50 year old man dies after consuming half-cooked goat’s eye in Chhattisgarh

• A 50-year-old man in Chhattisgarh choked to death on a half-cooked goat's eyeball during a picnic in Surajpur district
• The man, identified as Bagar Singh, swallowed the eyeball while intoxicated, causing respiratory distress and ultimately suffocating him
• Medical professionals explained that the partially cooked eyeball became lodged in his windpipe

In a bizarre incident in Chhattisgarh's Surajpur district, a 50-year-old man died when a half-cooked eyeball of a goat he had eaten got stuck in his throat and choked his airway.

Police identified him as Bagar Singh, a resident of Madanpur, about 340 km from Raipur. He went on a picnic with his friends on Monday afternoon. First, they went to Khopa Dham, a religious place where goats are sacrificed for the fulfillment of wishes. They bought a goat's head and went to Parri village on the outskirts of Surajpur district headquarters for a picnic.

According to the police, Singh was quite drunk when he picked up a goat's bulb in the middle of cooking and swallowed it. Singh immediately began to feel uneasy and was soon gasping for breath. His friends rushed him to the district hospital about 7 km away, where doctors declared him dead on arrival.

Dr. Surajpur Hospital's Swapnil Gupta, who attended to Bagar Singh along with a team of doctors, "The half-cooked eyeball, about two inches in diameter, got stuck in the windpipe and suffocated the respiratory system. This could be the main reason for death. If they are not within two minutes precautions taken since such an incident, it could be fatal.”

"Moreover, the man was drunk, which leads to respiratory depression (weakened system). With respiratory depression, there is a high probability that food will choke in the respiratory tract if the food is not properly chewed," he pointed out.

"Some people blame the carelessness of the 'doctors'. The question of negligence does not arise here when the patient was declared dead," said Dr Gupta. The eyeball cut off oxygen to Singh's vital organs, including his brain.

Associate Professor Dr. Shailendra Gupta of the ENT Department of Ambikapur Government Medical College said he was aware of the case and said that a half-cooked eyeball has the consistency of jelly and can easily stick to the muscles of the windpipe.

"Death was due to laryngeal spasm caused by the sudden intrusion of the goat's eye. Sudden patient death takes 4-5 minutes. It can be avoided by performing the Heimlich maneuver. Suffocation is common in children but can occur in any age group, especially during meals after ingestion of large quantities of alcohol,” said Dr. Gupta.