An emergency physician often is the first and only health care provider that families interact with after a loved one’s death. Yet emergency physicians often are uncomfortable and undertrained in delivering bad news. This is especially true when the death involves a child. Counseling families after a death needs to be performed properly and systematically to help manage the grief response of survivors. The emergency physician also must be well versed in the after care that is associated with a death in the emergency department, such as organ donation. This issue of Emergency Medicine Specialty Reports offers the means to provide an effective and compassionate death notification in a variety of circumstances.