Dr. Kendall Crowns

For this reason, pica cannot possibly occur until after the children are over two years of age.

The exact cause in any group is again unknown, but it is believed to be triggered by a nutritional deficiency, mental health conditions, and developmental factors.

I have seen other examples of pica over the years, and some rather unusual things have been eaten, but the most unusual one was an individual who ate ballpoint pens, and on the day he died he had consumed over 30 ballpoint pens.

They filled his entire stomach,

and they were beginning to be pushed into his intestines when one perforated his duodenum, which is the beginning of the small intestine after the stomach.

And this resulted in fecal material, bacteria, etc., pouring into his abdominal cavity, and that resulted in peritonitis, also known as inflammation of the abdominal cavity.

This eventually got into his bloodstream, resulting in sepsis.

which is bacteria getting widespread throughout the body with an inflammatory response by the body, and that results in septic shock, which can cause tissue damage, organ failure, and death, which is what happened in this case.

He didn't choke, but instead died from the perforation of his bowel and the resultant peritonitis and sepsis.

I don't think he meant to die from consuming the pins, and he had probably done it before.

As an aside, the pins that were recovered actually still worked, even though they had been in the stomach for a period of time.

So now that we've covered the elderly and adults, that brings us to the other large group of choking victims, which is children.

Choking is the leading cause of death in children, with one child dying every five days in the United States.

And 75% of these occur in children under the age of three.

The most common case of pediatric choking is food, with hard candy being the most common culprit.

Other common food items are grapes, hot dogs, and bones.

It's suggested that all grapes be peeled and all hot dogs, especially the tip of the hot dog, be cut into small bite-sized pieces.

The most common non-food item that causes choking are balloons, especially latex balloons, and coins.

Coins account for more choking incidents.

But balloons cause more choking deaths, and that is because of the way balloons can easily stretch and mold to the child's airway, making it impossible to breathe.