Man Dies Getting Head Caught Under Movie Seat

A customer taking in a movie at a theater in England died of a heart attack after his head got trapped in one of the theater’s seats as he tried to retrieve his phone, according to a local report.

The incident at the Vue cinema in Birmingham’s Star City entertainment complex was described as “a freak accident’ by The Birmingham Mail. The local newspaper reported that it occurred after the customer dropped his phone in between two of the theater’s Gold Class seats (electric reclining seats) and tried to bend down to retrieve it, only to have the  the seat’s electric footrest fall on his head, leaving him trapped. The Birmingham Mail reports that the footrest was stuck on the man’s head while his partner and theater staff tried to free him before eventually having to break the footrest.

According to the BBC, representatives from the West Midlands Ambulance Service were notified of a patient in cardiac arrest and headed to the scene to administer life support on the customer, successfully restarting the man’s heart before taking him to a nearby hospital, where he later died.

“Following an incident which took place on Friday 9 March at our Birmingham cinema, we can confirm that a customer was taken to hospital that evening,” a spokesperson for Vue told The Independent in a statement regarding the accident. 

“We are saddened to learn that he passed away on Friday 16 March," the spokesperson added.

The Birmingham City Council is currently conducting a health and safety investigation into the incident.

Via: https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/customer-seriously-hurt-freak-accident-14417100

Famed Snake Whisperer Killed By Snake Bite

A famed ‘snake whisperer’ in Malaysia has died after he was bitten by a cobra, according to media reports.

Free Malaysia Today reports that Abu Zarin Hussin, a firefighter whose snake-catching skills have gone viral, received the fatal cobra bite three days ago. The 33-year-old died early on Friday, it said.

The New York Post reports that firefighters in Malaysia are often called to deal with snakes in homes and businesses.

Abu Zarin led a fire department King Cobra Squad, where he trained other firefighters to catch the deadly serpents, according to Free Malaysia Today.

A 10-year firefighting veteran, he showcased his snake-handling skills on “Asia’s Got Talent” last year. His exploits are also widely documented on social media.

The Straits Times reports that Abu Zarin was attached to Temerloh fire station in the Malaysian state of Pahang. The firefighter has previously had close calls with snakes — he was reportedly in a coma for two days following a cobra bite in 2015.

According to the Post, in 2016 Abu Zarin was misidentified in the Thai media and some U.K. tabloids as a Thai man who allegedly married his pet snake, believing it to be the reincarnation of his girlfriend.

Last year Dan Brandon, a snake lover in the U.K., was found suffocated to death near his pet python, “Tiny.” A coroner later said there was “no doubt” that the python had killed Brandon.

Via:http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2018/03/16/snake-catching-fireman-dies-after-bitten-by-cobra/

Woman Impaled By Windblown Beach Umbrella

Strong winds can turn the most innocent objects — like branches and car dealership signs — into lethal weapons. Now, we can add beach umbrellas to the list.

A 55-year-old woman died after a windblown beach umbrella hit her in the chest with about 800 pounds of force, according to new research. The freak accident happened so quickly that the woman’s companion didn’t even see the umbrella hit her. (A bystander, however, did.) The companion “noted only that the woman was gasping for breath and was unable to speak,” according to the paper published last week in the Journal of Forensic Sciences. The victim was taken to the hospital but died within an hour.

Though this marks the first recorded death by an airborne beach umbrella, bizarre deaths happen more often than one might assume, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention keeps tabs. Between 1999 and 2016, for instance, over 1,000 peopled died because of “contact with powered lawnmowers,” according to the CDC. People have been injured by rain umbrellas, and one man lost his eye after a windblown beach umbrella hit him in the face.

BIZARRE DEATHS HAPPEN MORE OFTEN THAN ONE MIGHT ASSUME
The study doesn’t say where and when the deadly incident took place. An autopsy of the victim’s body revealed that the umbrella tip stabbed her in the chest, cutting through muscles and cracking ribs. The umbrella was never found, so the researchers used a similar 11-pound beach umbrella to calculate just how fiercely the woman was struck, based on wind speeds from the day of the incident. Their calculations show that with winds blowing at 22 miles per hour, the umbrella delivered about 800 pounds of force to her chest. Wind gusts that day reached 28 mph, so it’s possible that she was hit with up to 1,000 pounds of force. The pressure with which the tip of the umbrella impaled the woman was about 16,000 pounds per square inch, the study says.

The umbrella injured the left ventricle of the woman’s heart, and despite an emergency surgery, she died. “If this incident had gone unwitnessed, and the nature of the object was not recognized, the manner of this woman’s death may have been in question,” the authors write. “This case provides confirmation that beach umbrellas may cause fatal penetrating blunt force trauma to the chest.”

Via: https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/5/17080536/beach-umbrella-death-fatal-chest-injury-case-report