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What to do when someone dies

Almost nothing has to be decided today. Four things do, and the rest of the first day is mostly waiting, telling people and keeping a house running. This is the order those four things happen in, and what everybody else can be told to hold on.

Written by Raphael Hertz, licensed life insurance agentUpdated 1 September 2026Editorial standards

The first call depends on where the death happened

There is one right first call and it is different in each of four situations. Getting this one right saves a great deal of confusion, because the wrong call brings the wrong people to the door.

Where the death happened	Who to call first	What happens next
Hospital, nursing home or care facility	Nobody. The staff have already begun	A doctor or authorised nurse pronounces, the facility notifies you, and it will ask which funeral home to release the person to.
At home, under hospice care	The hospice number, not 911	A hospice nurse attends, pronounces the death, and handles the medication disposal and the notifications. This is exactly what the hospice line exists for, at any hour.
At home, expected but no hospice	The attending physician, then 911 if you cannot reach one	A physician who has been treating the person can usually certify the death. Without one, it becomes a case for the medical examiner.
Unexpected, sudden or unattended anywhere	911	Emergency services attend. If the death is not obviously imminent they may attempt resuscitation unless a valid do not resuscitate order is physically present.

If there is a do not resuscitate order, an out of hospital DNR form or a POLST, find the paper copy and have it in your hand when anybody arrives. A copy on a phone or a wish described verbally is not always enough. Paramedics are obliged to act on what they can see.

Pronouncement, and why nothing moves before it

A death has to be formally pronounced by somebody with legal authority to do it, which in most states means a physician, a nurse practitioner, a hospice nurse acting under a standing order, or the medical examiner. Until that has happened, no funeral home may collect the person, no death certificate can begin, and no bank, insurer or registry will act on anything.

Pronouncement is not the same as certification. Pronouncing records the time of death. Certifying records the cause, and that is completed afterwards by the attending physician or by the medical examiner, then filed with the local registrar. That second step is what produces the document everybody will ask you for. How the death certificate is filed covers the timing in full.

In a home death, expect to wait. An hour or two is normal and is not a sign anything has gone wrong. Sit with the person if you want to. There is no rule against it and many families are glad afterwards that they did.

Who moves the person

A licensed funeral home or a removal service moves the person, and only after pronouncement and, where the medical examiner has jurisdiction, after release. You do not need to have chosen a funeral home for the funeral in order to choose one for the collection. You may ask a hospital or a hospice to hold the person while you make calls, and most will, though a hospital morgue sometimes charges a daily fee after a set number of days.

This matters because the collection is the moment families most often get locked in. The firm that collects tends to become the firm that arranges everything, and the price is rarely discussed at three in the morning. You are entitled to move the person to another provider afterwards. It costs a second transfer fee, so the cleaner route is to make two or three calls before you authorise the first collection where the situation allows it.

In a small number of states a family may transport and care for their own dead without a funeral director. It is legal, it is more work than it sounds, and it is genuinely right for some families. The Funeral Consumers Alliance keeps state by state guidance on it.

When the medical examiner takes over

The medical examiner or coroner takes jurisdiction when a death is sudden, unattended, violent, suspicious, work related, the result of an accident or an overdose, occurs in custody, or occurs when no physician can certify a cause. In those cases the family does not decide what happens next for a period, and that is not negotiable.

An examiner case usually means the person is taken to the county facility, an examination or an autopsy may follow, and the release comes when the office is satisfied. Most releases happen within a day or two. Where toxicology is needed the cause of death can stay pending for weeks or months, and the certificate is issued with the cause marked pending and amended later. A pending certificate is still enough for most purposes, including releasing the person for burial or cremation.

If a cremation is planned, expect an extra sign off. Cremation is irreversible, so many counties require the examiner to review and authorise it separately, sometimes for a fee.

Organ and tissue donation is time critical

This is the only item on the first day that genuinely cannot wait. Organ donation for transplant is possible only in a narrow set of circumstances, generally a death in hospital with circulation being maintained, and the window is measured in hours. Tissue and cornea donation has a longer window, commonly up to about a day, and is possible after many more kinds of death.

In practice the hospital contacts the regional organ procurement organisation itself, which is required of it. If the death happened at home and the person had registered as a donor, say so to whoever attends. Whole body donation to a medical school is an entirely separate route with its own paperwork and its own timing, set out in whole body donation to medical science.

The first 24 hours, in order

Make the right first call from the table above, and have the DNR paper in your hand if there is one.
Let the death be pronounced. Note the time somebody gives you. You will be asked for it more than once.
Mention donation if the person was registered, or if the family knows it was wanted.
Call the two or three people who should not hear it from anybody else. Then ask one of them to make the rest of the calls for you. People want a job and this is the most useful one.
Look for a prepaid contract or written wishes before you engage anybody. A preneed plan, a cemetery deed, a will or a letter of instruction changes what you are about to arrange. Check the bedside drawer, the file box and the safe deposit key.
Arrange collection. Ring more than one provider if the situation allows it. Under the Funeral Rule they must quote prices on the phone without taking your name.
Secure the house. Lock it, take in the mail, move medications out of reach and take any cash or jewellery somewhere safe.
Take the pets. Somebody has to, and it is easier arranged today than in three days.
Write down what people offer. Half of it you will want next week and by then you will not remember who said it.

Who to tell on the first day

Close family and the few friends who would be hurt to hear it second hand. The employer, if the person was working, because pay, benefits and any group life cover start from that call. The person who holds the power of attorney or is named executor, since that role begins now. A landlord or care facility, so nobody starts a clock without telling you.

Almost everything else waits. Banks, pensions, insurers, the Social Security Administration and the various registries all want a certified death certificate, and you will not have one for several days. The funeral director normally reports the death to Social Security as part of filing, though that report is not the same as claiming anything. The Social Security death payment and survivor benefits explains what still has to be applied for by hand.

The house, the pets and the paperwork

Do not begin clearing the house. Do not sell or give away anything, however obvious it seems, until you know whether there is a will and who is entitled to act. Emptying a house before probate is the single most common way families create a legal problem out of a practical one.

Do collect documents into one place as you find them, because you will need them repeatedly over the next month. Our funeral planning checklist lists exactly which ones and who asks for each.

What not to rush

Choosing the funeral home for the service itself, choosing a casket, choosing a cemetery, writing the obituary, setting a date and signing anything. Every one of those can be decided tomorrow or the day after, and every one of them is decided better after a night of sleep and a second opinion in the room.

The cost of deciding these under pressure is real and measurable. A funeral with a viewing and a burial runs a median of $8,300 at the funeral home before the cemetery has billed anything at all, and the gap between the cheapest and dearest provider in one town is routinely thousands of dollars for identical work. That gap is only visible to a family that made three calls, and three calls take an afternoon. How to compare three funeral homes properly sets out what to ask.

You are also entitled to take the person into your own hands more than you probably think. You can decline embalming where there is no public viewing. You can supply a casket bought elsewhere. You can hold the service anywhere at all. None of that has to be settled today.

If the money has to come from somewhere today

Funeral homes want paying before the service, and a life insurance claim usually settles in weeks rather than days. A small policy written for funeral costs is the one thing that reliably pays in time. It is worth a short conversation now if the person who died had no cover and somebody else in the family also has none.

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Common questions

Who do you call first when someone dies at home?

If the person was on hospice, call the hospice number rather than 911, at any hour. A hospice nurse can pronounce the death and will handle the notifications and the medication disposal. If there was no hospice but a physician was treating them, call that physician. If the death was sudden, unexpected or unattended, call 911 and have any do not resuscitate paperwork physically in your hand when they arrive.

What happens if you call 911 for an expected death at home?

Emergency services attend and, unless a valid do not resuscitate order is physically present, they may be obliged to attempt resuscitation and transport. That is why a hospice patient should go through the hospice line instead, and why the paper DNR or POLST form needs to be somewhere you can find it in the dark.

How long can a body stay at home after death?

Longer than most families expect. There is no national rule requiring immediate removal, and a few hours is entirely normal while relatives arrive. Some states allow a family to keep and care for the person at home for a period, with refrigeration or cooling. The practical limits are the condition of the body and any facility policy where the death did not occur at home.

Who is allowed to move the body?

A licensed funeral home or a licensed removal service, and only after the death has been pronounced and, in a medical examiner case, after the office releases the person. A handful of states also allow a family to transport their own dead without a funeral director, with the right permits.

Do you have to choose a funeral home right away?

You have to choose somebody to collect the person, which is not the same decision. A hospital or hospice will usually hold them while you make calls, and you can move the person to a different provider afterwards for the cost of a second transfer. Where the situation allows it, ring two or three firms before authorising the first collection.

What is the difference between pronouncing and certifying a death?

Pronouncing records the fact and the time of death and is done at the bedside by a physician, a nurse practitioner, an authorised hospice nurse or the medical examiner. Certifying records the medical cause and is completed afterwards, then filed with the local registrar. The certified death certificate that banks and insurers ask for comes from that second step.

Why would the medical examiner take the body?

Because the death was sudden, unattended, violent, suspicious, work related, accidental, an overdose, in custody, or because no physician is able to certify a cause. The office decides whether an examination or an autopsy is needed and releases the person afterwards, usually within a day or two.

Can you still donate organs if the person died at home?

Organ donation for transplant is generally only possible after a death in hospital where circulation is being maintained, so a home death rarely allows it. Tissue and cornea donation has a longer window and is possible after many more kinds of death, so it is still worth telling whoever attends that the person was a registered donor. Whole body donation to a medical school is a separate route with its own paperwork.