Dr. Kendall Crowns

Fewer teeth is also a very common one, and less teeth means bigger bites, often swallowing things whole.

This is the risk factor I see the most, in combination with tough, overcooked steaks resulting in large pieces of meat occluding the airways.

One case I had was an individual who had no teeth at all.

He actually died of a heart attack, not choking.

but he had a very interesting finding.

The stomach felt like it had hard lumps in it, and upon opening contained unshewed artichoke hearts, about 2.5 inches wide.

I was surprised he didn't choke on these, and he was able to swallow them whole, but I guess anything is possible.

A syndrome seen commonly in the elderly and the middle age associated with choking is the cafe coronary syndrome.

This syndrome occurs when an otherwise healthy individual collapses during a meal, in the absence of any signs of choking or asphyxia or respiratory distress or neurological symptoms.

The person just basically stands up and collapses.

People think it's a heart attack and it results in the wrong emergency treatment being administered, meaning the obstruction in the airway is completely missed, and the person dies when they could have probably been saved.

Typically, the food involved in the cafe coronary syndrome is poorly chewed steak that gets further wedged in the airway as people try and restore breathing.

Cafe coronary syndrome is also often seen in the middle age, poor dentition, taking big bites of food while talking, and they are often intoxicated, typically with alcohol.

And this also brings us to another installment of everybody's favorite true crime game show.

Is it methamphetamine, women, or alcohol?

So let's get started.

The case was that of a 22-year-old male found unresponsive, partially lying in his bed at his residence.

His residence was in disarray, lamps were broken, things were thrown around, stuff was torn up, and his residence was trashed, but not in a way that suggested he had been in a fight.

At autopsy...

He was well-developed and well-nourished, appeared the reported age.