STRANGE DEATHS

UNUSUAL WAYS OF SHUFFLING OFF THIS MORTAL COIL

A television producer died when a vape pen blew up and projected fragments into his skull, in what appears to be the first death attributed to vaping products in the US. Tallmadge Waksman (‘Wake’) D’Elia, 35, also suffered burns over 80 per cent of his body in a fire on 5 May caused by the exploding e-cigarette. His body was discovered by firefighters in the burning bedroom of his family home in St Petersburg, Florida. The vape pen, manufactured by Smok-E Mountain, was a so-called mechanical mod, meaning it drew power directly from the battery and did not regulate the voltage in the same way as other e-cigarettes, which have more safety features. However, between 2009 and 2016 there were 195 separate incidents of explosions and fires involving an e-cigarette in the US, resulting in 133 acute injuries, 38 of them severe. In 2015, an e-cigarette exploded in the face of a 29-year-old Colorado man, breaking his neck and shattering his teeth. A fire in January this year at Denver International Airport was blamed on a vape pen’s lithium-ion battery. BBC News, 17 May; D.Telegraph, 18 May 2018. An Irish farmer died of a suspected heart attack after his television exploded. Wilson McGirr, who was in his 60s and lived alone, had been watching a programme on 2 April when his TV set blew up and caught fire. He apparently feared it would set fire to his house in Raphoe, Co Donegal, and managed to take it outside onto the street. He may have been the victim of heart complications as well as possible smoke inhalation. He called for help but then collapsed. He was taken to hospital but died two days later. Times, 5 April 2018. Prasert Chuayjit, 59, was killed in Thailand’s Satun province on 13 June when a grenade he was cleaning exploded. The blast tore off his left arm and the shrapnel disfigured his face. His son said Prasert had found the grenade a year ago and he liked to take it out and clean it now and then, although his children had warned him against doing so. The Nation (Thailand), 13 June 2018. An award-winning film director was headbutted to death by a giraffe while shooting footage at the Glen Afric, a game farm in North West province, South Africa, on 2 May. Carlos Carvalho, 47, was taking closeups of the animal named Gerald when it suddenly swung its neck and knocked him flying 5m (16ft) (through the air. Carvalho died of his injuries that night after being flown to a Johannesburg hospital. He was the director of photography for The Forgotten Kingdom, the first feature film produced in Lesotho. Sunday Express, 6 May; independent.co.uk, 7 May 2018. A crocodile killed a Protestant pastor near a lake in southern Ethiopia on Sunday, 3 June. Docho Eshete was conducting a baptismal ceremony for about 80 people on the shore of Lake Abaya in the town of Arba Minch. “He baptised the first person and he passed on to another one,” said local resident Ketema Kairo. “All of a sudden, a crocodile jumped out of the lake and grabbed the pastor.” While fishermen and residents used fishing nets to prevent the croc from taking the pastor’s body into the lake, the croc escaped. Eshete died after being bitten on his legs, back and hands. BBC News, 5 June; D.Telegraph, 6 June 2018. Elizabeth Mary Isherwood, 60, a retired police officer from Wolverhampton, died after getting trapped in a pitch-dark airing cupboard while on holiday. She tried to break out using a piece of water pipe, but after breaking the pipe, she got sprayed with water and subsequently died from hypothermia at Plas Talgarth Country Club near Pennal, Gwynedd. The inquest in Caernarfon was told Ms Isherwood checked in on 23 September 2017, but her body was not found for a week.

She evidently got trapped the night she arrived or the morning after. Her family believe she had taken a wrong turn after using the en-suite bathroom at night. The cupboard’s internal doorknob disintegrated, meaning she could not escape. Banging was heard at the complex for more than 24 hours, but other guests thought it was maintenance work. It was only when water started gushing through the ceiling of an apartment below that it was realised there was a problem and a maintenance worker found her naked body. Metro, 20 June; BBC News, 20+21 June; D.Telegraph, 21 June 2018. Sharon Reid, 61, who had terminal lung cancer, died on 17 September 2016 after she “blew herself up” at St Margaret’s Hospice in Yeovil, Somerset. Her cigarette had set fire to her oxygen tank and she was thrown backwards out of her wheelchair. It is thought she died instantly. D.Telegraph, 22 Nov 2017.