Vanderbilt Anatomical Donation Program

The medical school should be notified as soon as possible, after the attending physician or medical examiner has been notified and agrees to certify the cause of death.  Medical school personnel will arrange for transportation.  If, however, death occurs at home, at some considerable distance from the medical school, the family may want to call a local funeral director to remove and hold the body at the funeral home until the transport personnel arrives.  This is not a requirement and will be left up to the family to decide.  If death occurs in a hospital, the body may be kept in the morgue until transportation can be arranged.