07 LC 38
0267
House
Bill 310
By:
Representative Sims of the
169th
A
BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
AN ACT
To
amend Article 2 of Chapter 16 of Title 45 of the Official Code of Georgia
Annotated, relating to death investigations, so as to provide for certain
notification requirements; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other
purposes.
BE
IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF GEORGIA:
SECTION
1.
Article
2 of Chapter 16 of Title 45 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating
to death investigations, is amended by revising subsection (f) of Code Section
45-16-22, relating to medical examiners´ inquiries, as
follows:
"(f)
When death occurs in a hospital as a direct result and consequence of acts or
events taking place in a county other than the one in which such death occurs,
the body
shall be returned to the county in which such acts or events took
place.
the hospital
shall:
(1)
Immediately notify the coroner or the medical examiner of the county in which
the acts or events resulting in the death occurred; and
(2)
Return the body to the county where the acts or events resulting in the death
occurred.
When
a dead body is found in a county in which the acts or events leading to death
did not occur, it shall be returned to the county in which the acts or events
did occur, if known. The coroner or local medical examiner of the county in
which such acts or events took place shall assume jurisdiction and the medical
examiner´s inquiry, if any performed, shall be paid for from funds of the
county in which such acts or events took place."
SECTION
2.
Said
article is further amended by revising subsection (a) of Code Section 45-16-24,
relating to notification of suspicious or unusual deaths, as
follows:
"(a)
When any person dies in any county in this state:
(1)
As a result of violence;
(2)
By suicide or casualty;
(3)
Suddenly when in apparent good health;
(4)
When unattended by a physician;
(5)
In any suspicious or unusual manner, with particular attention to those persons
16 years of age and under;
(6)
After birth but before seven years of age if the death is unexpected or
unexplained;
(7)
As a result of an execution carried out pursuant to the imposition of the death
penalty under Article 2 of Chapter 10 of Title 17;
(8)
When an inmate of a state hospital or a state, county, or city penal
institution; or
(9)
After having been admitted to a hospital in an unconscious state and without
regaining consciousness within 24 hours of admission,
it
shall be the duty of any law enforcement officer or other person having
knowledge of such death to notify immediately the coroner or county medical
examiner of the county wherein
events or acts
resulting in death occurred or the body is
found or
death occurs. For the purposes of this
Code section, no person shall be deemed to have died unattended when the death
occurred while the person was a patient of a hospice licensed under Article 9 of
Chapter 7 of Title 31."
SECTION
3.
All
laws and parts of laws in conflict with this Act are repealed.