Elderly Man Chokes To Death After Eating ‘Live’ Octopus In South Korea

Man In South Korea Chokes While Eating ‘Live’ Octopus, Passes Away Despite Efforts To Rescue Him

There are some foods that can kill you if not cooked or eaten properly.

While chomping down on a ‘live’ octopus dish, an elderly man in South Korea began choking and passed away.

Despite efforts to resuscitate him, medical personnel were unable to save him.

This is not the first time such a death has occurred from the consumption of live octopus, with three deaths reported between 2007 and 2012.

Man in South Korea chokes to death while eating live octopus

According to The Korea Herald, the dish is called sannakji — which literally translates as “live octopus” — and consists of the cephalopod seasoned with salt and sesame oil.

Customers would consume it while the tentacles are still wriggling around on the plate.

On Monday (23 Oct), an 82-year-old man was eating it in the southern city of Gwangju.

According to the Gwangju Gwangsan Fire Station, he then began choking and passed away.

First responders arrived at the scene after an emergency call at 11.38am.

However, their efforts to resuscitate the man proved unsuccessful and a local hospital pronounced him dead.

One of the world’s deadliest dishes

Sannakji shot to global notoriety thanks to a scene from ‘Oldboy’, Park Chan-wook’s iconic action thriller released in 2004.

In the scene, Choi Min-sik’s character eats a whole live octopus in a sushi bar.

You might want to quickly scroll through the following gif if you’re easily squeamish.

In real life, however, the tentacles are usually chopped up into smaller pieces.

Videos have emerged of tourists trying out the Korean delicacy in the country’s fish markets, despite its risks.

This particular tragedy resulting from the consumption of sannakji isn’t the only one to have occurred in South Korea.

From 2007 to 2012, three victims passed away from asphyxiation after eating live octopus, based on data by Seoul Metropolitan Fire and Disaster Headquarters.

Back in 2013, two deaths took place and another incident also occurred in 2019, involving a man in his 70s.

The dangers of consuming the delicacy led The Economic Times to rank sannakji as one of the world’s deadliest food items.

As such, The Korea Herald advises those who want to try the dish to dice the tentacles into smaller portions.

They should also refrain from consuming alcohol while trying the dish as intoxication might increase the likelihood of choking.

Also read: Elderly Woman In Johor Dies After Cooking & Eating Pufferfish, Husband In ICU

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Featured image adapted from Wikipedia, for illustration purposes only.