Ridiculous causes of death (poorly indexed)

[Josephine]

They're not even trying.

I copied the following causes of death from an online index while looking for the death record of an infant. (These were not done by volunteers; they're all from a well-known fee- or subscription-based website.)

"Drowned In a Twp of Walter"
"Conoulsious"
"Jastro Enteritis"
"Cranp"

I guess hiring a proofreader would cut into their profit margin. Oh, well, at least the images are available.

Regards,
Josephine

P.S. I'm sure this subject has been addressed numerous times and this will not surprise anyone but I had to share these because they were so ridiculous.

[Milliepede]

Jastro 

[pharmaT]

I'm going to guess: "drowned in tub of water", "convulsions",   "gastroenteritis",  "croup"?

Have you seen the originals?  You see some of the diagnoses I have to try and read at work.

[BumbleB]

I worked for a number of years, as a secretary in a Department of General Practice.  I have to agree that the handwriting of a lot of doctors leaves a lot to be desired.  I can, therefore, sympathise with anyone who has to try to interpret their notes - even more so if you have little or no medical knowledge.   

[Crumblie]

A few years ago I did some transcription for one of the big companies and you were told to put what you saw not what you thought it should say. If you insisted on correcting it someone else would then have to check what you thought it should say before it was accepted.

[Josephine]

Good points, all.

I looked at some of the originals and they were pretty clear to me. I think the issue is more likely that the transcriptions were done by people who are not as familiar with the English language and/or who are not familiar with any medical terminology as used by English speakers.

This is where a second set of eyes would greatly benefit such online indexes, IMO, but, as I stated, it would cut into the profit margin to have to pay professional proofreaders/checkers.

[BumbleB]

Sorry, but may I ask whether you have carried out transcriptions - either on a commercial or voluntary basis? 

Yes, I am a transcriber, before you ask 

[Josephine]

I've worked as a journalist and editor; as such, I've done a lot of proofreading and copy editing.

The transcriptions I quoted should be red flags to anyone who is a native English speaker, good at spelling and at least somewhat familiar with common medical conditions. A second set of eyes in these cases would have caught and corrected the words and phrases that were obviously transcribed incorrectly and would have let stand the transcriptions that were accurate reflections of what appeared in the original document.

[BumbleB]

Ok - BUT you have never done transcribing yourself