14 DAY TRIAL // Few would ever suspect it but, by the looks of it, hot dogs can sometimes prove deadly. Especially when one tries to gulp them down without taking the time to give them a proper chewing first.
Not to beat about the bush, word has it a 47-year-old man in the United States passed away just a few days ago after trying to swallow a hot dog whole and finding that the treat was too much for his throat to handle.
According to Mirror, the incident occurred in the city of Custer in South Dakota, sometime over the 4th of July weekend. The man, identified as Walter Eagle Tail, was taking part in an eating contest at the time when he passed away.
Apparently, such competitions are organized in Custer, South Dakota, on a regular basis. More often than not, those who are brave enough to take part in them get to walk away with nothing but one really full belly.
47-year-old Walter Eagle Tail, however, was not this lucky. Long story short, word has it that, while attempting to win the eating contest, he made a dreadful mistake that eventually cost him his life.
Thus, the man is believed to have shoved a hot dog down his throat without paying too close attention to the logistics of such endeavors. The hot dog failed to make it all the way to his stomach, and instead remained stuck in his throat.
Folks who witnessed the incident tried to help him, but unfortunately, they did not manage to recover the hot dog as fast as they needed to in order to save Walter Eagle Tail's life, and the man eventually chocked to death. He was pronounced dead at a local hospital.
“There was someone doing CPR when we arrived. Basically he probably just suffocated. It got lodged in his throat and they couldn't get it out. It all happened within minutes. I think everybody was pretty well shocked about it,” Sheriff Rick Wheeler explained.
“Walter was just being Walter, having fun when he entered this contest. He was just having a good time,” Ardis McRae, one of Walter Eagle Tail's friends told the press in an interview.
Needless to say, this man's tragic death very much took the fun out of the 4th of July celebrations in the city of Custer in South Dakota. What's more, it appears that, in the aftermath of this tragic incident, a pie-eating contest in a nearby town was canceled.