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DEATH

Swedish man dies after swallowing toothpick

A man in southern Sweden died after doctors failed to notice a toothpick stuck in his throat.

Published: 13 May 2013 15:08 CEST

The man, who was in his sixties, had been eating pork served with toothpicks when he inadvertently swallowed one. He did not notice at the time that it had got stuck in his oesophagus.

By the next day he had problems swallowing and was taken to the emergency ward in Karlskrona, southern Sweden. Doctors were unable to detect any problem and sent the man home.

Ten days later, however, the man was back in hospital with a hole in his windpipe and a serious infection that demanded an emergency operation. While doctors performed surgery, the patient suffered haemorrhages and died the next day in Malmö’s vascular clinic.

The incident, which occurred in December, has been registered with Sweden’s National Health Board (Socialstyrelsen) in a Lex Maria report, the informal name for regulations governing the reporting of injuries or incidents in the Swedish health-care system.

TT/The Local/og

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NORWAY

Body found in Oslo flat nine years after death

A man lay dead in his flat for nine years before being discovered in December, police in Oslo have said.

Published: 9 April 2021 11:20 CEST
Body found in Oslo flat nine years after death
Photo by pichet wong from Pexels

The man, who was in his sixties, had been married more than once and also had children, national broadcaster NRK reports.

His name has been kept anonymous. According to neighbours he liked to keep to himself and when they didn’t see him, they thought he had moved or been taken to assisted living.

“Based on the details we have, it is obviously a person who has chosen to have little contact with others,” Grethe Lien Metild, chief of Oslo Police District, told NRK.

His body was discovered when a caretaker for the building he was living in requested police open the apartment so he could carry out his work.

“We have thought it about a lot, my colleagues and people who have worked with this for many years. This is a special case, and it makes us ask questions about how it could happen,” Metild said.

Police believe the man died in April 2011, based on a carton of milk and a letter that were found in his apartment. An autopsy has shown he died of natural causes.

READ ALSO: Immigrants in Norway more likely to be affected by loneliness

His pension was suspended in 2018 when the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration (NAV) could not get in touch with him, but his bills were still paid out of his bank account and suspended pension fund.

Arne Krokan, a professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, said the man’s death would have unlikely gone unnoticed for so long if he had died 30 years ago.

“In a way, it is the price we have paid to get digital services,” he said to NRK.

Last year 27 people were found in Oslo, Asker or Bærum seven days or more after dying. The year before the number was 32 people. Of these, one was dead for almost seven months before being discovered.

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