What is supposed to be mysterious about a 50 year old dying from cardiac arrest?

[RB TexLa]

That happens every day doesn't it?

I hope if I am murdered or have anything "mysterious" about my death no public time or dollars are wasted on an autopsy. I have it in my will that none is to be performed on me no matter how I die. I'm sure that would be ignored if whoever wanted to perform one against my wishes.

[babylonsister]

1. The doc wouldn't sign the death certificate, so an autopsy

had to be performed because of questions regarding how MJ died.

You and me? Maybe not that big a deal. ;)

And the pitchman. He was only 50, too, but 50 is young to die without a history of heart disease. And he hit his head; I guess they wanted to rule out brain trauma.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

2. Sorry to tell you

that your will isn't read until a bit after you're dead, and what you want doesn't mean a hill of beans if the law says differently.

No, I think a death from cardiac arrest of a fifty-year-old man with no previous history of ill health requires an autopsy. Cardiac arrest is a symptom - something caused it, and that's what the coroners are looking for.....................

[RB TexLa]

3. I know, they'll just say they couldn't care what I wanted. How could that matter?

[Tangerine LaBamba]

5. You can try,

including your wishes in a Health Care Power Of Attorney, but, depending on the circumstances, there's never any guarantee against autopsy.

In a lot of jurisdictions, maybe the majority, any unwitnessed death automatically triggers an autopsy......................

[The_Casual_Observer]

4. Apparently there is an enormous insurance claim because of the concert tour

and god knows what else. If they didn't do it now, there would be an exhumation later on.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

6. I keep reading that Jackson

passed a four-hour physical in March. I find that awfully hard to believe, but if it were for an insurance policy, I should think his physical conditions, and various maladies, would have precluded him from getting any kind of coverage.

But, maybe he cleaned himself up in the couple of months before the physical, and got past it, and then lost his tolerance for the high dosages of drugs he'd been accustomed to. That would have left him especially vulnerable to the old dosages, and possibly contributed to his death.

Old junkies who clean up and then go back always screw up and start with their last dosage, and that's why they die.

It's a circus, Jackson's death, and if there's no will - which is now being reported - the circus just got a whole lot more crowded.................................

[virgogal]

7. A dear friend of mine died many years ago on the same day

he had a physical,with no problems.

A massive coronary and 49 years old.

It happens.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

8. A heart attack is different

from cardiac arrest.

Heart attack - like what just killed Billy Mays - is the result of coronary artery disease, or some other pathology.

Cardiac arrest means your heart stops for a reason not having to do with cardiac disease. The coroner said they found no evidence of coronary artery disease, so Jacko didn't have a heart attack.

His heart stopped. And now they have to find out what caused it to stop............................

[supernova]

10. Catwoman posted an article

today that basically said Lupus patients are susceptible to cardiac arrest, so it may have had more to do with his Lupus than with any heart disease, though at 50 it would be typical. But MJ didn't seem like a read meat every day kind of guy.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

12. The autopsy showed no damage,

so that wasn't it.

Autoimmune disorders all carry the possibility of all kinds of organ failure, but they do damage to the organs before death occurs. Oddly enough, the drugs prescribed for a lot of autoimmune disorders carry with them warnings that almost mimic the effects of the disease. Makes you wonder.

I know, because I have one myself .........................

[Individualist]

14. From the American Heart Association...

"The most common underlying reason for patients to die suddenly from cardiac arrest is coronary heart disease."
http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4481

[Tangerine LaBamba]

22. Then it's known as a heart attack -

the heart stops because the disease has damaged the heart.

Again, Jacko's autopsy showed no heart disease, no sign of it at all....................

[virgogal]

16. Thanks for the clarification.

[Taverner]

9. If you are not under constant care by a doctor, there will be an autopsy on you

You could be 200 years old, but if you aren't in a hospital at the time of death (this includes in home care, old folk's homes, etc) - they will do an autopsy on you.

[RB TexLa]

11. I know what the person actually wanted means nothing to them.

Hopefully my friends that are lawyers won't die before me and can at least try.

[anigbrowl]

21. Autopsies are required by law in some circumstances

I share your lack of enthusiasm for the whole thing, but if you turn up dead for no obvious reason then most jurisdictions require that your body be examined for cause of death. Life would be waaaaay too easy for a lot of murderers and incompetents otherwise.

[RobinA]

13. At Home Misadventures

tend to get autopsied. My friend's mother, in her 70's and a known alcoholic fell down the steps in a stupor, cracked her head on a planter, and was never heard from again. Blood alcohol was .25. Investigation and autopsy. Just because you are analcoholic doesn't mean you weren't murdered.

[dmallind]

28. But just because you were at 0.25 BAC doesn't either does it?

[Mz Pip]

15. My Dad died at 53

of a heart attack and he had no "history" of heart disease. Sometimes the first one kills you.

And my Dad didn't have multiple surgeries, or a history of significant drug usage. All that stuff puts a stress on the body.

A friend of mine from high school died at 47 of a heart attack. He was fine the day before. It happens. Probably more often than one would think.

[madrchsod]

17. yes it does..

i had as heart attack at 55. i had`t smoked or drank for years and had a healthy diet. one day a blood vessel unraveled and artery became blocked causing a heart attack. my wife drove me to the hospital which is a mile away. if she would`t have been home i would be dead.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

23. Wow!

You really should have played the lottery that day.

I'm glad you're all right.............

[madrchsod]

26. what happened to me is extremely rare and ....

most of the reported cases are pregnant women! i ended up with two small vessels that were damaged.

thanks....

[Happyhippychick]

18. It's not always possible to know it was a cardiac arrest unless you do the autopsy.

I sure wish my husband's father had had an autopsy when he died at 39. We assume it was a heart attack but what if it was a stroke? Or an anyeurism? The information would be nice for the survivors to have because there is a connection between genetics and disease, it would help my husband protect himself if he knew.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

24. My friend's husband

died suddenly, but he had a long history of heart disease.

He died in the hospital, so an autopsy was not legally required. They still asked my friend if she would allow one, and she, in her grief, said "No."

Later, because she has daughters and grandchildren - and, later, great-grandchildren - she mightily regretted her decision, because she kept her kids from knowing exactly what was wrong with their father, and what they had to be aware of................

[UTUSN]

19. Well, most of us aren't hopping up and down, OR plugging drugs, OR sexually hyperventillating n/t

[Tangerine LaBamba]

25. Speak for yourself.......

Some of us just like to have fun...............

[rucky]

20. Even if there's no mystery surrounding his death...

there'll be mystery surrounding his death.

We need a cash prize for the most ridiculous theory.

[comrade snarky]

27. After you're dead, sometimes it's not about you anymore

If there are circumstances around your death that will normally trigger an autopsy. Possible murder being definitely one of them. In that case your wishes are trumped by the need to find a murderer before another person in killed.