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Subscribe to RSSA Tennessee café owner died of inhaling fumes from dry ice within minutes after he was accidentally locked inside his restaurant’s cooler on Sunday, an autopsy has determined.
Germantown East Café in East Nashville had closed on Friday because of a planned power outage in the building, NBC station WSMV-TV reported. Because of the outage, dry ice was being used in the cooler to keep food from spoiling.
Co-owner Jay Luther, 47, went to the popular eatery on Sunday night to check on the cooler. He then became locked inside, police said.
On Sunday night, police responded to a robbery alarm at 8:29 p.m., but officers left after they concluded power surges caused a false alarm.
Watch video, read about the case on wsmv.com
On Monday, Luther's body was found in the freezer by the other co-owner, Chris Lowry.
Police later found out that the mechanism to unlock the cooler door from the inside was broken. Part of the device was sitting on a shelf outside the cooler.
According to the medical examiner in Nashville, Luther would have been overcome by carbon dioxide gas from the dry ice found in the enclosed cooler.
“I think it’s just a tragic accident, an unfortunate coming together of circumstances for this poor gentleman that got trapped inside the freezer, at a time there was carbon dioxide there, and he was overwhelmed by the vapors,” Adele Lewis, deputy chief medical examiner for Nashville, told the Tennessean on Tuesday.
Police said they would review their response to the Sunday night call.
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Leave a Comment:
Darwin speaks from the grave.....
I think I saw this movie! :-(
Jack Nicholson: "The Shining" 1980.
Locked in that kitchen walk in cooler minus the dry ice, of course.
...or The Brady Bunch episode titled "Big Little Man" (again, minus the dry ice).
Did he trip the robbery alarm or not. Sounds like the police could of done some more investigating instead of assuming.
Yeah, I'm really curious as to the basis on which they "concluded" power surges caused the alarm.
Time to ban dry ice and sue the dry ice company because there was no warning label on the dangers of dry ice in confined spaces.
This man died from breathing in CO2 fumes? No, CO2 is non-toxic. He died from not inhaling O2.
He actually died from overheating caused by the CO2, a phenomenon known as fridge warming.
Probably wrong. CO2 nacrosis would have knocked him out rather quickly and initially, slowed his breathing. The amount (concentration) of CO2 in the room is quite small relative to atmospheric levelsand would not have displaced the O2 and N2 in the cooler to the level that hypoxia would have killer him. In addition, the amount of CO2 in the cooler would have eventually killed him directly by lowering his body pH even if he did not get KO'd by narcosis. You see, CO2 in the body is hydrated H2CO3, and then dissociates to HCO3 and Hydrogen ion (Acid). The body will not live with pH much less than 7.0 (7.4 normally).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CO%E2%82%82_retention
The man suffocated.
Warrior - Spoken like a true layman...
@ NEA Exec
Actually, if you want to be so technical, you should learn the lingo. Only ionic compounds dissociate in aqueous environments. All acids (which are covalent compounds), including carbonic acid, ionize. Heterolytic bond cleavage allows covalent compounds (i.e. no ions initially present) to release hydrogen cations in solution. Big difference my friend......
There may be a pop quiz later in the week......
'Shlt the bed' would be the proper term.
I've used dry ice to euthanize injured chickens. The fumes are heavier than atmospheric air, and cause asphyxiation very quickly.
BINGO
Density of carbon dioxide is about 1.5 times that of air. 0.00197 vs. 0.00128 g per mL @ STP.
Displaces air (and its oxygen content) in the lungs.
Life imitates art...saw this on an episode of CSI
Seems like it would be an easy way to go-let use it on death row
I think whoever knew the freezer door handle was broken and didn't fix/report it is partly liable for his death. Also if he knew the freezer door wasn't working properly and he could have been locked in, why did he not take a few minutes before he went it and put something in the door to keep it from locking when he was inside? Something is not making sense in this story!