UnNews:Oldest man in history chokes on ping pong ball

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12 June 2013

Mr Kimura just days before his death, showing his dangerously wide-open mouth.

A Japanese man recognised as the world's oldest living person, and the oldest man recorded in history, has died tragically aged 116 after an accident with a ping pong ball.

Jiroemon Kimura died on Wednesday in a hospital in Kyotango, Kyoto, after two of his grandsons, Kimi, 64 and Komo, 61, were playing table tennis on an unused trolley in his hospital ward, and Komo accidentally hit the ball into his gaping mouth.

The small white ball lodged fatally in Mr Kimura's windpipe, and when Kimi attempted to give him the Heimlich maneuver, the frail centurion snapped in half like a Twix.

The incident has caused a major rift in the family, with Jiroemon's son - Kimi and Kom's uncle - Timpo, 94, saying, "He died too young. It wasn't his time. He had so much to live for, and these two whippersnappers have cut his life short, and all for what? Ping-pong."

Initial reports suggested that Ping Pong was also the name of Mr Kimura's grandson, but this was later revealed to be a racist joke.

Sources

• Leverage, "Oldest man in history Jiroemon Kimura dies at 116" BBC, June 12, 2013