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Dying Alone & Loners' Unnoticed Deaths

Yes, thats what caught my eye.

The rest looks both dull and sordid.
 
Why are so many bodies in Britain found in a decomposed state?

GRAHAME GIDDINGS was born on Valentine’s Day in 1952. Nobody knows when he died. He had not been seen in weeks when police forced their way into his north London home on December 28th 2023. Unopened post was piled high on his doormat. His body was decomposing on the bedroom floor.

Giddings’s sad fate is becoming increasingly common. In a recent study in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, the authors looked at records of deaths for which pathologists were unable to determine a cause during an autopsy (coded as “unascertained”). In the vast majority of cases, including Giddings’s, this is usually because a body is too decomposed to examine properly. Their research suggests that the number of unascertained deaths in England and Wales increased five-fold between 1992 and 2022, even as overall mortality rates were falling.

Yet these figures only account for the most extreme cases of decomposition, notes Theodore Estrin-Serlui, a pathologist in London and one of the paper’s authors. He estimates that 8,000-9,000 people were found in an advanced state of decomposition in 2022. Frequency of decomposition, he suggests, can be used as a proxy for social isolation.

The theory seems plausible. In 2021 30% of all households contained only one person, compared with 17% in 1971. Rates of unascertained deaths tripled among British males over 60 between 1990 and 2010, the largest increase, at a time when the fastest-growing group of people living alone were middle-aged men. Family breakdowns, rising separation rates and changing social norms have pushed more people to live alone. People may not know who their neighbours are. In central London residents often live stacked in flats, in close physical proximity to one another but with little social contact. There, rates of decomposition at home are twice as high as in suburban Hertfordshire.

In the age of individualism and the internet, it is also far easier to completely withdraw from society.

https://apple.news/AhGVsJUflQYeaVKMMnV39Gw

maximus otter
 
^ Incredibly sad. I suspect it won't be long before a single person household will be more common than multiple occupancy. Changing social norms leave a significant minority isolated particularly the retired and very elderly.
 
maximus otter said:
Why are so many bodies in Britain found in a decomposed state?

GRAHAME GIDDINGS was born on Valentine’s Day in 1952. Nobody knows when he died. He had not been seen in weeks when police forced their way into his north London home on December 28th 2023. Unopened post was piled high on his doormat. His body was decomposing on the bedroom floor.

Giddings’s sad fate is becoming increasingly common. In a recent study in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, the authors looked at records of deaths for which pathologists were unable to determine a cause during an autopsy (coded as “unascertained”). In the vast majority of cases, including Giddings’s, this is usually because a body is too decomposed to examine properly. Their research suggests that the number of unascertained deaths in England and Wales increased five-fold between 1992 and 2022, even as overall mortality rates were falling.

Yet these figures only account for the most extreme cases of decomposition, notes Theodore Estrin-Serlui, a pathologist in London and one of the paper’s authors. He estimates that 8,000-9,000 people were found in an advanced state of decomposition in 2022. Frequency of decomposition, he suggests, can be used as a proxy for social isolation.

The theory seems plausible. In 2021 30% of all households contained only one person, compared with 17% in 1971. Rates of unascertained deaths tripled among British males over 60 between 1990 and 2010, the largest increase, at a time when the fastest-growing group of people living alone were middle-aged men. Family breakdowns, rising separation rates and changing social norms have pushed more people to live alone. People may not know who their neighbours are. In central London residents often live stacked in flats, in close physical proximity to one another but with little social contact. There, rates of decomposition at home are twice as high as in suburban Hertfordshire.

In the age of individualism and the internet, it is also far easier to completely withdraw from society.

https://apple.news/AhGVsJUflQYeaVKMMnV39Gw

maximus otter
Click to expand...
If any of us goes Silent, I'm sure the rest of the forum will kick down the door to see if everything is okay.



And pinch any books that look interesting...
 
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maximus otter said:
Why are so many bodies in Britain found in a decomposed state?

GRAHAME GIDDINGS was born on Valentine’s Day in 1952. Nobody knows when he died. He had not been seen in weeks when police forced their way into his north London home on December 28th 2023. Unopened post was piled high on his doormat. His body was decomposing on the bedroom floor.

Giddings’s sad fate is becoming increasingly common. In a recent study in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, the authors looked at records of deaths for which pathologists were unable to determine a cause during an autopsy (coded as “unascertained”). In the vast majority of cases, including Giddings’s, this is usually because a body is too decomposed to examine properly. Their research suggests that the number of unascertained deaths in England and Wales increased five-fold between 1992 and 2022, even as overall mortality rates were falling.

Yet these figures only account for the most extreme cases of decomposition, notes Theodore Estrin-Serlui, a pathologist in London and one of the paper’s authors. He estimates that 8,000-9,000 people were found in an advanced state of decomposition in 2022. Frequency of decomposition, he suggests, can be used as a proxy for social isolation.

The theory seems plausible. In 2021 30% of all households contained only one person, compared with 17% in 1971. Rates of unascertained deaths tripled among British males over 60 between 1990 and 2010, the largest increase, at a time when the fastest-growing group of people living alone were middle-aged men. Family breakdowns, rising separation rates and changing social norms have pushed more people to live alone. People may not know who their neighbours are. In central London residents often live stacked in flats, in close physical proximity to one another but with little social contact. There, rates of decomposition at home are twice as high as in suburban Hertfordshire.

In the age of individualism and the internet, it is also far easier to completely withdraw from society.

https://apple.news/AhGVsJUflQYeaVKMMnV39Gw

maximus otter
Click to expand...
This has happened twice in the town I live in the last ten years. The first man lived in a flat at the ground floor, he was slightly disabled in that he used a shopping trolley as a zimmer frame. Now and then I'd pop round to visit because he was good company. I remember one Christmas knocking on his door a few times with a mince pie and a sherry. I didn't know at the time but he was lying dead just on the other side of his front door and decomposing. His Sister had called the police because she hadn't heard from him in months. Another unpleasant factor of this was ...

.. we all worked out that the main reasons no one missed him were because there were very few people living in the building at the time, I was the only neighbour who visited him and he'd sometimes stay with his Dad so I'd assumed that's where he was but also a young couple had moved in with their new baby and the smell that came out of the bin liners full of used nappies that they'd leave in a bin room on the ground floor was so eye wateringly bad, it was actually masking the smell of this poor man decaying. Me and my flatmate used to have to put Vicks on our top lips just to be able to walk the bin room.
The second man, I've already mentioned on this forum who was a fella that loads of people swear I knew. I've only heard anecdotal stories about his discovery by three people I know.
I've been told his body was going blue and the smell was bad enough to make two of them to run outside to be ill.
 
maximus otter said:
Why are so many bodies in Britain found in a decomposed state?

GRAHAME GIDDINGS was born on Valentine’s Day in 1952. Nobody knows when he died. He had not been seen in weeks when police forced their way into his north London home on December 28th 2023. Unopened post was piled high on his doormat. His body was decomposing on the bedroom floor.

Giddings’s sad fate is becoming increasingly common. In a recent study in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, the authors looked at records of deaths for which pathologists were unable to determine a cause during an autopsy (coded as “unascertained”). In the vast majority of cases, including Giddings’s, this is usually because a body is too decomposed to examine properly. Their research suggests that the number of unascertained deaths in England and Wales increased five-fold between 1992 and 2022, even as overall mortality rates were falling.

Yet these figures only account for the most extreme cases of decomposition, notes Theodore Estrin-Serlui, a pathologist in London and one of the paper’s authors. He estimates that 8,000-9,000 people were found in an advanced state of decomposition in 2022. Frequency of decomposition, he suggests, can be used as a proxy for social isolation.

The theory seems plausible. In 2021 30% of all households contained only one person, compared with 17% in 1971. Rates of unascertained deaths tripled among British males over 60 between 1990 and 2010, the largest increase, at a time when the fastest-growing group of people living alone were middle-aged men. Family breakdowns, rising separation rates and changing social norms have pushed more people to live alone. People may not know who their neighbours are. In central London residents often live stacked in flats, in close physical proximity to one another but with little social contact. There, rates of decomposition at home are twice as high as in suburban Hertfordshire.

In the age of individualism and the internet, it is also far easier to completely withdraw from society.

https://apple.news/AhGVsJUflQYeaVKMMnV39Gw

maximus otter
Click to expand...
I wonder if there's also a been a change to the way benefits are paid, which means that rent etc are just continually paid into and out of an account. This would mean that someone not 'signing on' or having to attend interviews or appear in public in any other way means that their tenancy is secured and there is no need for, eg, a landlord to go round knocking on the door because of unpaid bills.
 
I live in a tower block where the majority of tenants are single and over 60. For the last few years every 6 months the council send everyone a letter urging tenants to get in contact with them if an unusual number of flies start appearing in anyones flat.

I took it as a sign that more people are dying alone and their deaths are going unnoticed.
 
kesavaross said:
I live in a tower block where the majority of tenants are single and over 60. For the last few years every 6 months the council send everyone a letter urging tenants to get in contact with them if an unusual number of flies start appearing in anyones flat.

I took it as a sign that more people are dying alone and their deaths are going unnoticed.
Click to expand...
One better idea is to actually keep an eye out for each other, before the flies turn up! You don't have to be living in everyone's pockets, but just be on "Hello" terms with them....
 
Tigerhawk said:
One better idea is to actually keep an eye out for each other, before the flies turn up! You don't have to be living in everyone's pockets, but just be on "Hello" terms with them....
Click to expand...
That's how things work in the block I was briefly living in last year. Almost everyone looks out for each other although a bit of living in everyone's pockets is a factor there. We know the tradesmen's code to unlock the outside door until 5pm when you need a key. It's a secured building so locksmiths aren't allowed to cut spare copies. My flatmate showed me how to pop the latch using a nail file instead after 5pm.

Everyone gets along in there except for one highly strung young bloke but he usually gets calmed down by 'the elders'. My flatmate was sad to learn yesterday that an old bloke he knew who lived on the top floor had died. Hopefully his body hadn't been there too long but it still came as a surprise to him because he normally knows about everything that goes on in the building.
 
I think it must be a fear of everyone who lives alone.

I still go to work, so I would be missed if I didn't turn up for my shift. My kids would probably miss me if I hadn't been online or in touch with any of them for a few days. However, if I had a stretch of days off and died right as I came home, it could be three days or so before anyone noticed I wasn't about. By which time the dog would have eaten me (to be honest, she's probably eyeing me up every time I lie still for more than five minutes).
 
Tigerhawk said:
One better idea is to actually keep an eye out for each other, before the flies turn up! You don't have to be living in everyone's pockets, but just be on "Hello" terms with them....
Click to expand...
It's quite hard to do that as there's 80 flats here on 15 floors and there's a lot who never seem to leave their flats. On our floor we all get on really well but sometimes I don't see my neighbours for weeks on end. Sometimes I can go out and come back and not see a soul.
 
catseye said:
I think it must be a fear of everyone who lives alone.
Click to expand...
It's certainly mine! I see very few people and although I regularly phone my son and my sister it would still be several days before alarm bells rang.

In fact something happened at the beggining of the year which really showed up my isolation. I'd been going to a friendship group that someone had started up nearby. It takes referals from the GPs so it's all registered and what not.

Anyway I'd not gone for at least four weeks and I had expected that I'd get a phone call although only two people had my number one of them was the leader. Then I did get a call from the leader ... turned out she'd been nominated for an award and she was canvassing members to write supporting letters! Needless to say she did not get one from me!! When I did go back I discovered she'd got everyones back up and didn't get any from anybody else either.

The thing is it's a weird kind of set up and although I did think some of the others were nice enough after a year of going I didn't feel close to any of them really. In fact somedays I dreaded going so decided to stop altogether.

I've never had trouble making friends before at any other time of my life. I tried various things when I first moved here not much luck I even joined my preferred political party ... nope no joy. They knew where I was when they wanted leaflets delivering but not one of them contacted me during Covid even though they knew I lived on my own. One of the others at the friendship group who favours the other main party said the same had happened to her so that lot weren't any better either!!

I wouldn't go so far as to say I'm really unhappy with my own company just rather sad thinking how things used to be for me in my younger life and even how they were for my mother, grandmothers and other elderly relatives as they went through old age. Strange times we are living in!
 
Sollywos said:
It's certainly mine! I see very few people and although I regularly phone my son and my sister it would still be several days before alarm bells rang.

In fact something happened at the beggining of the year which really showed up my isolation. I'd been going to a friendship group that someone had started up nearby. It takes referals from the GPs so it's all registered and what not.

Anyway I'd not gone for at least four weeks and I had expected that I'd get a phone call although only two people had my number one of them was the leader. Then I did get a call from the leader ... turned out she'd been nominated for an award and she was canvassing members to write supporting letters! Needless to say she did not get one from me!! When I did go back I discovered she'd got everyones back up and didn't get any from anybody else either.

The thing is it's a weird kind of set up and although I did think some of the others were nice enough after a year of going I didn't feel close to any of them really. In fact somedays I dreaded going so decided to stop altogether.

I've never had trouble making friends before at any other time of my life. I tried various things when I first moved here not much luck I even joined my preferred political party ... nope no joy. They knew where I was when they wanted leaflets delivering but not one of them contacted me during Covid even though they knew I lived on my own. One of the others at the friendship group who favours the other main party said the same had happened to her so that lot weren't any better either!!

I wouldn't go so far as to say I'm really unhappy with my own company just rather sad thinking how things used to be for me in my younger life and even how they were for my mother, grandmothers and other elderly relatives as they went through old age. Strange times we are living in!
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Your's is a common problem with older people. But it appears that single younger people are suffering similarly where friends are married, and have children. If it wasn't for Ms PeteS I would be in exactly the same boat since friends have either died or moved to the other end of the country to retire. I suspect that there will be an increase in frequency of people dying alone and unnoticed. Sad.
 
kesavaross said:
It's quite hard to do that as there's 80 flats here on 15 floors and there's a lot who never seem to leave their flats. On our floor we all get on really well but sometimes I don't see my neighbours for weeks on end. Sometimes I can go out and come back and not see a soul.
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I live on the end of a terrace and there's 30 on this side of the street and mainly semi's on the other, with the odd detached thrown in.
I speak to probably 5 or 6 people that I actually 'know' but none of them would know if I'd croaked it anyway.

I reckon I could live here for 50 years and still wouldn't end up knowing someone just a few houses away who had lived there for the same amount of time.
 
The older I get, the more I prefer my own company. Writing is an isolated type of job anyway, you can't do it surrounded by other people all trying to talk to you, and I find, the more isolation I have, the more I like it. I know everyone in my row of cottages, and most people in the village and I suppose that alarm bells would be rung if nobody saw my doors open or my dog seemed alone and distressed. My next door neighbour would probably check up on me, but it would take a couple of days, by which time..

But then I'm still working three days a week, during which I see more of the human race than I could want to. So when I'm not at work it's very pleasant. I don't know how I will feel when I retire and don't have that option any more. Loneliness is a real problem, whatever the age group, it's just that younger people tend to be physically able to get out and about and the elderly often can't.
 
catseye said:
I don't know how I will feel when I retire and don't have that option any more. Loneliness is a real problem, whatever the age group, it's just that younger people tend to be physically able to get out and about and the elderly often can't.
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I'm not that old, not say, compared to Gordon obviously, but this last year or so I have realised that my body is starting to wear out - which of course you never think will happen when you're younger- it seems one thing after another lately.
 
Floyd said:
I'm not that old, not say, compared to Gordon obviously, but this last year or so I have realised that my body is starting to wear out - which of course you never think will happen when you're younger- it seems one thing after another lately.
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It creeps up on you gradually*. I was congratulating myself five years ago on being so fit and active and not the least tired and being full of energy. But year by year I find I'm just a bit more tired, a bit more reluctant to do lots of stuff and I need more time to recover. I am very lucky in that I am fit and well and out running every day and all that, but after a really busy day I need a day off to get my energy levels back up. I can't do action packed weeks any more without taking quite a while to get back to normal.

*not unlike Gordon.
 
catseye said:
It creeps up on you gradually*. I was congratulating myself five years ago on being so fit and active and not the least tired and being full of energy. But year by year I find I'm just a bit more tired, a bit more reluctant to do lots of stuff and I need more time to recover.

*not unlike Gordon.
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Very true.

I was hoovering under the bed the other day and struggled to get up afterwards.

I suppose as well, as we get older, the mundane jobs become even more mundane because we've been doing them for so long and therefore it's far more easy to lose motivation.

I have to build up to even have a shave these days.
 
catseye said:
The older I get, the more I prefer my own company.
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I do know what you mean. If ever I feel lonely I just have to ring my sister who shares her living space with her husband and son and realise I'm not so badly off after all. I don't know why she hasn't kicked them out LOL!
Floyd said:
but this last year or so I have realised that my body is starting to wear out - which of course you never think will happen when you're younger- it seems one thing after another lately.
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@Floyd I know what you mean. All the household jobs seem so much more difficult and as for bending down to cupboards I really have to steal myself and then when I'm down there regret not having brought a book to read while I recover enough to get up! It's not so much aches and pains but just that the strength seems to have gone.

Everywhere needs a damn good spring clean but I just haven't got the oomph for it.

The garden had got into a right old mess partly because next doors bloody cats were using it for a toilet and I just couldn't face bending about to pick it up and so I didn't feel inclined to go out there and partly weather. Anyway I paid a young lady (in her 30s) for a days work to make a start on it. I couldn't believe how much she got done!! But then she's half my age I suppose but it really brought it home to me how much I've slowed down.

Yep spot on re motivation to do mundane jobs ... getting really bored of it all now. Oh to have staff! I could put up with sharing my space for a few hours in the day as they'd be doing what I told them to do! Dream on!
 
PeteS said:
but it appears that single younger people are suffering similarly where friends are married, and have children.
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Yes this is so true and is very concerning. It's all part of a wider problem of how we live these days. Modern technology can be isolating and the decline of neighbourhood pubs. It's not just company in general but that lack of a special someone even if that special someone is also driving you crazy in some respects lol

I feel quite estranged from my friends that are in relationships and it must be even more poignant for the youngsters as it seems a rite of passage that they should be with someone at their age.
 
I'm one my own. I do have siblings and nieces and nephews and my mom, but they rarely call me. I call my mom, but only once or twice a week. If I don't call her, she doesn't call anyway. So, other than work, no one is really expecting me.

I do go to my coffee shop daily and have good friends/neighbours who I speak to. Though, again, there might be questions raised only after several days, particularly in the winter when no one is outside chatting on porches.

I am not one to socialize like some. I have a few things I do, but I don't enjoy joining social groups for activities.

I like being on my own, but do feel left out sometimes when even my extended family might get together for their family things and they forget to invite me. The kids (20-35 year olds:chuckle:) forget that I don't do social media and often think I know about something forgetting that I'm not online. I do text though and they can text me but nowadays everyone uses social media to post everything about their lives.:roll:
 
brownmane said:
I'm one my own. I do have siblings and nieces and nephews and my mom, but they rarely call me. I call my mom, but only once or twice a week. If I don't call her, she doesn't call anyway. So, other than work, no one is really expecting me.

I do go to my coffee shop daily and have good friends/neighbours who I speak to. Though, again, there might be questions raised only after several days, particularly in the winter when no one is outside chatting on porches.

I am not one to socialize like some. I have a few things I do, but I don't enjoy joining social groups for activities.

I like being on my own, but do feel left out sometimes when even my extended family might get together for their family things and they forget to invite me. The kids (20-35 year olds:chuckle:) forget that I don't do social media and often think I know about something forgetting that I'm not online. I do text though and they can text me but nowadays everyone uses social media to post everything about their lives.:roll:
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Tell them you’ve won the lottery and ask them to respect you’ve gone anonymous and are still working out what to do with the money. (I’m not a financial advisor or an advisor of any sort).
 
Analogue Boy said:
Tell them you’ve won the lottery and ask them to respect you’ve gone anonymous and are still working out what to do with the money. (I’m not a financial advisor or an advisor of any sort).
Click to expand...
:rofl:
 
PeteS said:
Sadly many families don't do this. It must have been very comforting for mum and her sister.
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It would annoy the hell out of me to know that I 'had to' phone someone night and morning. As, no doubt, it would annoy the person having to be available to receive the calls. Maybe this works best if both parties are very elderly?

I was incredibly busy a few years ago and my eldest daughter put a message up on the group chat asking 'has anyone heard from Mum lately? She's not been online for a while.' Why it didn't occur to her to just message me to ask, I have no idea.
 
When I lived in the same town (but in a different home) as my parents, my mum insisted I - and my housemate - go to theirs for Sunday lunch. If summat came up i.e. we were too hung-over then Ma would turn up before shopping on Monday morning with two plates of cold roast covered with clingfilm.
Thing is, I know our family don't check in with each other as much as we might ... but we do contact if there's a problem.
 
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