"Autopsy" means the external and internal
postmortem examination of a deceased person.
"Cause of death " means the disease or injury
which sets in motion the chain of events which eventually result in the death
of a person. The physician shall consider "but for" this injury or disease the
person would still be living.
"County medical examiner"
or"CME" means a medical or osteopathic physician or surgeon
licensed in the state of Iowa and appointed by the board of supervisors to
serve in this capacity.
"County medical examiner investigator"
or"CME-I" means an individual appointed by a countymedical
examiner, with approval by the board of supervisors and the state medical
examiner, to serve under the supervision of a county medical examiner to assist
in death investigations.
"County of appointment" means the county which
requests a medical examiner to conduct an investigation, perform or order an
autopsy, or prepare a report(s) in a death investigation case. The request may
be authorized by the county attorney or the county medical examiner The county
of appointment shall be the county in which the death occurred.
"Cremation " means the technical process,
using heat and flame, that reduces human remains to bone fragments.
"Day " means calendar day.
"Death " means the condition as described in
Iowa Code section
702.8.
"Death affecting the public interest" means
any death of a human being in which the circumstances are sudden, unexpected,
violent, suspicious, or imattended, including but not limited to those deaths
listed at Iowa Code section
331.802(3) and described as follows:
1. Violent death. Violent death includes
homicide, suicide, or accidental death resulting from physical, mechanical,
thermal, chemical, electrical, or radiation injury. A medical examiner's
investigation and report are required irrespective of the period of survival
following injury.
2. Death caused
by criminal abortion, including self-induced.
3. Death related to disease thought to be
virulent or contagious which may constitute a public hazard. Any such case
investigated by a medical examiner shall be reported to the department and to
the local health authority.
4.
Death that has occurred unexpectedly or from an unexplained cause. This term
includes the following situations:
* Death without prior medical conditions accounting for the
death.
* Apparently instantaneous death without obvious cause.
* Death during or following an unexplained syncope or
coma.
* Death during an unexplained, acute, or rapidly fatal
illness.
5. Death of a
person confined in a prison, jail, or correctional institution.
6. Death of a
person when unattended by a
physician during the period of 36 hours immediately preceding
death.
* This term includes the following situations:
-Persons found dead without obvious or probable cause.
-Death when the person was unattended by a physician during a
terminal illness.
- Fetal death unattended by a physician. A fetal death is a
fetus bom dead after a gestation period of 20 completed weeks or greater or a
fetus which weighs 350 grams or more (Iowa Code section 144.29).
* This term does not include a prediagnosed terminal or bedfast
case in which a physician has been in attendance within 30 days preceding the
death.
* This term does not include a terminally ill patient who was
admitted to and received services from a hospice program as defined in Iowa
Code section
135J.1, if a
physician or registered nurse employed by the program was in attendance within
30 days preceding the death.
7. Death of a person if the body is not
claimed by a relative or friend.
8.
Death of a person if the identity of the deceased is imknown.
9. Death of a child under the age of two
years if
death results from an imknown cause or if the circumstances
surrounding the
death indicate that sudden infant
death syndrome may be the
cause of death.
"Department" means the Iowa department of
public health.
"Deputy county medical examiner"
or"DCME" means an individual appointed by a county medical
examiner, with approval by the board of supervisors and the state medical
examiner, to assist the countymedical examiner in the performance of the county
medical examiner's duties.
"External examination " means a close
inspection of the exterior of a deceased human body for the purpose of
locating, describing, and delineating any and all injuries or other
abnormalities. External examination of a body does not constitute an autopsy,
even if toxicology samples are obtained.
"Fee " means an amount to be paid to a county
medical examiner's office as determined by the board of supervisors of the
countyof appointment for completion of an investigation, autopsy, or report(s).
Fees for services provided by the state medical examiner's office are
established at
641-126.3 (691).
"Form ME-1" means the Preliminary Report of
Investigation by Medical Examiner form.
"FormME-2" means the Medical Examiner
Embalming Certificate form.
"Form ME-3 " means the Permit by Medical
Examiner for Autopsy form.
"FormME-4" means the Preliminary Report of
Child/Infant Death Scene Investigation form.
"Form ME-5 " means the Cremation Permit by
Medical Examiner form.
"FormME-6" means the Iowa State Medical
Examiner's Office Personal Effects form.
"Form ME-7" means the Medication List
form.
"Form ME-8 " means the Body Identification
Record form.
"Manner of death " means the circumstances
under which the cause of death occurred and may be specified as follows:
natural, accident, suicide, homicide, undetermined, or pending.
"Medical care provider" means an individual
licensed or certified in any medical profession, including but not limited to a
physician, physician assistant, nurse, emergency medical care provider,
certified nurse's aide, pharmacist, physical therapist, and medical
technologist.
"Medical examiner" means the state medical
examiner, deputy state medical examiner, countymedical examiner, or deputy
countymedical examiner
