Tabor Beacon Newspaper
February 4, 1931

Cliff Campbell

Lad Choked to Death on small "Paper Wad"

Clifford Earl Campbell the five year old, son of Mr. and Mrs. Alvy Campbell who lived in the hills five miles west of Tabor, died suddenly from choking in the yard of their home last Saturday morning, about 10:00 O'clock. 

The lad was playing about as usual with his four brothers and sister, when he suddenly ran into the yard and began thrusting his fingers down his throat in an apparent attempt to relieve a choking.  His mother went to him, but he could not talk so she could understand him, and she was powerless to help him, and he died instantly in her arms. An autopsy held Sunday morning revealed a pellet of paper the size of a marble lodged in the trachea where it branches off to the two lungs.  This had formed a plug which shut off the child's breath and caused death. 

It evidently had been chewed and held in the mouth, and apparently had been drawn into the windpipe by accident while at play.

Source: Submitted by: Stephanie Pierce

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