A 60-year-old Romanian man is dead after participating in a sausage-eating completion during the sixth annual Plescoi Sausage Festival on Oct. 5, Opinia reported.
The man, whose man has not been released to media outlets, won the eating competition, but later collapsed to the ground while trying to give his acceptance speech.
In a video, organizers and bystanders surrounded him, patting his back and tried to give him first aid until the ambulance from Center Hotline arrived; EMTs tried to resuscitate him and doctors on the scene tried to clear his obstructed airways, but even after making a few cuts, they couldn't revive the man.
It has been rumored the man suffered a heart attack, but Opinia reported his autopsy report confirmed the cause of death was asphyxiation. The victim's wife reportedly asked her husband, up to the last minute, not to attend the contest.
An investigation is under way to see if organizers from Casa Matei will be held accountable for the man's death. If convicted, the penalties can be sentenced to several years in jail. Doctor said the unnamed victim could have been saved if someone would have immediately applied a specific first aid method, known as the Heimlich procedure.
The International Federation of Competitive Eating, which was not involved in the completion, has strict rules to prevent such incidents. According to the IFOCE safety standards, all eating competitions must have an emergency medical technician present.
Last year, a Florida man choked to death after devouring dozens of live cockroaches at a roach-eating event in Miami, according to the Huffington Post. Edward Archbold, 32, was pronounced the winner of the October completion before collapsing and dying. Doctors said that roach body parts clogged his airways.
