Metal drinking straw impales UK woman’s brain, killing her

[Teh One Who Knocks]

By Zachary Kussin - The New York Post




Reusable metal straws may be good for the planet, but they can also kill you.

The November 2018 death of Broadstone, England, resident Elena Struthers-Gardner has just been ruled accidental. According to the Daily Echo, the 60-year-old woman collapsed in her kitchen while holding a glass — whose 10-inch steel straw drove through her left eye socket and pierced her brain.

Specifically, Struthers-Gardner was carrying a jar-style glass with a screw-top lid that held the straw in place.

The cause of death was traumatic brain injury — and the coroner who investigated her gruesome end is warning others not to use metal straws in drink lids that keep them fixed in place.

“Clearly great care should be taken when using these metal straws,” assistant coroner Brendan Allen tells the Daily Echo in a statement. “There is no give in them at all.”

Struthers-Gardner, a retired jockey, was prone to falls following a riding accident she sustained at age 21, which left her with multiple fractures to her lumbar spine and scoliosis.

After collapsing in her kitchen on Nov. 22, 2018, her wife, Mandy Struthers-Gardner, found her lying face-down and making “unusual gurgling sounds.” It was only after she was turned over that the wife saw the straw had pierced her eye — and that it was still attached to the drinking jar.

“I did not hear her fall,” said Mandy in a statement read by the coroner. “Her glass cup was lying on the floor still intact and the straw was still in the jar. I noticed the straw was sticking into her head.”

Struthers-Gardner was rushed to a hospital in Southampton, in the south of England, but succumbed to the injury the next day.

“I just feel that in the hands of mobility-challenged people like Elena, or children, or even able-bodied people losing their footing, these [straws] are so long and very strong,” said Mandy. “Even if they don’t end a life, they can be very dangerous.”

[PorkChopSandwiches]

Weird they leave out the fact that she was drunk as shit and drinking straight vodka out of the cup

[Teh One Who Knocks]

[PorkChopSandwiches]

I'm serious

[PorkChopSandwiches]

The inquest also heard Mrs Struthers-Gardner had suffered with mobility problems following a horse riding accident at the age of 21.

A reduction in her pain medication had also caused her to become dependent on alcohol.

She had been drinking half a litre of vodka a day, mixed with orange juice, from the mason jar cup in the run-up to her death.

This was added, not in the original story I read

However she had not been drinking alcohol at the time of the accident.

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/11...on-jar-inquest

[Hal-9000]

Also, the incident seemed to be a fluke physically. Straw stuck in cup, her history of collapsing due to prior injury, penetrated her ocular socket in a specific location.


Back in driving school we were shown a graphic death because the driver had left the sun visor down in a certain position and then got into a head-on collision. It was a total fluke due to the driver's height, the angle and composition of the visor, along with the make of the car.

[Teh One Who Knocks]

Yeah, it was an "accident"

[Hal-9000]

Yeah, it was an "accident"

as her wife stands there holding a hammer for some unknown reason..

[Godfather]

I really hate single-use plastic... it's out of control. But straws are one that I can't let go. One fucking stupid ass turtle gets a straw in their nose and now plastic straws are banned. Have you ever tried to drink a Slurpee from a paper straw? It SUCKS.

RIP lady, your death is not in vein. I'm ordering 500 plastic straws on Amazon right now.

[Hal-9000]

I really hate single-use plastic... it's out of control. But straws are one that I can't let go. One fucking stupid ass turtle gets a straw in their nose and now plastic straws are banned. Have you ever tried to drink a Slurpee from a paper straw? It SUCKS.

RIP lady, your death is not in vein. I'm ordering 500 plastic straws on Amazon right now.

What I don't get about the plastic in the ocean crisis is that we allow wholesale dumping into water. Surely we have thousands of land locations where people don't live. Why not create giant plastic pits and get the boats to dump it on shore?

And the term one use plastics is a little confusing. We're told to put our plastic bags into the recycling bin and we do. If they're truly one use, why am I sending them to the recyclers?

[PorkChopSandwiches]

One fucking stupid ass turtle gets a straw in their nose and now plastic straws are banned.

Plus the straw most likely isnt from the US/Canada. Our trash goes into land fills. Its most likely coming from places that will continue to use straws and throw their trash in the ocean

[Teh One Who Knocks]

I really hate single-use plastic... it's out of control. But straws are one that I can't let go. One fucking stupid ass turtle gets a straw in their nose and now plastic straws are banned. Have you ever tried to drink a Slurpee from a paper straw? It SUCKS.

RIP lady, your death is not in vein. I'm ordering 500 plastic straws on Amazon right now.

You're probably joking, but when they started talking about banning those plastic shopping bags down here, I ordered a case of 1,000 from Amazon because those are the bags I use to clean dog crap up in the back yard Ever since I bought the case though, there's been no more talk of banning the bags (except in the People's Republic of Boulder).

[PorkChopSandwiches]

You can still get them here but they charge you .10 per bag

[Teh One Who Knocks]

You can still get them here but they charge you .10 per bag

Really? How do they make sure you're paying for them at the self checkout?

[Goofy]

You can still get them here but they charge you .10 per bag

Yep, 5p per bag over here