Death certificate query

[Megan Roberts]

On 14th Sept 1949 a relative died of pulmonary TB at a hospital in Cardiff aged 61. On the certificate it says:

"Certificate received from Gerald Tudor, Coroner for City of Cardiff. Inquest held 16the Sept 1949"

My question is why would there be an inquest for somebody killed by TB who died in hospital?

[Lesley Robertson]

Megan, had he been a patient for a while, or rushed in at the last moment? It's possible that they didn't know at the time of death.. I'm wondering if, like many back then, he had a smoker's cough that he didn't take seriously... Was he living with anyone else who caught it?

[Megan Roberts]

Unfortunately I don't know.

Until I took advantage of the extension of the digital images, I assumed that he died at home in Newport and not in Cardiff.

He was invalided out of WW1 from Gallipoli, and again I assumed that it was something related to that.

Just goes to show we should always remember to not assume.

[Pam Downes]

I know one of the reasons for an inquest is "if a doctor did not see or treat the person for the condition from which they died within 28 days of death" so he may have been in hospital because he'd had a heart attack, but it wasn't the heart attack that killed him.
Do an internet search along the lines of 'why is an inquest held after a death'.

[Pam Downes]

Also, is/was (pulmonary) TB a 'notifiable disease' because I think those sort of deaths are the subject of an inquest.

[Lesley Robertson]

You could be right about WW1 lung damage - it could have encouraged but masked the TB.

[pat fowles]

My Grandfather died from TB according to his death cert. However my Nana always said he'd been 'gassed' in WW1 (presumably Mustard gas). I've always wondered if it was that that killed him and not actually TB.