The Hidden Dangers of Hot Food: The Tragic Case of Darren Hickey

6 months ago

There is a high chance that you have heard, read, or seen a case of a person chocking after eating a meal or something. In such case, one will be lucky if there is a person who knows how to perform the Heimlich Maneuver by holding the person from the back to the upper abdominal region helping to get the food out but have you thought about a case where a person is choking on nothing?

This is the case of Darren Hickey, a 51 year old man who chocked on an innocent fried offering on the 4th of April 2019. Darren managed a wedding venue in England and was about to leave when he was met by one of the chefs who wanted him to have a taste of one of the new fish cakes. After eating, he began to feel a pain in his throat and this pain made him visit the hospital.

Upon getting to the hospital, tests were done, and checkups were carried out but there was no obstruction in his throat, and chest region. For proper check, his case was discussed with a nose, ear, and throat specialist but nothing was found. At the end, he was given paracetamol to help relief the pain, and was told to get to the hospital once he noticed that the pain was becoming unbearable.

When he arrived home, the pain continued and he was forced to tell his partner Niel Parkinson about the excruciating pain he was feeling in his throat. Instead of going back to the hospital, he decided to take a nap in his room but about 9:45 PM, the entire situation became an emergency case as he partner began to hear noise from his room. When he got to the room, he was already choking on goodness knows what. His partner called the ambulance and was performing CPR on him.

When the ambulance arrived, they quickly performed a tracheostomy which is a procedure where a cut is made on the throat and a tube is inserted into the trachea to help the person breath. Upon getting to the hospital medical practitioners began to work on getting him to breath again but it looked like the obstruction had stayed too long.

There wasn't any food in his airways and it was not an allergy. We could say it had something to do with the temperature of the food but why did the other symptoms present later? If it was the food temperature, then he should have spat it out but then, Darren was a stroke survivor 7 years prior and so could have delayed reaction to sensory input due to impairments in neural pathways which can cause them to experience injury as a result of ingesting extremely hot food.

So it turned out that the fish cake Darren ate was extremely hot that it led to a thermal burn in his larynx which then resulted in a laryngeal edema which can obstruct the airway once it start to swell. As a result of the location and the intensity of the swelling on Darren's Larynx, it wasn't easy for the medical staffs to find the edema and it was too late the second time he was brought back to the hospital. The patient could not be saved and so was declared dead in the early hours of the next day.

Darren Hickey's tragic death underscores the hidden dangers of consuming extremely hot food, especially for individuals with underlying health conditions that may affect their sensory responses. While choking is typically associated with physical obstructions, this case highlights how thermal injuries can also lead to fatal airway blockages. It’s crucial to be aware of the risks associated with hot food and to seek immediate medical attention if unusual symptoms occur after eating. Darren's story serves as a poignant reminder of the need for caution and prompt action in such unexpected medical emergencies.