A woman has died during a lamington eating competition in South East Queensland, January 26th.
The woman allegedly had a seizure during the event, which took place at the Beach House Hotel at Scarness, Hervey Bay, at 2:00pm on January 26th. She was reportedly aged in her sixties.
Witnesses say the hotel’s security guard and manager rushed to her aid and started performing CPR while an ambulance was called.
Della Firth wrote on Facebook that she had spoken to the woman earlier in the day.
Ms Firth said the woman went into arrest after she “shovelled the lamington into her mouth”.
“The pub was very quick to respond with CPR, and the ambulance rocked up soon, but working on her over half an hour (sic) it didn’t look good.”
Paramedics took the woman to Hervey Bay Hospital but she could not be revived and later died.
Police are investigating the death and will prepare a report for the coroner.
This isn’t the first time that a death has been reported as the result of an eating competition.
Just last year a 41-year-old man died during a taco eating competition at a packed US Baseball game.
Dana Hutchings collapsed on Tuesday night during a taco eating competition during an innings break at a Fresno Grizzlies AAA baseball game at their home ground in Chukchansi Park stadium. He was immediately rushed to hospital but shortly passed away after arriving.
Witness reports from fans at the game stated that Hutchings was “eating so fast compared to the other two” contenders, almost as if “it was like he’d never eaten before.” The same witness also stated that Hutchings “was just shoving the tacos down his mouth without chewing.”
In 2012, a 32-year-old man died in Florida while competitively eating cockroaches as a result of “asphyxia due to choking and aspiration of gastric contents”.
In 2013, a 64-year-old Australian man died in a pie-eating contest at a pub in Townsville.
