estrin-serlui, a trainee pathologist, told The Daily Telegraph.
During the pandemic many people stayed away from the health service or found it more difficult to access treatment.
In conclusion, study’s the authors said it was possible to consider that “if these people had been in hospital … they would not have died at all, if their condition/illness was readily treatable”.
The researchers analysed 159 post mortems carried out between March 2019 and 2020 and found fewer than one in six (26, 16.4 per cent) of the deaths showed marked decomposition.
Analysis of 104 post mortems carried out between March 2020 and March 2021 revealed that more than a quarter (29, or 27.9 per cent) showed marked decomposition – a 70 per cent increase on the previous year.
There were 38 per cent more deaths at home in the 2020-21 cohort and the frequency of severe decomposition in these deaths was up by almost a fifth (19 per cent), but the researchers said this was not statistically significant.
Dr Sam Royston, end-of-life charity Marie Curie’s director of policy and research, said: “The pandemic has been a stress test for how well our health and care system works for people dying at home. This clearly shows a system failing people when they are most in need.”
Three-quarters of carers whose loved ones died at home during the pandemic said they had missed out on care, according to the charity’s research.
“This means that people have died in pain, they have lacked care overnight and not had their symptoms fully managed.
“It means that families were left to struggle alone and now our own bereavement services are seeing the impact of this – supporting people who are showing signs of trauma,” he said.
Dr Estrin-serlui said the study’s value was limited by the fact that the majority of in-hospital Covid deaths did not require a post mortem. “But it still highlights the fact that of the people dying at home, a lot were alone, and a lot were not being found for a long time,” he said.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman offered their “deepest condolences” to anyone affected by loss during the pandemic.
They said: “We are incredibly grateful to NHS staff, including district and community nurses and volunteers, who have worked tirelessly throughout the pandemic to deliver palliative and end of life care to people at the most difficult time of their lives.”