Rant #1,877: Tragedy

I am sure that you heard about the recent tragedy that happened at Sacred Heart University in Connecticut, where 20 year old student Caitlin Nelson died three days after participating in a pancake eating contest at the school.

Nelson, the daughter of an officer who died during 9-11, choked on piece of pancake and could not be revived.

It is a sad story, a really said one considering her circumstances.

Her father's tragic death due to terrorism was covered extensively on New York City television back in the day, and she appeared during that coverage as a child coping with such a tragedy.

Due to this latest unfortunate news, the local outlets here all went into their archives and found those videos, and showed them again related to Caitlin Nelson's own death.

She seemed to be a pretty, happy, adjusted kid who went on with her life after losing her dad.

Whatever the case, food eating contests are part of our culture, and really, things like this don't generally happen during these contests, but there is always the possibility of a tragedy like this during these competitions.

We herald the hot dog eaters on July 4, but there is a certain amount of risk involved in stuffing large amounts of food down your throat.

Way back in 1975, I actually participated in such an event. It is one of the few memories I have of high school that I don't cringe about.

It was during our class' Senior Variety Show, where we tried to raise money for our class, and I participated as someone trying to break the world donut eating record.

I got all the documentation from the Guinness Book of Records in England, and went about doing this in front of a couple of hundred people in my high school auditorium.

People were cheering me on during this thing, as I stuffed one donut after another down my throat over a 10-minute stretch.

The last thing on my mind was choking.

I had prepared for this event by doing some "eating gymnastics" at home to get my mouth and throat used to stretching, and it did work--I ate 23 donuts in 10 minutes and probably held the record for a few minutes.

I later found out through the Guinness people that someone in Europe somewhere, around that same time, actually ate something like 30 in five minutes, or thereabouts, so my record was never officially recognized and if I actually had the record, it did not last too long.

Whatever the case, I prepared for such an event; I doubt that most people who don't do this professionally actually do.

But even if they do, there is always the possibility that food will get stuck in your throat and that serious circumstances can happen, like what happened to this young student.

It can happen in everyday life, too.

When my daughter was little, we were at McDonald's, and a piece of hamburger got stuck in her windpipe. Thank God I had the presence of mind to jump up and perform the Heimlich Maneuver on her. I got the hamburger out of her throat, and yes, she does remember the incident to this day.

These things happen, and they happen when we least expect it.

The latest incident, where happiness turned to tragedy so quickly, just shows that these types of events should be monitored closely, with at least one doctor in attendance just in case.

I got away with what I was doing, but all it takes is one incident like this to wake us all up, and alert us to the possible danger of doing such things.

May Caitlin Nelson rest in peace. At least now, she is with her dad, but it shouldn't have been this way.