Coroner, mortuaries experience busy post-Christmas season

Death takes no holiday.

But the Clark County coroner and mortuaries in Las Vegas and nationwide get real busy in January, especially during the first weeks following the Christmas holiday.

The coroner's office had a busy New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, receiving 56 reports of local deaths, 27 of which the agency had to investigate because they were not from natural causes, Coroner Ron Flud said.

A normal Friday and Saturday produces about 40 such reports. And, Flud said, far fewer than 27 have to be investigated by his staff of medical examiners via autopsies.

Palm Mortuary Vice President Ned Phillips said that for at least the last three years January has been by a wide margin the busiest month for his company.

One theory, shared by funeral directors and coroners alike, is that some very ill people literally will themselves to live through Christmas, resulting in a higher than normal death rate for January.

While a number of experts say that theory has some merit, you will be hard pressed to find one who says it is a rock-solid fact.

"Based on my experience of talking with numerous funeral directors across the country I can say yes there is a belief that that happens, but I know of no scientific study that proves it," said Kelly Smith, spokesman for the National Funeral Directors Association in Brookfield, Wis., which represents 14,000 funeral directors nationwide.

"I also wonder if the inverse is true -- that people who are very sick in November will themselves to die before the holidays."

Phillips said his statistics indicate they hang on longer rather than let go early.

"I can't be presumptuous to say that people will themselves to live through the Christmas season, but historically January has been a higher month for deaths than others," he said.

Palm Mortuary records show that last year final arrangements were made for 20 percent more people in January than the average month in the rest of the year. In 1998 that figure was 39 percent more deaths for January and in 1997 it was 30 percent more, Phillips said.

"There are plenty of theories for this, but none that can be substantiated," Phillips said.

Flud does not argue with the theory that the human body can stave off death at least for a little while.

"You are talking about the mind, and the mind can be very powerful," Flud said. "I believe there may be something to that theory, but I have never seen any scientific studies" to back it up.

Last year Flud's office investigated a high number of deaths -- 7,201 -- about a 6 percent increase over the 6,800 deaths his office investigated in 1998. However, during that period Southern Nevada's 1.3 million population also grew an estimated 6 percent, so one statistic just kept pace with the other.

In the last week there may have been an added incentive for ailing people to live past Dec. 31. Those who made it died in a different century -- and a different millennium -- than the one in which they were born.

archive