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Darwin Awards
2008 Slush Pile

This item was recently submitted by a reader.
Should I include it in the archive?
Vote to tell me what *you* think!

Smoky bar triggered fatal asthma at

2008 Reader Submission
Pending Acceptance

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23075001/

Smoky bar triggered fatal asthma attack First case of secondhand smoke causing an immediate death, study says Reuters updated 3:38 p.m. PT, Fri., Feb. 8, 2008

A woman in her late teens died from an acute asthma attack triggered by secondhand cigarette smoke shortly after arriving at her job as a waitress in a bar in Michigan, researchers reported on Friday.

They said it was the first reported case of an immediate death caused by secondhand smoke.

“She didn’t have any other possible known causes of death,” said Dr. Kenneth Rosenman, a Michigan State University professor who oversees three state public health surveillance systems.

Cigarette smoke is known to trigger acute asthma attacks.

“We know that particulate levels from secondhand cigarette smoke in bars like this reach sufficient levels to set off an asthma attack,” Rosenman said.

He said the woman was a student who had a job at a fast-food restaurant, and worked a second job as a waitress at the bar. “She was perfectly fine when she went to work,” Rosenman said in a telephone interview.

“After about 15 minutes, she had an acute asthma attack and collapsed on the floor. The autopsy clearly indicates she died from asthma,” said Rosenman, who would not disclose the woman’s name or the precise place and time of her death for privacy reasons.

Rosenman said the woman had asthma since age 2. Her asthma was poorly controlled. She had made four visits to her doctor in the year before her death for flare-ups, and had been treated in a hospital emergency department two to three times that year.

Although she had prescriptions for an assortment of drugs to prevent and treat asthma attacks, she was reported to only use them when she was having breathing difficulty.

On the evening of her death, she had no inhaler with her. When she became sick, she told the bar manager she needed to go to the hospital, then collapsed on the dance floor.

Bar patrons offered an inhaler and the woman tried to use it, but could not. Emergency response workers were unable to revive her and she died shortly thereafter.

Submitted on 02/09/2008

Submitted by: Leon
Reference: MSNBC.com, Feb. 9, 2008

Copyright © 2008 DarwinAwards.com

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Bruce said:
Definitely Keep: Darwin Award
I'll vote to keep this given that the woman was diagnosed with asthma but apparently refused to take proper care of herself and keep her medication handy. Thanks, Leon!


James said:
Definitely Keep: Darwin Award
After much inner debate, I too decided to give this one a DA. Young folks often tend to think they're invincible, with or without doctor's advice, and given all the modern preventive medicine available, there's really no excuse for what happened. After all, medicine only works if one takes it. A tragic but entirely preventable incident. Thanks, Leon!


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