Death by Vuvuzela? It's Actually Possible

(Sept. 6) -- Soccer fans may have wanted to kill themselves at the 2010 World Cup this summer because of the incessant buzz of those annoying South African vuvuzelas, but who knew the noisy stadium horns could actually kill?

According to Spike TV's "1,000 Ways to Die" -- an offbeat series about weird causes of death and freak accidents that begins its third season Sept. 14 -- "death by vuvuzela" is really, truly possible.

Series creator Thom Beers, the man behind such TV hits as "Deadliest Catch" and "Monster Garage," told AOL News that producers thoroughly researched the vuvuzela with a team of medical experts. The noisemaker did, in all seriousness, turn out to be potentially deadly.

Now, don't blow the whistle on Beers' crazy claim just yet. His theoretical case of death by the horn may make more sense than it sounds. And it doesn't include "people cutting their own wrists" to avoid hearing the bothersome buzz or any "bleeding from the ears," he said.

The episode, dubbed "Feelin' Horny," charts the demise of a soccer fanatic who dies of a ruptured brain aneurysm caused by the strain of blowing a vuvuzela nonstop.

Still sound like a load of bull?

Well, according to Dr. Pavel Bindra, a cardiac electrophysiologist who practices out of Arcadia, Calif., it's not.

Bindra told AOL News the strange scenario is entirely possible because blowing too hard on a horn for a long period time -- say, a whole 90-minute soccer match -- would cause an increase in pressure on the blood vessels.

He said that could lead to high blood pressure and the development of an aneurysm, which "inflates like a balloon on a blood vessel and can eventually pop."

"Any rupture in an aneurysm is serious, but if it happens in the brain blood can fill the skull cavity and the head can burst like a pumpkin, resulting in death," Bindra said.

Although he's never actually witnessed a death by vuvuzela, Bindra wouldn't be surprised to one day come across a case of it, given the frequent use of the stadium horn at sporting events.

Untimely, ends by vuvuzela probably won't be a problem at European League and Champions League soccer matches across Europe in 2012 because the Union of European Football Associations has banned the irritating trumpet from upcoming games, according to The Washington Post.

Still, accidental death by a noisemaker isn't really all that far-fetched when you look at the statistics surrounding unintentional injuries and deaths in the U.S. each year.

According to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the national estimate of unintentional injuries stemming from all causes was 27,877,748 in 2008 alone.

In 2007, the CDC noted 123,706 reported accidental deaths from unintentional injuries, which accounted for 5.1 percent of all meetings with the Grim Reaper that year.

With stats like those, it's no wonder Beers has tapped into freak accidents as fodder for television.

This season, he teased that the show will be exploring the weirdest and wildest death scenarios to date, including a self-liposuction gone wrong, a woman with massive breast implants who gets struck by lightning, a nature lover who chokes on a hairball after attempting CPR on roadkill and the infamous -- and seriously strange -- death of escape artist Harry Houdini.

But no matter how kooky the "ways to die" are, Beers is confident viewers will relate.

"Everyone has had an 'Oh, s--t' moment when they regret whatever dumb move they just made. That moment where you know you're about to get hurt. That's what this show is based on," he said.

In the end, Beers believes the leading cause of accidental death is "stupidity," because those who die in weird ways are usually attempting to take a careless shortcut or "cheat the system" to make their life easier in some way.

"If you play life by the numbers, it works," he said. "It's when you throw wrench in the mix that things begin to crumble."

And though Beers admits the smartest strategy in life is probably to play it safe, he also wonders, "What's the fun in that?"

Ultimately, he believes the motto "If you're not living on the edge, then you're taking up too much room" is a good saying to live by -- or, as fate would sometimes have it, die by.