What is the most/least common cause of death reported?

[Aslan of Narnia]

This is probably something really obvious for the most common, but I'm curious as to what it is.

For the least reported death, I'd imagine there would be multiple things where only one person has ever reportedly died from it. This doesn't include murders where the thing that was used to kill the person was so unique that only have they been recorded as having died from it, if such a thing has happend.

[Mangetout]

You're talking about the most common cause of untimely death, I assume? (otherwise, it's probably 'natural causes' (i.e. old age), isn't it?)

There are going to be a lot of deaths which only one person has ever suffered that particular kind, it depends how specific you're going to allow it to be; i.e.:
"by an animal": lots
"by an elephant" : not so many
"by being sat on by an elephant": even less
"bby being sat on by an elephant named Stinky Jim": not many, possibly zero

[Xerxes]

I can't quote chapter and verse (tho' perhaps others can) but my sister works in the UK's National Health Service and apparently - when the chips are down - the primary cause of death is respiritory failure - which can occur for a wide variety of reasons, of course.

[Aslan of Narnia]

Untimely, yes.

Scrap my least question, as it has too many variables to answer properly.

[conczepts]

I'd guess auto-erotic asphixiation. (I miss Upright Citizens Brigade...)

[BobLibDem]

Gotta be Chuckles the Clown being squashed by an elephant while dressed as a peanut in a parade.

[moriah]

Ranch house defenestration.

[Enola Straight]

Most common: cardio/pulmonary arrest.

Least common: Being eaten by a swarm of flying sharks.

[aahala]

The least common identifed accident death in the US in 2000 was a transportation death while an occupant of a street car - 1.

http://www.nsc.org/lrs/statinfo/odds.htm

[t-bonham@scc.net]

If we're going to be realistic, and talk about real people dying of real diseases, I'd say that the WHO's Internation Classification of Diseases (ICD) code 050 (smallpox) would be in the running for least reported cause of death.

The last reported case was 27 years ago, in Somalia in 1977. In fact, the code for smallpox has been dropped from the latest version (ICD-10).

[Little Nemo]

I recall reading that only one person has ever been killed by being struck by a piece of an artificial satellite falling from its orbit.

[Triskadecamus]

A few years back, a zookeeper died while giving an elephant an enema. Got buried in Elephant do-do, and suffocated.

I bet the WHO doesn’t have a category for that!

Tris

[dtilque]

Originally Posted by Little Nemo

I recall reading that only one person has ever been killed by being struck by a piece of an artificial satellite falling from its orbit.

I haven't heard of anyone being killed that way. Any details?

And I don't think anyone is known to have died by being struck by a meteorite either, although I could be wrong about that.

[Walloon]

Originally Posted by Triskadecamus

A few years back, a zookeeper died while giving an elephant an enema. Got buried in Elephant do-do, and suffocated.

Snopes says: False.

According to the Guinness Book of Records, the leading cause of death in the industrialized world is arteriosclerosis (thickening of the arterial wall), which underlies much coronary and cerebrovascular disease.

[Fish]

Originally Posted by t-bonham@scc.net

If we're going to be realistic, and talk about real people dying of real diseases, I'd say that the WHO's Internation Classification of Diseases (ICD) code 050 (smallpox) would be in the running for least reported cause of death.

Ah, the ICD codes. Of course, there are ICD codes listed for a great many neat things, like Injury While Passenger In Space Vehicle and Injury Incident, Military, Involving Lasers.

I wouldn't go so far as to say that would be the source of a definitive answer, because as far as I can tell, there's no ICD code for "decapitation." I think you'd have to qualify that as "open wound, head/neck, w/ complication."

[Walloon]

Originally Posted by Little Nemo

I recall reading that only one person has ever been killed by being struck by a piece of an artificial satellite falling from its orbit.

This interesting review of space debris that has fallen worldwide is unaware of any such death.

[Triskadecamus]

Well, I am not going to make my pal take down his poster. Damn that Snopes, anyway!

Tris

[Ender_Will]

Can't all deaths be classified as heart failure? The heart's beating, you're alive. It's not, you're dead. What induces the heart failure is another matter...


OK, I know that you could technically be alive with no pulse, but not for very long.

[Mangetout]

Originally Posted by Ender_Will

OK, I know that you could technically be alive with no pulse, but not for very long.

How I love to nitpick.

I saw a documentary about a guy waiting for a heart transplant who was temporarily given an artificial heart that was little more than a small turbine pump - he had no pulse, IIRC, he said that he was acutely aware of his own lack of pulse and could hear/feel the 'whine' of the turbine instead.

[Little Nemo]

It appear my memory is wrong. I found several references that corroborate the one Walloon linked to in saying no one has ever been killed by space debris.

[fezpp]

Originally Posted by Ender_Will

Can't all deaths be classified as heart failure? The heart's beating, you're alive. It's not, you're dead. What induces the heart failure is another matter...

I think, technically, all deaths are classified of a 'lack of oxygen to the brain'. A common cause of this is that the heart stops beating but suffocation, asphyxiation could also cause it while the heart is still beating.
A machine could keep you alive while your heart wasn't beating on it's own but if the blood can't get to your brain you are all out of luck!