Student died after drinking from pig’s head on initiation
AN ECONOMICS student died after a “drink-fuelled initiation” into his university’s agriculture society which involved drinking vodka from a pig’s head, an inquest has heard.
Ed Farmer, 20, a student at Newcastle University, was taken by friends to hospital with a shaven head after drinking large amounts of alcohol at a university social.
The former pupil at the £31,000-ayear Oakham School in Rutland died the following day, with his parents, Jeremy and Helen Farmer, at his bedside.
He was five times over the drinkdriving limit when he died, the inquest at Newcastle Civic Centre heard.
The inquest was told that Mr Farmer had joined a group of 30 students for a bar crawl around the city centre, in December 2016.
He was so drunk by the end of the evening he had to be carried by other students back to another’s house.
While there, the first-year students – including Mr Farmer – were expected to complete the initiation by having their heads shaved and crawling into a garage to drink vodka from a pig’s head, Karen Dilks, the coroner, was told.
Dr Reuben Saharia, the head of A&E when Mr Farmer was admitted, gave evidence to the inquest, revealing that the young student was brought into hospital with a “shaved head, found to be amusing”.
The student, who was taken to hospital at 5:45am on Dec 13 2016, would have likely survived had he been taken for treatment earlier, the inquest was told. A round of 100 triple vodkas had been ordered at one of the pubs on the bar crawl, the Newcastle Coroner’s Court hearing was told.
The inquest heard excess alcohol caused cardiac arrest which led to brain damage and his death.
Dr Sahere added that there was a spectrum of alcohol poisoning and that cardiac arrest was at the “very end of that scale”.
He said: “We knew that the situation was very grave from the outset. I would agree that had he been in hospital prior to cardiac arrest then I would expect the patient to survive.”
James Carr, who was the chairman of the university’s agricultural society and a second-year student at the time, told the inquest the night out was staged every year to welcome new arrivals.
That was despite “initiation-style” ceremonies having been banned by the university, he said. Universities have attempted to crack down on the practice following a string of deaths.
A pre-inquest hearing into the incident last October was told that his fellow students texted each other “deny, deny deny” as the police began an investigation into the 20-year-old’s death.
The hearing, expected to last five days, continues.
A round of 100 triple vodkas had been ordered at one of the pubs, the hearing was told