Sudden death is a major cause of mortality in adults and older individuals and the medicolegal autopsy in such cases is common to rule out any unnatural cause. This autopsy based study was undertaken to analyze the presenting complaints of the patients at the time of hospitalization and to calculate the survival time, so the appropriate treatment can be offered to the patients to reduce the morbidity and mortality. It was a prospective, longitudinal cohort study done in cases of sudden deaths, which were brought to us for autopsy examination during the one year period. In our study sudden unconsciousness (32.59%) were the most common presentation of the victims in casualty, followed by uneasiness (22.76%) and acute chest pain (17.4%). At the time of the onset of symptoms, the majority of the victims (41.96%) were engaged in their daily routine work followed by the victims who were resting (37.50%). The cases were also analyzed according to the duration of survival of the victim after the onset of symptoms and we found that the 53.55% victims died almost immediately within one hour of the appearance of symptoms and brought dead to the hospital while 18.75% victims could survive a duration of 1­6 hours followed by the victims who survived 6­24 hours (13.40%) after the onset of symptoms. This study highlights the importance of identification of the victims of sudden cardiac arrest by recognizing their presenting complaints and immediate and timely providing basic and advanced life support with rapid transportation can reduce the mortality and morbidity. 

Keywords: Cardiac Death; Sudden Death; Presenting Complaints; Autopsy; Natural Death.