South Carolina § 17-5-555 - Reporting certain deaths of vulnerable adults.

§ 17-5-555. Reporting certain deaths of vulnerable adults.

(A) The coroner or medical examiner, within twenty- four hours or one working day, whichever occurs first, must notify the Vulnerable Adults Investigations Unit of the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division or appropriate law enforcement when a vulnerable adult dies in the county he serves:

(1) as a result of violence, when unattended by a physician, and in any suspicious or unusual manner; or

(2) when the death is unexpected and unexplained.

(B) If the home or premises last inhabited by a vulnerable adult is not the scene of the death of the vulnerable adult, the coroner or medical examiner, while conducting an investigation of the death, may petition the local magistrate of the appropriate judicial circuit for a warrant to inspect the home or premises inhabited by the deceased before death. The local magistrate must issue the inspection warrant upon probable cause to believe that events in the home or premises may have contributed to the death of the vulnerable adult.

(C) For purposes of this section:

(1) "vulnerable adult" has the same meaning as defined in Section 43-35-10(11);

(2) a vulnerable adult is not considered to be "unattended by a physician" when a physician has, before death, provided diagnosis and treatment following a fatal injury;

(3) "unexpected death" includes all vulnerable adult deaths that, before investigation, appear possibly to have been caused by trauma, suspicious, or obscure circumstances, or abuse or neglect.

HISTORY: 2006 Act No. 301, SECTION 10, eff May 23, 2006.