Man fighting for life in hospital after eating entire burger in one go for a &#
Source: Daily Star – World News
The man is believed to have caused serious damage to his organs after attempting to pull a prank with his mates, but went horribly wrong and is now on a ventilator in hospital
A man is fighting for his life after attempting to eat an entire burger in one go. The plucky fella is now believed to be on a ventilator after causing serious damage to his organs.
The 22-year-old man, who has not been named, is believed to have tried to pull a prank with his pals as they grabbed a bite to eat in the town of Koropi, on the outskirts of Athens, Greece. Soon after trying to gulp down the food, however, things took a turn and resulted in him being rushed to hospital.
Eyewitnesses were left shocked when the man collapsed on the ground as the sick “joke” went wrong. Doctors have now described the man as being in a critical condition in the latest update on Thursday (November 13).
According to the Daily Mail, local media has since reported his pals were left panicked as he fell to the floor shortly after swallowing the burger whole. One of the man’s friends said that he appeared to suffer “something like a panic attack” seconds after eating the food.
“He gets up and runs a bit further away, we thought he was going to spit it out and didn’t want to make a mess around others,” the friend explained. However, that is not what he did and what followed were several seconds of the man stumbling around trying to spit the burger out — but to no avail.
“Then he starts coming back again, and the moment we realised something was wrong was when he was hitting his back against a column, probably trying to spit it out or something,” the friend added. When asked whether the burger had been swallowed as part of an online challenge, they insisted that was not the case, but it was a “joke”.
According to eyewitnesses, the man is believed to have stopped breathing for two whole minutes. Emergency services were then called to the scene and rushed the man to G. Gennimatas Hospital to be treated.
Local police are also now looking at the footage of the incident and are investigating whether anyone had egged the man on to carry out the “joke”. This means that CCTV footage will be gathered from the restaurant and the full circumstances surrounding the incident will be fully probed, according to police spokeswoman Konstantina Dimoglidou.
Meanwhile, it has been confirmed that the man will be undergoing a long and heavy recovery process, as health chiefs admitted it was a “miracle” that he was able to survive the incident. Michalis Giannakos, a national union leader for doctors, said medics were dealing with the man for some time.
“He can only be saved by a miracle, he is in a very critical condition,” Michalis confirmed. He also admitted he was bewildered at the ability to swallow an entire burger without chewing even once.
“Even if he received first aid, a doctor’s intervention is needed because when the brain is left without oxygen, irreparable damage is caused,” he added. Meanwhile, local hospital officials are calling for similar attempts at challenges or pranks to be halted immediately.
Ex-president of the Athens-Piraeus Hospital Doctors Association, Matina Pagoni, sobbed that the near-death experience was the culmination of “tragic circumstances”. She added that despite going to the city for fun, he is now suffering with serious health issues, including to his brain, kidneys and other important organs.
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