Patient literally eats herself to (brain) death Article: http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/04/21/hospital-allows-patient-to-eat-herself-to-death-and-other-tales-from-new-california-report Even though the recovering brain-surgery patient was known to suffer from a food-and-swallowing disorder that caused her to shove food into her mouth at a dangerously fast clip, staffers failed to get her the soft-food meals ordered by her doctors. “Continues to eat without chewing well and tends to choke,” a physical therapist wrote in a report. “She continues to shovel food into [her] mouth quickly and without chewing and swallowing at regular intervals and continues to choke.” In late March of 2016, the patient stuffed so much food into her mouth that she went into cardiac arrest, causing her heart to stop beating for 13 minutes. Doctors tried to save her, but they had trouble dislodging everything she’d crammed into her mouth. The report said the food pieces were “just too big to be sucked out” and a doctor had to use a pair of forceps to remove the food matter so they could insert an intubation tube. She was eventually pronounced brain dead. The Penalty: $75,000