BY ERIC KING
There are a few lessons to learn after a dad choked to death as he tried to grub a Macdonald cheeseburger in one mouthful as a joke.
Darren Bray passed out as stuffed the 99p burger into his mouth on a night out with friends.
An inquest heard that Darren told friends: “Watch this” as he squashed the burger in half and put it in his mouth. But he went “blue” in the presence of two friends and started choking on the cheeseburger.
One of his friends told the Mirror”I could see him trying to cough it up and he was making horrible coughing noises.
“I tried to hit his back to help him clear his airway.”
The inquest heard that the dad from Barry, South Wales performed the stunt as a joke after drinking beer.
Paramedics were called but were unable to restart his heart after attempting CPR. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Dr Rhiannon Trefor told Cardiff Coroner’s Court that Darren died from a blockage to his airway.
She said: “When we did an internal examination there was a eight by five center meter ball of food stuck at the back of his neck.
“Darren would not have been able to breath from that breath with that in his airway.
“Death would have followed quite quickly from a choking of this nature.”
Darren who had been drinking and was over one and a half times over the legal drink-drive limit made a fatal mistake which highlights the dangers of extreme pranks. But the doctor said it was not enough to “affect his judgment”, but it ended his life.
loss of Darren.” Pranks and dares are responsible for over 500 deaths a year.
