If the postmortem report says the cause of death was 'Antemortem' hanging, what is this antemortem?

'Ante' is a Latin word meaning before and 'mortem' refers to demise or death. Thus, antemortem refers to the period before death. When a postmortem report refers to an incident as antemortem, it implies the incident took place before death.

In this case, the incident in question is hanging. It implies that hanging occurred before the individual died. It is standard practice for specialist doctors who undertake autopsies to determine if certain things they discover in the course of their investigation occurred before or after the individual died.

This is important for the process of establishing the cause of death. The specialist doctor undertaking the autopsy must determine with other tests whether this incident was responsible for the individual's death.