Buzz
Contrary to common belief, not every American owns a firearm. In fact, it’s quite uncommon for people to store weapons in their homes, unless you count kitchen knives. Even certain gardening tools might evoke images of medieval weapons, but that’s another matter entirely.
For most individuals, a quick look around their home would lead them to think that very few objects, if any, could cause harm. However, these ten accounts will demonstrate how even the most surprising household items can be fatal.
10. A Coffee Mug
When sipping your morning coffee, the warmth of the mug in your hands may bring comfort, and perhaps even a smile. The mug might feature a family photo, a humorous saying, or a beloved character. The last thing you'd ever think of is using it as a weapon, but that's precisely what occurred in 2006 in Stilfontein, South Africa.
A brother and sister were arguing on a Saturday night, and the situation quickly escalated. Apparently, the brother had no qualms about hitting women, as he punched his sister in the face. The 20-year-old woman, enraged by this, grabbed a nearby coffee mug and threw it at him. She likely only intended to bruise him, but the impact was so forceful that the mug shattered and cut his throat. Blood poured from the wound as he collapsed. Despite his sister's attempt to call for help, he bled out before the medics could arrive.
9. A Lava Lamp
Lava lamps, a favorite among stoners who watch the colorful blobs move, can sometimes pose unexpected dangers. In 2004, 24-year-old Philip Quinn was living alone in his trailer in Kent, Washington. He placed his lava lamp on the stove, which was still hot. The heat from the stove caused the chemicals inside the lamp to heat up and explode.
Shards of glass flew at him, and one piece pierced his heart. Since he lived alone, there was no one nearby to help. His parents, unable to reach him, eventually found his body when they visited the trailer. An autopsy confirmed that Philip was neither high nor drunk at the time of his death. The reason he placed the lava lamp on the stove remains a mystery.
8. An Office Chair
Office chairs are equipped with a small tank of compressed air beneath their seats, enabling the chair to adjust its height. Unfortunately, a batch of chairs manufactured in China had faulty canisters. In 2009, a 14-year-old boy named Xiaogang was adjusting his chair when it suddenly exploded while he was still seated. Shards of plastic and metal flew through the cushion, striking him in the anus. He was rushed to the hospital, but the bleeding was so severe that he died.
After the initial report of this incident in Chinese, a group of English-speaking internet sleuths on Skeptics Stack Exchange sought to confirm the truth of the story by translating Chinese news sources. It turned out that not only was this incident accurate, but several others had suffered similar injuries. The faulty chair was quickly pulled from the market, and we can only hope that none of them ever made it overseas.
7. A Bottle Cap
You may recall learning about playwright Tennessee Williams in English class, but what your teacher likely didn’t mention was how he passed away. Like many tortured artists, Williams struggled with a drinking problem. One night in 1983, after drinking an entire bottle of wine by himself, he went through his nightly ritual of using nasal spray and applying eye drops. He had a bad habit of keeping the bottle caps between his teeth. Unfortunately, he tilted his head back too far and accidentally inhaled the cap. He choked to death on the floor of the Hotel Elysee in New York City.
Williams was reportedly a hypochondriac, obsessed with the idea of disease and constantly worrying about how he would die. The tragic irony was that he died in good health due to a freak accident. At 71 years old, most assumed his death was natural, a part of old age. However, when doctors conducted an autopsy, they discovered the bottle cap lodged in his larynx. It’s also worth noting that Seconal, a barbiturate derivative, has been linked to his death.
6. A Christmas Tree
Real Christmas trees have a delightful fragrance, and many families prefer them over artificial ones. However, people often overlook the fact that they can become extremely dry and must be watered daily. Keeping them around the house for too long can turn them into a significant fire hazard. On January 18, 2015, the four Boone children were visiting their grandparents’ mansion in Maryland for a late holiday celebration and sleepover. They left the Christmas tree lights on overnight, and in the early hours of January 19, the 15-foot tree caught fire.
Tragically, all six family members perished in the blaze. According to the National Fire Protection Association, Christmas trees are responsible for starting an average of 200 house fires and causing at least six deaths each year.
5. Air Conditioners
Window air conditioners can be a bit unnerving, especially when you're walking through a city. With all those heavy metal units hanging above, it seems likely that one might eventually fall. In fact, in 1988, a falling air conditioner killed a 37-year-old man named Vito DeGiorgio in New York City.
The air conditioner belonged to a family services office, and a repairman was called to fix it. He unscrewed the top of the unit without a second person to help hold it steady, which is why it fell and struck DeGiorgio on the head.
Since the 1980s, the image of a falling air conditioner has become a recurring theme in TV shows and movies. While it's rare, occasionally an air conditioner will drop because its supports were too weak, injuring someone below.
4. A Mattress
Anyone who has taken care of a toddler knows that the 'terrible twos' are no joke, and the stress of trying to manage it all only increases when there are multiple children in the family. Justin Dwyer and Courtney Stash, parents in Pennsylvania, were at their breaking point when one of their triplets, Eoin, kept climbing out of his crib every night.
Though there were much safer and more effective solutions to the problem, Stash and Dwyer decided to place a mattress on top of Eoin’s crib and added several 23-kilogram (50 lb) bags of driveway salt. They then used bungee cords to secure it all in place.
In April 2017, Eoin tried to escape the crib by squeezing between the mattress and the top rail of the crib. He got stuck and suffocated. When his parents found him, they called 911 but attempted to hide the mattress and salt bags. It was their eight-year-old son who revealed their nightly ritual to the authorities. The parents were arrested on charges of aggravated assault and involuntary manslaughter.
3. TV Sets
As television sets continue to become thinner and lighter with each passing year, they bring numerous benefits—except when they aren’t properly secured to a wall. Children can easily pull them down, leading to serious injuries. In fact, every 30 minutes in the U.S., a child visits the emergency room due to an injury from a falling TV. Between 2000 and 2011, 215 children lost their lives when a TV fell on them. Most of these incidents occurred when TVs toppled from dressers or entertainment centers, and the majority of the victims were under the age of five.
One tragic incident occurred in 2008 at the Hughes family home in Liverpool, England. The downstairs playroom was where their four-year-old daughter, Emily May Hughes, was sitting near the bottom of the stairs, engrossed in her Nintendo DS. Her father, who was carrying a new TV down the stairs on his own, didn’t notice her at the bottom. In a split second, he tripped over her and accidentally dropped the TV onto her head.
2. Riding Mowers
Riding mowers are a coveted possession for many homeowners with large yards. While they make lawn mowing far easier than using a push mower, parents may rethink this desire if they knew that in the United States, 800 children are run over by tractors and mowers annually, with 600 of them requiring amputations.
In 2017, a father from Alabama was mowing the lawn on a Sunday. While backing up the mower without checking behind him, he unknowingly ran over his three-year-old daughter. Despite rushing her to the hospital, it was too late, and she had already passed.
It’s not only children who are at risk with riding mowers. Adults also face dangers, such as the mowers tipping over on hills, resulting in fatal accidents. Others suffer from severe burns after touching the hot engine, or get run over, or have their limbs caught in the machinery.
1. Window Blind Cords
In the United States, at least two children are rushed to the emergency room every day due to injuries caused by window blind cords. Many young kids try to fit their little heads through the dangling strings, and tragically, some end up choking to death. These incidents are most common with children between the ages of one and four, when their curiosity gets the best of them. They see a cord hanging and instinctively reach for it, unaware of the danger. What makes these fatalities even more heartbreaking is that often, parents never hear their child struggle, as the cord cuts off their air supply, making it impossible to make a sound.
This is a heartbreaking risk that many new parents don’t consider, but it’s completely avoidable. The solution is simple: keep cords out of reach or switch to window shades that don’t use strings at all.
