2013-06-28

McDonalds breakfasts can be fatal

Daily Mail journo Harriet Arkell has no doubt about what killed firefighter Alan Soards:

Firefighter drowned during training exercise at Olympic white water rafting venue moments after he ate a McDonald's breakfast meal
Reading the article, she attempts to justify the headline:
Witnesses said Mr Soards, who was also a lifeboat volunteer, looked out of breath and that his face had turned purple, and he was found face-down in the water at the end of the course.
He was pulled from the water and attempts were made to resuscitate him, but Mr Soards vomited his undigested McDonald’s breakfast while he was being given CPR.
Clearly, it must have been the McDonald's breakfast that killed him. There's no way that someone pounding his chest with nearly their full body weight would have caused anything at all in his stomach (Egg McMuffin, Weetabix or lettuce) to return up his oesophagus. It's not like vomiting is a well-known complication of CPR. Heck, the McDonald's breakfast probably caused him to have broken ribs after CPR.

I can't find Ms. Arkell's degree subject (she studied at Bristol University) but no doubt she specialised in human physiology in order to make this diagnosis. Publicity-seeking empathy-lacking cow that she is. I'd have hoped that Alan Soards's family sue her, but I guess "maliciously self-serving ignorance" isn't legally actionable.

[Hat tip: the estimable Mark Wadsworth]

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