When someone dies, dealing with their medical equipment is one of those practical tasks that rarely gets discussed ahead of time but can’t wait long. Most items fall into one of a few paths: returning rented or leased equipment to the supplier, donating usable devices to organizations that redistribute them, safely disposing of medications and sharps, and addressing implanted devices before burial or cremation. Which path applies depends on who owns the equipment, what condition it’s in, and whether any legal or safety considerations attach to it.
Figure Out What Is Rented and What Is Owned
The first practical step is sorting equipment into two piles: things the deceased owned outright and things that were rented or loaned. Hospital beds, oxygen concentrators, and power wheelchairs are commonly covered under Medicare or private insurance through a durable medical equipment (DME) supplier. In many cases, the supplier retains ownership of the item during a rental period, and the family is responsible for returning it or arranging pickup. If you aren’t sure whether a piece of equipment is rented, check the deceased’s insurance statements or contact the supplier directly. Most DME companies will schedule a free pickup once they’re notified of a death.
Oxygen equipment deserves special urgency. Compressed oxygen tanks and liquid oxygen systems are pressurized and pose a fire or explosion risk if stored improperly. Contact the oxygen supplier as soon as possible to arrange pickup. If tanks are stored in a garage or closet, keep them upright and away from heat sources in the meantime. Once the supplier retrieves its equipment, you can focus on the items the family actually owns.
Donating Durable Medical Equipment
Wheelchairs, walkers, shower chairs, commodes, crutches, and similar durable equipment are often in perfectly usable condition and can go to someone who needs them. Several types of organizations accept these donations:
- Local loan closets: Many communities have nonprofit “medical equipment lending” programs, sometimes run by churches, senior centers, or independent charities. These loan items free of charge to people who can’t afford them or are waiting on insurance approval.
- National nonprofits: Organizations like the Muscular Dystrophy Association, United Cerebral Palsy affiliates, and various disability-focused groups accept specific types of equipment and distribute it to people in need.
- International aid groups: Some nonprofits ship wheelchairs and mobility devices overseas. These organizations typically handle refurbishment and shipping logistics themselves.
- Thrift stores: Goodwill and Salvation Army locations sometimes accept basic mobility aids, though policies vary by store.
Before donating, clean the equipment thoroughly and check that it’s in safe working order. Remove any personal labels or stickers. Motorized wheelchairs and scooters are trickier because their batteries degrade and their electronics can fail, so call ahead to confirm the organization will take them. Equipment that’s visibly broken, rusted, or missing key components is better off recycled for scrap metal than donated, since nonprofits spend money processing items they ultimately can’t use.
Implantable Devices Need Attention Before Burial or Cremation
If the deceased had a pacemaker, implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD), or other implanted electronic device, this must be addressed before final disposition of the body. The stakes are not abstract. A UK study found that roughly half of all crematoria had experienced pacemaker explosions, which can damage cremation equipment and injure staff.
Pacemakers contain sealed lithium batteries that can explode violently when exposed to cremation temperatures. ICDs carry an additional hazard: they store an electrical charge capable of delivering a shock even after death. Research into safe removal found that wearing two layers of intact medical gloves made of latex, neoprene, or plastic eliminates the electrical risk during explantation, with neoprene gloves recommended as the best option.1PubMed Central. Making post-mortem implantable cardioverter defibrillator explantation safe The removal itself is typically performed by a funeral director, a pathologist, or, in some cases, the device manufacturer’s representative. Crematoria will generally refuse to proceed without written confirmation that an implanted device has been removed.2PubMed Central. Pacemaker explosions in crematoria: problems and possible solutions
For burial, the urgency is lower since there’s no explosion risk underground, but many families and device manufacturers still prefer removal. Some manufacturers operate recycling or reclaimation programs for explanted devices, and certain charities collect functioning pacemakers for reuse in patients in low-income countries where the devices are otherwise unaffordable. If you want the device donated, let the funeral home know before any procedures are performed on the body.
Health Data Stored on Implanted and Wearable Devices
Modern cardiac devices, insulin pumps, and wearable health trackers store detailed health data, and what happens to that data after death raises questions families don’t always anticipate. An implanted cardiac device, for instance, logs heart rhythms, shock events, and activity levels. Researchers have noted that while removal of the physical device doesn’t itself require consent from the family, the data stored on it occupies a different ethical space. Because health data can have implications for living relatives, particularly genetic or cardiac-related information, ethicists have argued there is a moral duty to seek consent from next of kin before using that data for research purposes.3PubMed Central. Contextual Exceptionalism After Death: An Information Ethics Approach to Post-Mortem Privacy in Health Data Research
For consumer wearables and health apps, the concern is more straightforward but still easy to overlook. Fitness trackers, smartwatches, and connected glucose monitors often sync data to cloud accounts. If you have access to the deceased’s accounts, you can typically download or delete this data. If you don’t, most major tech companies have a process for requesting account access or closure after a death, usually requiring a death certificate and proof of relationship. The practical advice is to treat health data the way you’d treat financial accounts: inventory what exists, secure access, and decide what to keep or delete.
Disposing of Medications Safely
Leftover prescription medications are one of the most common items families face after a death, and they are also one of the most important to handle correctly. Flushing drugs down the toilet contaminates water systems. Tossing them in the trash makes them accessible to children, pets, or anyone who opens the garbage bag. And in the case of opioids and other controlled substances, unsecured leftover pills are a real diversion risk.
The simplest option is a drug take-back program. Many pharmacies, hospitals, and law enforcement agencies host permanent drop-off boxes or periodic take-back events. The DEA coordinates a National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day twice a year, but many locations accept medications year-round. For controlled substances like opioid painkillers, a take-back program or law enforcement drop-off is the safest route because it places the drugs in a supervised chain of custody.
If you can’t get to a take-back site, in-home deactivation products offer a practical alternative. These typically use activated carbon to neutralize medications. Research has shown that activated carbon can adsorb over 98% of medication within eight hours, with virtually complete deactivation by 28 days. In testing, almost no drug leached back out when exposed to water, and less than 1.3% leached out even when extracted with ethanol, meaning the deactivated mixture resists casual attempts at recovery.4PubMed. Evaluation of an activated carbon-based deactivation system for the disposal of highly abused opioid medications Activated carbon has proven more effective than chemical agents like sodium percarbonate, which only worked on limited types of medications. Carbon-based systems, by contrast, successfully deactivated most active ingredients across all tested dosage forms, and the adsorption held up even after dilution and agitation.5PubMed. Development of Disposal Systems for Deactivation of Unused/Residual/Expired Medications
Several commercial products based on this technology are available at pharmacies. You add water, drop in the pills or patches, and seal the container. After the specified wait period, the contents can go in the household trash. For the FDA’s short list of medications that are specifically recommended for flushing rather than trash disposal (primarily potent opioids like fentanyl patches), follow those instructions if no take-back option is available.
Sharps, Tubing, and Biohazard Items
Needles, lancets, syringes, and other sharps cannot go in regular trash or recycling. If the deceased was managing diabetes, receiving injections, or using any device that involved needles, you likely have a sharps container already partially full. If not, any rigid, puncture-resistant container with a secure lid works as a temporary substitute; a heavy-duty laundry detergent bottle, for example.
Disposal options for sharps containers vary by location. Many pharmacies and hospitals accept sealed sharps containers. Some municipalities include sharps disposal in their household hazardous waste programs. Mail-back programs are another option: you purchase a prepaid container, fill it, and ship it to a licensed destruction facility. Check your local health department’s website for the specific rules in your area, since regulations differ significantly between states and even between counties.
Tubing, catheters, ostomy supplies, and other single-use items that may be contaminated with bodily fluids should be sealed in plastic bags before going in the trash. These items are not recyclable. Unused, still-sealed supplies in their original packaging can sometimes be donated to medical supply charities, but anything that has been opened or partially used should be discarded.
CPAP Machines and Other Prescription Devices
CPAP and BiPAP machines are among the most commonly inherited or donated pieces of home medical equipment, but they come with a wrinkle. These devices are prescribed for a specific individual and calibrated to their pressure settings. Using someone else’s CPAP without a prescription and proper fitting can be ineffective or even harmful. That said, the machines themselves have value. Some DME suppliers accept used CPAPs for refurbishment. A few nonprofits specialize in redistributing CPAP equipment to uninsured or underinsured patients who have a valid prescription but can’t afford a new machine.
Before donating a CPAP, replace or discard the mask, tubing, and humidifier chamber, which are personal-contact items and can’t be safely reused by another person. The machine itself, once cleaned and reset to factory settings, is the usable part. Nebulizers, blood pressure monitors, and pulse oximeters follow a similar logic: the device can be donated if it works, but disposable accessories that contacted the patient should be thrown away.
Equipment That Is Harder to Rehome
Not everything finds a second life easily. Customized prosthetics and orthotics, for instance, are built to fit one person’s body and are rarely transferable. Some organizations collect prosthetic limbs for refurbishment and international redistribution, but they are selective about what they accept. Hearing aids are another item people often want to donate. Programs exist, such as the Lions Club Hearing Aid Recycling Program, but older analog hearing aids have limited usefulness since modern fitting requires digital devices programmed to the user’s audiogram. Still, it’s worth checking, as some programs refurbish digital hearing aids for redistribution.
Home modifications like grab bars, raised toilet seats, and stair lifts are technically fixtures rather than equipment, but families dealing with a death often wonder what to do with them. Grab bars and toilet seat risers are inexpensive enough that donation may not be worth the effort of removal, though loan closets will sometimes accept them. Stair lifts, which can cost thousands of dollars installed, are worth more attention. Some dealers offer buyback or consignment programs. You can also list them for private sale, since a working stair lift has significant resale value.
Timing, Insurance, and Financial Considerations
If the deceased was on Medicare and had rented DME, Medicare stops paying on the date of death. Any equipment owned by the supplier should be returned promptly to avoid potential billing complications. If the rental period had already converted to ownership (Medicare’s rent-to-own period for most equipment is 13 months), the item belongs to the estate and can be donated, sold, or kept.
Some families wonder whether they can sell medical equipment. The answer is generally yes for items they own, with caveats. Motorized wheelchairs and scooters are regulated medical devices and selling them requires some care around liability and local regulations. Hospital beds and manual wheelchairs are simpler. Online marketplaces, estate sales, and classified ads are all common channels. Be upfront about the item’s history and condition. If the equipment was purchased with insurance, there’s no prohibition on reselling it once the ownership period is complete.
Tax deductions for donated medical equipment work the same as any charitable donation. If you donate to a qualified nonprofit, you can deduct the fair market value of the items. For expensive items like power wheelchairs, getting a written appraisal may be worthwhile. Keep a receipt from the receiving organization and document the equipment’s condition at the time of donation.
The Push Toward Reuse in the Medical Device Industry
The broader context for all of this is an industry that has historically operated on a use-once-and-discard model. In high-income countries, healthcare systems increasingly rely on single-use disposable devices in linear supply chains, which has driven up both spending and medical waste.6PubMed. Transforming The Medical Device Industry: Road Map To A Circular Economy A growing body of research argues for shifting toward a circular economy in which devices are kept in use longer through refurbishment, remanufacturing, and redistribution. This isn’t just an environmental aspiration; it has practical implications for families dealing with a death. As more manufacturers and nonprofits build infrastructure for collecting and redistributing used devices, families will have more options and clearer pathways for getting equipment to people who need it.
Design is part of the challenge. Many current medical devices aren’t built with reuse in mind. Researchers studying circular design for medical equipment have noted that strategies to extend device life can conflict with economic incentives. Reducing the number of new devices sold, for instance, cuts into manufacturers’ revenue, creating what economists call cannibalization issues.7Resources, Conservation and Recycling. Circular economy for medical devices: Barriers, opportunities and best practices from a design perspective That tension explains why it’s still harder to donate or recycle medical equipment than it should be, and why families often end up storing unused wheelchairs in garages for years because they don’t know where to send them. The infrastructure is improving, but slowly, and for now, the burden of figuring out the right destination for each item still falls largely on the family.