14 DAY TRIAL // Sneezing may seem like a simple and harmless biological process, but it can actually have fatal effects in some cases. A healthy teenager from North East England unexpectedly died after a series of sneezes in quick succession triggered a massive brain hemorrhage.
Liam Andrews complained of an acute headache and started vomiting after sneezing six times in a row. He was at his home in Stockton-on-Tees when he collapsed to the floor and suffered a severe seizure due to the sneezing.
His mother Suzanne called an ambulance when she saw he was getting sick. Liam was rushed to the emergency department of University Hospital of North Tees and was later transferred to the James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough, where medics performed a surgery to remove a clot on his brain.
“Liam came downstairs in the morning complaining of a headache and saying he had just sneezed six times in a row. […] His eyes were going back and forward and he was rolling around in pain. He couldn't work his hands. Then he started to fit,” his mother said.
Daily Star informs that the doctors discovered that the 17-year-old boy had a brain hemorrhage. He spent four days in critical condition in intensive care and unfortunately died in hospital on his younger brother's 12th birthday.
Given that Liam had always been a healthy boy, his devastated mother asked medics to perform a post-mortem examination to determine the exact cause of death. The autopsy revealed that although he was indeed healthy and had no underlying conditions, the seizure may have been caused by pressure built up in the brain due to the powerful sneezes.
“I never would have imagined that something as simple as a few sneezes could kill a healthy young boy. There was nothing to indicate that something like this would happen,” the boy’s mother added.
Since his death in June 2013, Liam has become a hero, as his organs were donated and saved six lives. His heart, liver, pancreas and kidneys gave hope to other patients. It turns out his family took the decision to donate his organs because this was his wish.
“Just six months before his death Liam he was telling me you should be prepared to donate organs if you are willing to receive, then six months later we were fulfilling his wishes,” the boy’s mother said, adding that she was “amazingly proud” of his son.
Experts say that a sneeze can cause a person’s death if it triggers a pre-existing condition, such as a blood clot or a fracture. They explain that in elderly patients a violent sneeze can actually cause brain injury, but it is quite rare for a person to die from a sneeze.