Man dies trying to swallow whole cheeseburger in one bite

Welshman Darren Bray, 29, choked to death when he tried to swallow a whole cheeseburger in one bite while drinking at a friend’s house.

A Cardiff coroner heard how Bray, a father of three, had been out with his friends when he apparently jokingly tried to swallow the whole burger in October 2015.

“Watch this,” he told friends before folding and ramming the 99p meal down his throat, according to one witness.

When it became clear Bray was encountering difficulties, his friend Sam Bisgrove tried to intervene.

“I could see him trying to cough it up and he was making horrible coughing noises,” Brisgrove said. “I tried to hit his back to help him clear his airway.”

Paramedics arrived at the scene and tried restart Bray’s heart, but to no avail. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Dr Rhiannon Trefor told the coroner there was a 3 inch by 1.9 inch lump of burger lodged in Bray’s throat.

“He would not have been able to breath ... with that in his airway,” she said.

A verdict of death by misadventure was recorded.