What does transection of brain stem mean?
A transection means a tear, usually complete. It could mean either your ancestor was decapitated or that there was a spinal cord injury that was severe enough to tear the spinal cord at the brain stem level. As goofy as it sounds, decapitation is not a cause of death. The cause of death is the transection of the cord- or in this case the brain stem. The contributing factor would be the decapitation or accident. Look to see if it has a remarks section on the certificate, and that may tell you more. Not that I think you could live without a head, and I don’t think anyone has. It’s just a quirk in how things are done. It’s the same as not listing suicide as the cause. The manner of death is a different section usually, the cause would be whatever it was that they did. In this particular case, there might be an autopsy record on file, and that would give you the rest of the story. Either way, your ancestor had a pretty serious spinal cord injury that wasn’t survivable at all, whether he/sh
