Dad demands urgent change to food after son died choking on a grape

23 May 2024 , 09:45

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A grieving father is making an urgent call for change after his young son Zaire died from choking on a grape

A dad whose baby son died in his arms after choking to death on a grape has issued an urgent plea to food companies.

Devastated Brian Bwoga's son Zaire, one, died after putting pieces of fruit into his mouth. Dad Brian had been with his son at Burns Beach, Western Australia, when he noticed the toddler had his hands around his neck.

Realising with horror what was happening, Brian sprang into action performing CPR, managing to clear one grape from his throat. He told how Zaire, nicknamed ZaZa, started to go blue and stopped breathing in the terrifying incident on January 15.

"He gave me one final look, a smile, and passed away in my arms. He died in my arms," Brian told 7News. Brian, a chef, said he would always cut up Zaire's food into small pieces, but on this occasion the youngster's friend gave him the piece of fruit.

Mr Bwoga noticed something was wrong when Zaire approached him, holding his neck, and sprang into action to perform CPR

Emergency services were called to the scene, but sadly paramedics were unable to save Zaire, who was shortly due to turn two. Now Brian is pushing for more food companies to place warnings on packaging and in supermarkets over the dangers of young children putting small pieces of fruit in their mouths, just like they do with toys.

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It comes after Brian, from Perth, began looking into the number of fatal choking incidents in Australia. Some 1,200 people died in the country after choking in 2020-2021, according to figures from the Australian government, accounting for nearly one in 10 injury-related deaths.

Furthermore, there were 134 children aged four and under who choked or suffocated to death in the same period. Two infants died due to choking on food.

Despite this, the country has no requirements for the food industry to label items such as grapes with choking warnings. Brian has created a petition calling on the rule to change.

"Warning labels or a sign when purchasing grapes is a fairly simple thing," Mr Bwoga wrote in the petition. "It's a priceless service if it saves a life. Ideally, we would like supermarkets and big chains to consider putting some choking hazard warning labels on grapes just like they do on toys and other things."

Susie Beever