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6 years PCA, metastised only to pelvis, yet mentioned on death certificate.

User
Posted 04 Jan 2022 at 15:04

My 89 year-old mate died over Christmas in hospital of pneumonia. He had had a cough for some weeks, but the silly old bugger wouldn’t go to the doctor until nearly the end.

He had had PCa for five or six years, which was controlled via various hormone therapies, and although the disease was very slow growing, it had only metastasised to his pelvis, and thus to his hip. He could walk without a stick.

So I was somewhat surprised to see the pathologist had put “Pneumonia, and metastatic prostate cancer” on his death certificate.

I took him to all his medical consultations, and there was never any mention of metastasis outside his pelvis, which in itself is not life threatening.

Surprised they never managed to squeeze Covid onto the certificate!

Cheers, John.

User
Posted 04 Jan 2022 at 15:11
This is standard practice and in line with the national guidance to doctors on how to complete a death certificate.
"Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards." Soren Kierkegaard

User
Posted 04 Jan 2022 at 16:28
Sorry about the loss of your mate, John. So he'll feature in the prostate cancer death stats even though he died with PCa rather than from it? That seems a bit wrong, doesn't it?

Cheers,

Chris

 
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