Mayhem in the Morgue : Grapes of Death
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace
iHeartPodcasts and CrimeOnline
4.2 • 8.1K Ratings
🗓️ 22 March 2026
⏱️ 19 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Content Warning: This episode includes discussion of deaths, including the deaths of children. If you’re sensitive to this topic, this episode may not be for you.
Choking is fast, quiet, and more common than most people think. In this episode of Mayhem in the Morgue, Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Kendall Crowns explains what happens when the airway is fully obstructed, why panic and oxygen loss escalate in seconds, and how irreversible brain injury can follow within minutes. Through a series of cases, he shows how choking deaths present across age groups: swallowing problems in the elderly, intoxication and unpredictable behaviors in adults, and everyday household hazards in children. From pica-related obstructions to foreign-body ingestion and a devastating battery case with delayed, catastrophic injury, Dr. Crowns ties the forensic details to the real-world patterns that show up again and again in preventable deaths.
Highlights
• (0:00) Welcome to Mayhem in the Morgue with Dr. Kendall Crowns
• (0:30) Grapes of Death: prevalence, risk groups, and who's most at risk
• (1:00) Choking physiology: complete obstruction and the fast countdown to unconsciousness
• (2:00) Heimlich maneuver basics and why it works
• (4:00) Café coronary syndrome: the misread emergency that can cost a life
• (5:15) Case 1: a 22-year-old, trashed room, and injuries that don’t match a fight
• (7:30) Adult risk factors: impaired gag reflex, talking while eating, and certain mental health conditions
• (7:45) Case 2: pica, latex gloves, and fatal choking
• (9:45) Diagnostic criteria and patterns: the obsession, sensory pull, and short-term relief
• (11:15) Case 3: ballpoint pen ingestion, bowel perforation, peritonitis, and sepsis
• (12:30) Pediatric choking: the biggest hazards and why the youngest kids are most vulnerable
• (13:45) How kids’ airways are different: size, shape, larger tongue proportion, and a floppier epiglottis
• (14:00) Case 4: a 5-month-old, a missed item on the floor, and a cherry blocking the airway
• (15:45) Case 5: swallowed battery, delayed symptoms, burns, erosions, and fistulas into major vessels
• (18:15) Closing: prevention, awareness, and why messaging can save lives
About the Host: Dr. Kendall Crowns is the Chief Medical Examiner for Travis County, Texas, and a nationally recognized forensic pathologist. He has led death investigations in Travis County, Fort Worth, Chicago, and Kansas. Over his career, he has performed thousands of autopsies and testified in court hundreds of times as an expert witness. A frequent contributor to Crime Stories with Nancy Grace, Dr. Crowns brings unparalleled insight into the strange, grisly, and sometimes absurd realities of forensic pathology.
About the Show
Mayhem in the Morgue takes listeners inside the bloody, bizarre, and often unbelievable world of forensic pathology. Hosted by Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Kendall Crowns, each episode delivers real-life cases from the morgue, the crime scene, and the courtroom. Expect gallows humor, hard truths, and unforgettable investigations.
Connect and Learn More
Learn more about Dr. Kendall Crowns on Linkedin. Catch him regularly on Crime Stories with Nancy Grace and follow Mayhem in the Morgue where you get your podcasts.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an I-Heart podcast. |
| 0:20.9 | Guaranteed Human. This episode includes information about the death of individuals, as well as children. If this sort of thing upsets you, this is not the episode for you. Welcome to Mayhem in the morning with your host, Dr. Kendall Crowns. |
| 0:32.5 | Today's episode, Grapes of Death. Today I'm going to be talking about a fairly common type of case. I see these several times a year, and these are individuals dying of choking. Choking is not just |
| 0:40.5 | caused by food, but it can also be caused by objects as well. It causes greater than 5,500 fatalities |
| 0:47.8 | every year, making it the fourth leading cause of death in the United States, and almost half of |
| 0:53.5 | these cases occur at home. |
| 0:56.0 | It can affect every age group, but most commonly affects people over the age of 65, also known as the |
| 1:02.2 | elderly, and children, especially under the age of five. It can also affect adults as well, |
| 1:08.6 | and is often seen in individuals who are intoxicated and in people |
| 1:12.4 | with mental disorders. Choking occurs when a foreign object lodges in the back of your throat, |
| 1:18.3 | blocking the larynx and trachea. The object can also forcibly close the epiglottis, which is the |
| 1:23.6 | cartilaginous flap that closes over your airway when you swallow so you don't inhale food or fluids. |
| 1:30.2 | If your airway is completely blocked, you can't breathe, speak, or even cough, and you can feel |
| 1:35.6 | the object stuck in the back of your throat. You'll keep trying to swallow and trying to make it move, |
| 1:40.6 | but eventually your brain realizes you aren't getting air in, and the clock is now ticking |
| 1:45.2 | for consciousness. Panic sets in, you grab at your throat with both hands, signaling those around |
| 1:51.1 | you that something is wrong, trying to get help. Your face, lips, and skin begin to turn blue |
| 1:56.2 | due to the lack of oxygen, and in about seven to ten seconds, you go unconscious, and in about |
| 2:02.5 | another four to five minutes, brain death occurs. If the object can be cleared, breathing can be |
| 2:08.3 | restored, and the main way to do this is through the use of the Heimlich maneuver, which is a |
| 2:13.2 | maneuver that was developed in 1972 by an American thoracic surgeon, Dr. Henry Heimlich. |
| 2:19.3 | It's a life-saving technique using abdominal thrust to expel the obstruction, and it has saved millions of lives. |
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