Table 6.

Summary Table of Findings by Cause of Death (COD).

	Septic COD 24 (64%)	Non-septic COD 14 (37%)
Type of autopsy examination
Hospital (pre-/post-2010)	2/0	2/2
Coroner (pre-/post-2010)	19/3	6/4
Terminal events
Found unresponsive at home	3	2
Witnessed sudden collapse at home or in ambulance	7	1
Reached hospital	14	11
Died ≤1 day of admission	13	8
Died >1 day of admission	1	3
Terminal clinical assessment—
Signs or diagnosis of sepsis	14
Seizure and other CNS symptoms		6
Respiratory distress		4
Features suggestive of viral gastroenteritis		1
Premortem cultures
Positive	11 a	10
Negative	1
Premortem antibiotic therapy	6	9
Postmortem findings
Stigmata of sepsis	24
Tissue or organ inflammation	12	14
Postmortem cultures
PMBC (n = 35)
Pure growth	15	2
Sterile	6	5
Contamination	3	4
PMLC (n = 34)
Pure growth	9	4 d
Sterile	1	2
Contamination	13 b	5 e
Postmortem CSF (n = 15)
Pure growth	2	2 f
Sterile	7 c	3 f
Contamination	1	0

Septic category included deaths due to sepsis (n = 12) and sepsis with underlying pneumonia (n = 6), meningitis (n = 2), lung abscess (n = 1), ruptured retrocecal appendicitis with abscess formation (n = 1), large cavitating abscess of the right side of the neck with septic emboli in both lungs (n = 1) and acute purulent peritonitis (n = 1). Non-septic category included deaths due to pneumonia (n = 7), meningitis (n = 6), and diffuse purulent peritonitis (n = 1).

Abbreviations: PMBC, postmortem blood culture; PMLC, postmortem lung culture; CSF, Cerebrospinal fluid.

^aIncluded three blood samples taken at time of resuscitation.

^bIncluded deaths due to sepsis with underlying pneumonia (n = 2).

^csepsis with underlying meningitis (n = 1).

^dpneumonia (n = 4).

^epneumonia (n = 3).

^fmeningitis (n = 2).