Student chokes to death in pancake-eating contest: family sues

Caitlin Nelson was a 20-year-old woman at Connecticut's Sacred Heart University who choked to death during a pancake-eating contest. The grieving family has filed a lawsuit against the school in hopes, not to make money, but to raise "awareness of the preventable dangers associated with amateur eating competitions."

Nelson, of Clark, N.J., was participating in Sacred Heart University's 'Greek Week' celebration in late March last year and reportedly began to shake uncontrollably and fell to the floor after eating a lot of pancakes in a short time period.

Two nursing students at the charity event tried life-saving measures before police and paramedics arrived, Fairfield Police Lt. Bob Kalamaras said. The family's lawsuit states that responding officers found a mass of pancake paste "like concrete" in Nelson's airway.

Nelson was rushed to St. Vincent's Medical Center in Bridgeport and later transferred to New York Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center in upper Manhattan, where she died. Lt. Kalamaras said of the incident that it was "a tragic event that started out as something fun."

"Caitlin's family is bringing this case to expose the dangers associated with amateur eating contests and to help prevent other families from having to endure this kind of preventable tragedy," attorney Katie Mesner-Hage of Koskoff, Koskoff & Bieder said in a statement. Their firm is representing the family.

"These contests are significantly more dangerous than people realize and it's critically important for the public--especially educational institutions, to understand that certain foods are safer than others and a modicum of forethought can literally save lives."

The family had already lost Caitlin's father, a Port Authority officer, in the Sept. 11 terror attacks. She was studying social work and her organs were donated after her death.

So since the family is suing to make an important point, it can probably go without saying [but I will] that the family isn't suing the school for the money and will only want one dollar in compensation to make their point.

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