weird passenger question and death of same

[powerboatr]

So
I have been looking and even asked my insurance agent
I am planning a trip to florida in our motorhome
my aged mother in law is planning to ride with us, as a good part of the clan lives in florida so she can see the grand kids, greatgrandkids etc
her health is such that she will not fly and uses O2 at night to aid her breathing.

I dont want to seem cold, but i expect she is only hanging on to see the whole clan and then she may give up the ghost on the return trip.
so other than stopping and calling 911 on the side of the road if she expires, what should I expect?
her funeral stuff is already paid for and we could do her cremation i guess anywhere along the way, I am not particularity fond of carrying her ashes back with us but i guess it would be better than fedexing her back.

i know this sounds morbid, but i have to plan ahead

[jmra]

If it were me, I would keep driving until I reached my destination. If for some reason you were pulled over just say you're headed to the hospital.
I haven't had someone die on me in route, but I did exhume my mother and transport her remains 500 miles in the back of my truck. Of course she had been deceased for 23 yrs.

[mescobar_rpls]

You could always pull a Chevy Chase and tie her to the roof.

Sorry, that was the first thing that came to mind.

[DocV]

How about you ask her what she would want you to do in that situation?

[howdy]

IS she on Hospice care? If you call 911 and she has expired, it is possible they (Police) might call it a crime scene and have to investigate it. It should be a routine thing but some over zealous person might require an autopsy, Etc. I think I remember all deaths in Florida require an autopsy. Cremation can take several days. If an autopsy is performed, you will have to wait for her to be released by the medical examiners office to be cremated. You will end up having her ashes shipped. If you fly to pick up her ashes, then you need to read what the airlines require to transport ashes in the passenger cabin. An airplane ride would be less stressful on her than several hours on the road. I don't know where in Florida you are going and where you live in Texas. If you press on to Texas, they will be able to tell if she died some time ago and that might raise questions. Are you really confused now. Fly her to Florida. If she dies there, then you follow their laws/procedures. If she dies on the flight home, you will at least be home.

[ELB]

How about you ask her what she would want you to do in that situation?

Riffing on this...

I dunno how well your MIL is prepared for her own demise, but one of the things you might want to have with you is a Do Not Resuscitate order if that is her wish, and/or Advanced Health Care Directive. I don't know if either of those done in Texas would be legally sufficient in Florida or any of the enroute states, which is something else you would have to check.

You say her funeral stuff is already paid for, but is that with a specific funeral home or crematorium? The pre-paid plans I am aware of are with specific businesses, so would they even cover anything in another state? You might have to ship her body home in order to benefit from them. I guess if is a national chain, they might have a local mortuary...should check with them. Maybe your insurance guy can help with some kind of coverage for this.

If all else fails, keep a credit card with a lot of unused credit handy....

And I am not so sure these days that flying to Florida is less stressful than driving, especially with the airport folderol that goes on. Also with her apparent respiratory issues, the cabin may be hazardous to her health for a couple reasons. One being that airline cabins are pressurize to the equivalent of about 8,000 feet, which lowers the oxygen level in the blood. Not a big deal for healthy adult, but for someone who already is having breathing issues... And the second being the exposure to viruses and bacteria from so many people crammed together. Great place to get a cold or flu, which would be very bad for her.

By the way, I think it is a noble thing for you to take her to Florida to see her kin, especially if she is feeling mortal. Good luck.

[mikeloc]

I would make sure that I at least have the nra ea+ program. http://www.nraendorsedinsurance.com/cam ... index.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
I don't know what they do in the case of death, but you can call this number tomorrow between 8am and 7pm eastern time 888-310-0909 and find out.
Mike

[Dragonfighter]

IS she on Hospice care? If you call 911 and she has expired, it is possible they (Police) might call it a crime scene and have to investigate it. It should be a routine thing but some over zealous person might require an autopsy, Etc. I think I remember all deaths in Florida require an autopsy.

Not true. My dad had an unwitnessed DBG sudden death and no autopsy was performed. I have had suspicions but he was cremated by his then wife before we got to town.

[jmra]

IS she on Hospice care? If you call 911 and she has expired, it is possible they (Police) might call it a crime scene and have to investigate it. It should be a routine thing but some over zealous person might require an autopsy, Etc. I think I remember all deaths in Florida require an autopsy.

Not true. My dad had an unwitnessed DBG sudden death and no autopsy was performed. I have had suspicions but he was cremated by his then wife before we got to town.

My BIL died of an apparent heart attack (overweight) at the age of 44. No autopsy was performed. Would have been nice because he had been taking fen/Phen. Had there been an autopsy my sisters settlement with the drug maker would have been substantially greater.

[jimlongley]

My late wife was suffering from advanced cancer in multiple places when she passed away. Under hospice care, long term fatal illness, the confirmation of death was done by a visiting hospice nurse, and no autopsy. My kids still seem to think I offed her. Of course since one of her insurance policies expired a couple of weeks before she passed and she didn't have much more, finding a motive is kind of tough. That and the fact that for the last few hours I sat with her in my arms.

I still keep some of her ashes, the rest were parceled out to the various kids and grandkids and dumped in St. Thomas.

I have never had a problem transporting her cremains, and while I worked at Love Field we saw LOTS of people transporting the cremains of their loved one to a final resting place.

[RKirkwood]

My father had his funeral prepaid in PA. I called the funeral home there and questioned what to do since he was living in Texas. They stated all I had to do was call them anytime and they would handle it from there since they had a mutual agreement with other funeral homes. A local one here in Houston picked up my dad and and prepared him to fly back home.

For my mom she wanted to be cremated and we had to wait 24/48 for the permit here in Texas.

[powerboatr]

you folks are great

we have a few goodies
we have the DNR, medical POA and general POA. Plus her will.

I am going to have her doctor write up a list of meds and conditions to have with us if we get in a sticky.

i have coach net on my motorhome and they will help alot with movement of remains

she also has her cremation and services prepaid, I suspect but am waiting on a call that since she purchased it n florida and transferred t it to texas that they will be accommodating and use the professional courtesy thing amongst funeral homes

the easy part is her property, she has very little and she cashed out her life policy a while back and enjoys spending her money on bingo and what nots.
i know if a plan, then she will live longer and that will make all the difference.
like she said, she rather die with us than the other kids and worry about vultures.

we plan to see many sights we miss since we left florida in 04 so maybe it will boost her some what.

thanks folks

[howdy]

IS she on Hospice care? If you call 911 and she has expired, it is possible they (Police) might call it a crime scene and have to investigate it. It should be a routine thing but some over zealous person might require an autopsy, Etc. I think I remember all deaths in Florida require an autopsy.

Not true. My dad had an unwitnessed DBG sudden death and no autopsy was performed. I have had suspicions but he was cremated by his then wife before we got to town.

My BIL died of an apparent heart attack (overweight) at the age of 44. No autopsy was performed. Would have been nice because he had been taking fen/Phen. Had there been an autopsy my sisters settlement with the drug maker would have been substantially greater.

I am trying to figure out what a DBG sudden death is. We use lots of slang in EMS but I have not heard that. I reread the Florida autopsy rules and they are real broad. In the case of your MIL, there probably would not be an autopsy. In Texas, EMS will honor a Texas DNR because it is an order signed by a Physician. We will honor an out of state DNR IF it looks valid. We will not follow advance directives because they are not a Physicians orders. My department will not follow a Medical Power of Attorney because that dies along with the patient. Once we start working a patient, we can't stop if a DNR is then produced. You must have the original or a copy of the DNR. Just telling EMS the patient has one is not valid. The problem we run into with a valid DNR is multiple relatives on scene that have different ideas about the DNR. Some yell for us to "save" their relative and some yell "don't touch" their relative. It can get very dicey on scene and you pray for fast LEO response. We very seldom get called to a patient that has hospice care. Every other Death on Scene requires LE to be called and be on location before we can depart. What happens to the deceased after that is up to LE.

I just transported a relatives ashes from Texas to California on United. The airline will not allow remains in the baggage compartment. All ashes must be transported in the passenger cabin. That means the remains MUST go through security. There is a special travel urn that the xray can see through. If the remains are in an urn that the xray cannot penetrate, then they will not let you past security. The TSA folks are not allowed to open the urn.

Get some good advise before you transport a deceased person across several state lines.(I don't think you are suggesting that) People die all the time away from the place where they made their final arrangements. Her Texas funeral home should have agreements with funeral homes throughout the country.

[jmra]

DBG = Death By Gun?