Why I Stay Out of the Kitchen

Man dies after stabbing himself while cooking
By ISHMAEL TATE - itate@thestate.com

Michael Downing was doing an ordinary chore when he died in a way that was anything but ordinary.

The 32-year-old Anderson man was cooking a late lunch for his two sons Sunday when he accidentally stabbed himself in the heart with a knife.

Deputy Anderson County Coroner Charlie Boseman said Downing was using a steak knife to cut up noodles in a pan on the stove when he burned himself, jerked his hand away from the heat and plunged the knife between his ribs, piercing his heart.

His two sons, ages 8 and 10, were with him when the accident happened.

Downing was able to call 911, but collapsed after explaining to a dispatcher what happened.

That’s when 10-year-old Jed Lynch Downing took hold of the phone, following the dispatcher’s instructions to try to save his father’s life.

Jed said his father fell on his back and was briefly knocked unconscious.

“He was trying to stay with us; he didn’t want to leave us,” Jed said in an interview with Greenville television station WYFF.

“He knew that we loved him.”

Downing was pronounced dead at AnMed Health Medical Center at 3:44 p.m., Boseman said. The knife had sliced two to three inches past his ribs before reaching his heart.

Reach Tate at (803) 771-8549. The Associated Press contributed.