Forum Navigation
Common Causes of Deaths in Kentucky's State Hospital System during the 19th and 20th Centuries
#1 · March 20, 2026, 12:45 pm
This information is a brief compilation of common causes of death of patients in all of Kentucky’s state hospitals. These were obtained directly from death certificates. Please keep in mind that there might be redundancy and diagnostic terminology is not always the same as it is today. The following list does not include statistical information from private hospitals/facilities, but rather deaths reported in the public asylums/state hospitals.
- Abscess (Pelvis)
- Acidosis
- Acute Dysentery
- Acute Edema
- Acute Peritonitis
- Anatomical Fracture
- Aneurysm (Brain, Heart, Aorta)
- Aortic Regurgitation
- Apoplexy
- Arterial Hemorrhage
- Asphyxia
- Aspiration (Food, Foreign Body)
- Asthma
- Atelectasis
- Benign Hyperplasia of Prostate
- Brain Stem Infarction
- Bronchopneumonia (Unilateral and Bilateral)
- Cachexia
- Cancer/Malignancy - With and Without Metastasis (Skin, Mouth, Mandible, Forehead, Connective Tissues, Breast, Uterus, Pancreas, Rectum, Vertebra, Lung(s), Stomach, Tongue, Brain, Liver, Face, Abdomen)
- Cardiac Arrest
- Cardiac Asthma
- Cardiac Failure
- Cardiovascular Disease
- Cerebral Hemorrhage
- Cerebrovascular Accident
- Chronic Melancholia
- Chronic Myocarditis
- Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
- Circulatory Collapse
- Cirrhosis of Liver
- Coronary Occlusion
- Coronary Thrombosis
- Cystic Disease of Lung
- Debility
- Dehydration
- Dementia Paralytica
- Dementia Preacox
- Diabetes
- Diarrhea
- Encephalitis
- Exhaustion and Exposure
- Exposure to Cold
- Fulmatory Bacterium
- Gangrene (Foot/Feet, Hand(s), Leg(s))
- Gastritis
- Gastrointestinal Hemorrhage
- General Arteriosclerosis
- General Paralysis of the Insane
- Glomerulonephritis
- Heat Prostration
- Hepatic Failure
- Huntington's Chorea
- Hypertensive Heart Disease
- Inanition
- Influenza
- Intestinal Obstruction
- Leukemia
- Mesenteric Venous Thrombosis
- Myocardial Infarction
- Nephritis
- Nutritional Disturbance
- Pernicious Anemia
- Pneumonia (Lobar, Hyperstatic, Terminal, Viral)
- Pulmonary Emboli
- Renal Disease (Including Insufficiency)
- Respiratory Failure
- Senility
- Septicemia
- Septicemia
- Shock
- Status Epilepticus
- Strangulated Hernia
- Strangulation
- Suicide (Ligature Strangulation, Jumping, Drowning)
- Syphilis (Cerebral)
- Thyroid Crisis
- Toxemia
- Toxic Exhaustion (Psychosis, Mania)
- Traumatic Injury
- Tuberculosis
- Tuberculosis (Pulmonary, Gastrointestinal, Miliary)
- Ulcers (Gastric, Decubital)
- Undiagnosed Disease
- Unknown Infection
- Uremia
- Uterine Obstruction