The entire footballing world was thrown into major distress yesterday during a live Euro 2021 football match between the Danish national team and their counterpart from Finland when one of the Danish players in the person of Christian Eriksen collapsed all of a sudden and went lifeless on the pitch. Everyone swung into action almost immediately. The referee signaled to the bench for the medics, the remaining players on the pitch quickly surrounded the victim to shield him from the prying eyes of the cameras while the rest became mere conjectures from the audience's point of view.
While the medics were attending to the player, the body language of his teammates, and indeed, the rest of the players on the pitch was gloomy and an audience watching from home would think the worst has occurred. To worsen the situation and deepen the conjectures, the match was called off a few minutes after and the player was transferred to the hospital for further analysis after what seemed to be an unsuccessful attempt at reviving him from the audience point. Like I said earlier, only the players could probably tell what was going on and their body language reeked of negativity.
Some minutes later, a piece of good news emerged from the medics and the Danish team's doctors of the player being successfully revived and awake. He even went as far as face timing his teammates just for them to be double sure and in no time, the match was rescheduled to commence a few minutes after. The rest of the evening was filled with hero singing with some attributing Erikson's survival to the swift action of the referee in ensuring that the player got attended to immediately by the medics, some praised his playing colleagues for shielding the entire world from the horror while many praised the medics for their god-like efforts to bring him back from unconsciousness.
One particular praise-singing that provoked me into writing is the tweet made by several individuals singing the heroics of the Danish national football team captain, Simon Kjær, simply because he acted swiftly enough to position the unconscious Eriksen in such a way as not to be able to swallow his tongue. They opined that not doing so would have been disastrous as the player could have swallowed his own tongue and give up the ghost in no time.
It is a widespread belief that unconscious people have a good chance of swallowing their own tongue depending on the position they are in when unconscious. The belief stems from the fact that the entire body of a human is coordinated by muscles and when one loses consciousness, all the muscles relax, including those that put the tongue in position. Consequently, the tongue collapses and blocks the airway, leading to the death of the previously unconscious individual.
This particular belief is so widespread that I have personally witnessed people trying to force objects like a spoon down the mouth of a person undergoing a seizure or becoming unconscious so that the person will not swallow his/her tongue. Whether Simon Kjær actually placed Christian Eriksen in position so that the latter will not swallow his tongue is debatable and the news going around is mere speculation based on whether the individual spreading such news belief in tongue swallowing or otherwise.
The basic truth is that no one can swallow their tongue. Yes, the body loses many coordinating muscles when it goes into seizures or becomes unconscious. However, medical experts point out that there is tissue beneath the tongue that holds it in place even when there are no muscles to coordinate its movement. Hence, it becomes completely impossible for the tongue to be swallowed.
In conclusion, it is not enough to share in a belief just because it is widespread or everyone around is having a go at it. It is not just in cryptocurrency investment that you have to do your own research, we should also apply the principle in beliefs.
Thank you all for reading.
