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Autopsy - Notification of Medical Examiner

The attending physician has a legal obligation to notify a death to the Medical Examiner for the following situations:

• Unexplained deaths
• Unexplained deaths when the deceased was in apparent good health
• Deaths as a results of violence, accident or suicide
• Maternal deaths during or following pregnancy and that might reasonably be related to pregnancy
• Deaths that may have occurred as a result of improper or negligent treatment by any person
• Death that occur within 10 days of an operative procedure or while under or recovering from anesthesia
• Deaths that result from poisoning
• Death of a person not under the care of a physician
• Death resulting from a disease, ill health, injury or toxic substance arising from a person’s employment or occupation in the past
• If a person:

1) Dies in custody e.g. in jail, correctional facility or in the custody of a peace officer
2) Dies as a formal patient in any facility under the Mental Health Act whether the deceased is on or off the premises at the time of death. 

• Child welfare - deaths of children in custody of the Director of Welfare e.g. foster children.
• A death is notifiable, however remote it might be in time or place from an incident that could have been the contributing factor leading to that death.
  

REFERENCE: Alberta Fatalities Inquiry Act