• Get a legal pronouncement of death. If no doctor is present, you'll need to contact someone to do this:

  • If the person dies at home under hospice care, call the hospice nurse, who can declare the death and help facilitate the transport of the body.

  • If the person dies at home without hospice care, call 911, and have in hand a do-not-resuscitate document if it exists. Without one, paramedics will generally start emergency procedures and, except where permitted to pronounce death, take the person to an emergency room for a doctor to make the declaration.

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• Contact organ donor/body donor agencies, if applicable

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• Arrange for transportation of the body. If no autopsy is needed, the body can be picked up by a Medical Examiner (by law, a mortuary must provide price info over the phone) or funeral home or crematorium.

  • Click here for funeral home and crematorium resources

  • Notify the person's doctor or the Medical Examiner

  • Notify close family and friends. (Ask some to contact others.) Handle care of dependents and pets.

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• Call the person's employer, if he or she was working. Request info about benefits and any pay due. Ask whether there was a life-insurance policy through the company.

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• The funeral home will require certain information. This form      (Courtesy of Austin Peel & Son Funeral) shows the kind of informations required.

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• Schedule Bhajans (Families’ wish)

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• Please check with Social Security for funeral cost reimbursement