Unexplained sudden death is often recorded by the coroner as due to ‘natural causes’. Experts believe that most of these tragedies are due to sudden cardiac death. In 2008 CRY’s fundraisers facilitated the establishment of the CRY Centre for Cardiac Pathology (CRY CCP) – a centre of excellence for a fast-track expert cardiac pathology service for bereaved families. The CRY CCP was originally based at the Royal Brompton Hospital in London and is currently based at St George’s Hospital, Tooting.
CRY provides this service, funding the cost of coroners’ referrals, so that families no longer have the ordeal of a protracted wait for the cause of death of their child or partner.
Specialist cardiac pathology at the CRY Centre for Cardiac Pathology is free of charge when the cause of death is unascertained, and the person is aged 35 years or under.
Examination / report – we aim to issue this to the coroner within 2 weeks of receiving the specimen.
The coroner should then pass this information onto the family and GP without delay.
Please call us on 01737 363222 if you have suffered a bereavement due to a young sudden cardiac death. Information about our bereavement support can be found on our main website here.