Sad news — a father of three has died after choking on a McDonald’s cheeseburger he was trying to eat in one mouthful.

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29-year-old Darren Bray, who was drunk at the time, told friends to “watch this” before putting the 99p cheeseburger in his mouth. Soon after he turned blue and began choking.

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His friend Sam says:

He picked up the burger and rolled it half and then said “watch this” before putting the whole burger into his mouth.

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

Sam’s girlfriend added:

Sam said he was going to McDonald’s on his way back and Darren asked him to order him a cheeseburger.

Darren took his burger and rolled into a ball then pushed it into his mouth.

An ambulance arrived at the house in Barry, South Wales and performed CPR on Darren but by then it was too late.

A paramedic described how Darren died from blockage to his airway:

When we did an internal examination there was an eight by five centimetre ball of food stuck at the back of his neck.

Darren would not have been able to breath with that in his airway. Death would have followed quite quickly from a choking of this nature.

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Depressing stuff. Literally could have happened to anyone of us. One second you’re so drunk you spontaneously decide to eat a McDonald’s cheeseburger in one bite, the next you’re choking to death on the floor. Brutal.

And what’s with Darren’s mate trying to “hit his back” so he could cough it back up? Is that really the best you could do? Heimlich manoeuvre, ever heard of it? Number 1 rule of saving a person from choking to death.