Baby dies after choking on beans in family shop in Jaén

An 18-month-old baby has died after choking on a handful of dried beans (habichuelas) taken from a sack in the small food shop run by the parents in Villanueva del Arzobispo, in the Andalusian province of Jaén, according to Diario Jaén. All three outlets covering the story today, Diario Jaén, The Objective and OKDiario, agree that it happened on Monday afternoon, although none of the reports we have seen spells out the exact date.

Diario Jaén gives the most detail on the first minutes: the parents rushed the child to the local health centre in Villanueva del Arzobispo, where staff managed to stabilise them. The Objective and OKDiario pick up the story from there, reporting that the baby was then flown by the 061 emergency service's medical helicopter to the Reina Sofía hospital in Córdoba, underwent surgery there and died afterwards. The outlets word the medical side slightly differently (some describe a straightforward choking death, others point to what happened after the operation), so the precise sequence at the hospital is still unclear.

On the family, Diario Jaén and OKDiario both say the baby was the youngest of four children in a family of Moroccan origin who settled in Villanueva del Arzobispo several years ago and run the shop where the accident happened. The Objective is the outlet quoting the town's mayor, Jorge Martínez, who publicly called it "una desgracia", a tragedy. Summaries of the Spanish coverage found through web searches also say the child's body was due to be taken to the Valencia region for burial in a Muslim cemetery. Accounts differ on whether that was the parents' own choice or went against their wish for a local burial, and we can't settle that here.

The story is trending on Google Trends in Spain today, where the first linked article comes from Cadena SER's Úbeda radio station (we couldn't load that page directly). Part of the reason it has struck a chord is that the town is so small. The other part is how ordinary the danger was: a sack of dried pulses sitting in a family shop, within reach of a toddler. If you have little ones at home, it's a painful reminder that small, hard foods are among the most common choking hazards for young children.

Sources : Diario Jaén, The Objective, OKDiario, Cadena SER, Google Trends.