suffocation

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Spit Hoods Are Used Where You Might Not Expect
Spit Hoods Are Used
Where You Might Not Expect
LONGFORM
Feb 7, 2026 2:20 PM CST

Spit Hoods Are Used Where You Might Not Expect

Investigation finds unregulated use in psychiatric and medical settings

(Newser) - The former chief medical officer at Connecticut's only maximum security psychiatric hospital calls it a "dehumanizing" device that he would never use. And yet spit hoods are employed in medical settings in many US states. In an in-depth investigation for the Seattle Times , Hannah Furfaro reports that state-run...

Skier Dies After Falling Into Pile of Fresh, Deep Snow

Toronto woman, 47, may have suffocated after immersion accident in Banff National Park

(Newser) - A ski trip in Alberta's Banff National Park turned fatal over the weekend for a 47-year-old woman from Toronto. Sunshine Village Ski Resort says the woman was skiing on Saturday afternoon on Banff Avenue, a beginner-rated green run on the lower mountain, when she plunged into a pocket of...

Woman Killed by Electric Car Window

Tragedy unfolds as hand brake mishap triggers fatal window closure

(Newser) - A woman in eastern France was killed in a freak accident while cleaning her car, according to French media outlets cited by People . Bernadette Delmotte, 60, was cleaning her Fiat 500 on June 13 in Saone-et-Loire when, investigators believe, the car began to roll backward. Delmotte apparently leaned through...

'Dry Drowning' Blamed in Superyacht Deaths

Autopsies on 4 individuals suggest they found an air bubble, eventually asphyxiated

(Newser) - Initial autopsies performed on four of the seven people who lost their lives in the sinking of a superyacht off the coast of Sicily indicate they didn't drown , at least not in the usual way. Chris and Neda Morvillo and Jonathan and Anne Bloomer had no water in their...

4 Prison Guards Charged With Murder: 'It's George Floyd 3.0'

Fifth officer hit with manslaughter charges in the death of Othel Moore Jr. in Missouri

(Newser) - Four Missouri prison guards were charged Friday with murder, and a fifth with involuntary manslaughter, in the December death of a Black man who died after the officers pepper-sprayed him and covered his face while in custody at a correctional facility, according to a complaint filed Friday. The guards at...

Two 4-Year-Olds Die in Toy Box
Two 4-Year-Olds Die in Toy Box
Sep 1, 2023 10:01 AM CDT

Two 4-Year-Olds Die in Toy Box

No charges have been filed in Jacksonville deaths

(Newser) - Two 4-year-olds in Jacksonville died last weekend in what is believed to be a tragedy that federal regulators have long sought to prevent. The children "were pronounced deceased after they were found unresponsive in a footlocker/toybox while playing at home," the Florida Department of Children and Families said...

Scientist Found in Bunker Died From 'Criminal Act'

Suzanne Eaton was reportedly suffocated

(Newser) - The American scientist whose body was found in a World War II bunker on Crete nearly a week after she vanished died as the result of a "criminal act." A state coroner tells the AP he believes the death occurred near the time Suzanne Eaton was last sighted...

Spike in Suicides Followed Death of Robin Williams

Researchers can't prove his suicide caused copycats, but the numbers did rise after he died

(Newser) - The world was shocked by the August 2014 death of Robin Williams , but "middle-aged men in despair" may have taken his suicide especially hard, Reuters notes. For a study published Wednesday in Plos One , researchers sifted through CDC data from 1999 through 2015 and found that there was a...

Answers Died With Woman Buried Alive at Beach: Cops

Police end investigation into death of Ashley O'Connor

(Newser) - Without discovering a satisfactory explanation for her death, police have closed the investigation into a woman who suffocated beneath the sand of a Maryland beach, WTOP reports. "How the hole collapsed, she unfortunately is the only person that will know," Ocean City Police Chief Ross Buzzuro says. Ashley...

Mom Sues Hospital for $8.6M After Suffocating Her Newborn

Monica Thompson was heavily medicated when staff left him to nurse

(Newser) - Monica Thompson tried for 12 years to get pregnant, so when she had her first child, Jacob, she called him her "miracle baby." Tragically, he didn't live past day 10. Now the mother of a toddler girl, Thompson is suing Portland Adventist Medical Center in Oregon for...

Newlywed Found Dead on Beach Was Buried Alive

Ashley O'Connor suffocated in hole in sand

(Newser) - The Texas woman found buried on a Maryland beach Monday met with what was apparently a fatal stroke of bad luck. Ocean City police say Ashley O'Connor suffocated in a deep hole that apparently collapsed or was otherwise filled with sand sometime after 2am Monday. "We don't...

10-Year-Old Found Dead Under 2 Feet of Snow

It was a freak accident

(Newser) - A boy doing what any kid does on a snow day—digging around in the snow—met a tragic end when the tunnel he had burrowed collapsed and suffocated him. The 10-year-old was playing on his grandparents' farm in upstate New York Wednesday when his father, who was clearing the...

Author's Joke at Her Home May Have Given Killer an Idea

'Great place to hide a body,' said Helen Bailey

(Newser) - While giving a tour of her $1.6 million home in 2013 with her partner in tow, children's author Helen Bailey noted that the cesspool beneath the garage would be a "good place to hide a body," according to court documents. Prosecutors said that's exactly how...

Kitten Experiment in 4th-Grade Textbook Outrages Parents

India science primer tells kids to suffocate cats to illustrate how living beings need air

(Newser) - A textbook has sparked outrage in India for instructing fourth-graders to suffocate a kitten to show how living beings need air. The experiment described in the environmental science textbook for 9-year-olds tells the students to place two kittens in separate boxes, one of them without air holes, and wait to...

'Co-Sleeping' Mom Charged After a 2nd Baby Dies

Erin Piche-Pitts had been warned on co-sleeping dangers for both babies, authorities say

(Newser) - "It happened again" is what Erin Piche-Pitts told authorities when her second infant died of apparent suffocation, even though she'd been repeatedly warned about the dangers of co-sleeping, the New York Times reports. The son of the woman from Winter Haven, Fla., died in October, this time resulting...

Menstruating Teen Sent to Outdoor Hut. She Didn't Survive

Nepal tradition of 'chaupadi' banishes menstruating females from their homes

(Newser) - A 15-year-old girl in Nepal who had been banished to a tiny, outdoor hut because she was having her period was found dead in the morning, and now police are investigating, reports the BBC . It was cold, and she'd lit a small fire, but "there wasn't any...

Toddler Dies Pinned Under Daycare's Beanbag Chair

Employee accidentally sat on the chair, say police

(Newser) - Leonardo Sanchez should be celebrating his second birthday on Saturday, but instead of a party, "I'm planning his funeral," his mom tells Utah's KSL . In what police are calling a "very tragic, sad accident," Leonardo was playing with other children at West Jordan Child...

Girl, 11, Dies After Choking on Marshmallow at Birthday Party

She was unconscious for nearly a week

(Newser) - An 11-year-old Massachusetts girl died early Friday after choking on a marshmallow at a friend's birthday party, NBC 10 News reports. According to WCVB , Iris Estabrooks dropped off her daughter Azriel at the party in Somerset last Saturday. An hour later, she got a call that Azriel was unconscious....

8-Year-Old Found Dead With Birthday Balloon Over Head

Emergency personnel spent nearly an hour trying to revive the girl

(Newser) - Just hours after a birthday party, an 8-year-old girl went to bed at her home in Portland, Ore., only to be found not breathing by her father 20 minutes later with a large Mylar balloon over her head. Now her devastated family is hoping to raise awareness about the dangers...

Cops: Dad Smothered Son While Playing Video Games

Boy, 6, suffocated on Christmas Eve

(Newser) - Authorities say a 6-year-old Florida boy is dead after his father pinned him against a couch while the man and his girlfriend played video games Christmas Eve. Local media outlets report that 31-year-old James Dearman was charged Thursday with aggravated manslaughter of a child. A Sarasota County Sheriff's Office...

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