A man died in his own home after he was set upon by an 'aggressive' chicken, an inquest heard this week.
Cancer survivor Jasper Kraus, who was originally from the Netherlands and lived in a village in Ireland, suffered puncture wounds to his left leg that caused massive bleeding shortly before his death.
Daughter Virginia Guinan raced to the house in Killahornia, County Roscommon, on April 28, 2022, to find a pool of blood and an emergency response underway after being contacted by her father's lodger about an attack.
She told the inquest in Ballaghaderreen that one of the Brahma chickens had blood on its claws and said she believed it was the culprit because that particular bird had also "attacked my daughter before", reports the Irish Mirror.
Mr Kraus's tenant Corey O’Keeffe, who had been living in his house for two years, meanwhile said he had returned home at 8am after finishing night duty.
Furious chimp launches bottle at girl filming him leaving her bleeding at zooCorey said he asked Jasper how he was doing and fed the animals before going to bed, but woke up to the him suddenly screaming “come quick”.
Giving evidence, he said blood was coming out of Jasper’s leg. He recalled noticing a large wound on the calf and said there were two other scratches on his other leg.
Corey called 999 and after treating the cut he was told how to do CPR, which he performed for 25 minutes before the ambulance arrived.
Jasper was falling in and out of consciousness during this time while saying the word “rooster”, he said.
In a deposition read out at the inquest, Dr Annette Jennings said paramedics were attempting to resuscitate Jasper when she arrived at the scene, but he was pronounced dead at 3.24pm.
She noted that the circumstances of his death were unusual as a wound had been inflicted on his left calf by a chicken.
Dr Ramadan Shatwan, who carried out an autopsy at University College Hospital, said that the deceased’s face was covered in dry blood but there were no cuts to his face were found.
The doctor - who gave evidence at the inquest - also said that both Jasper’s lower limbs were covered in blood.
He concluded that the cause of death was due to lethal cardiac arrhythmia in the context of severe coronary atheroma and cardiomegaly.
When asked by Virginia if her dad had a heart attack, he agreed and said another contributory factor was that the blood supply to the man’s heart was “severely calcified”.
Scientists plan to ‘de-extinct’ the Dodo and release it back into the wildVirginia said the family knew Jasper’s heart “was bad”, before going on to say she had to clean up her dad’s blood in the house and argued that there should be support for people who find themselves in the situation.