A UK man who managed a wedding venue for a living has died after a freak accident while preparing for an upcoming event.
In April, the venue's chef asked Darren Hickey to try a hot fish cake, burning the back of his throat and causing his voice box to swell, the Daily Mail reports.
"He's had hot food and stated, 'I've burned my throat,'" pathologist Patrick Waugh, who performed the post-mortem, told the tabloid.
"Then there's pain and he would have had difficulty swallowing because of the pain and then he would have had more swelling which would have made it difficult to breathe or swallow.
"Basically, we normally see this scenario in people who are involved in house fires with inhalation of smoke which burns the airways or in industrial accidents with hot steam. The patient can appear well, they will be talking to you, but then the swelling starts."
Hickey, 51, went to hospital but was sent home and told to take paracetamol. He died the next day after an ambulance arrived late, struggling to find his home.
An inquest into his death heard the delay was unlikely to have contributed to the death, the Mail reports.
Newshub.
