Denver choking death reported linked to
doughnut-eating contest
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[April 04, 2017]
By Keith Coffman
DENVER (Reuters) - A 42-year-old Denver man
choked to death while taking part in an eating contest that requires
participants to consume a half-pound doughnut in less than two minutes,
authorities and media said on Monday.
Travis Malouff died on Sunday "from asphyxia, due to obstruction of the
airway," at the Voodoo Doughnut shop, the office of the Denver medical
examiner said in a statement.
Paramedics went to the east Denver location shortly after 1 a.m. on
Sunday in response to reports of a man choking, a fire department
spokesman said. But Malouff was pronounced dead at the scene, the
medical examiner said.
Authorities would not confirm that Malouff died during an eating
contest, but Denver television station KUSA quoted an unnamed eyewitness
who said the man was taking part in the doughnut chain’s "Tex-Ass"
doughnut challenge.
Participants must eat a half-pound glazed doughnut, roughly equivalent
to six conventional-sized samples of the doughy confections, in 80
seconds, the company says on its website.
The company’s "hearts go out" to the dead man’s family, Sara Heise, a
spokeswoman for the Portland, Oregon-based chain, said in an email
statement.
"While this matter is under investigation, we believe it would be
inappropriate to comment further," she added.
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Voodoo Doughnuts offers quirky, specialty pastries, such as a "Maple
Blazer Blunt," a rolled-up pastry treat with red sprinkles on one
end making it appear like a smoldering marijuana cigarette,
according to its website.
The company has shops in California, Colorado, Oregon, Texas, and
one in Taiwan.
Malouff’s death was the second such report over the weekend, after a
21-year-old student at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield,
Connecticut, died on Sunday, the Hartford Courant newspaper
reported.
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Caitlin Nelson died at a New York City hospital three days after she
choked during a campus pancake-eating challenge, the newspaper said,
adding that her father, James Nelson, was a Port Authority police
officer who died in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.
(Editing by Steve Gorman and Clarence Fernandez)
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