A lot of people end up spending their 21st birthday in the hospital because they consume too much booze. A Tempe man spent his 21st in the hospital for a different reason -- he consumed something else: That jagged piece of metal designed to keep booze in a bottle.
More simply put, the dude tried to do a shot and ended up swallowing a beer cap.
For Michael Murphy's 21st birthday, he spent the night drinking on Mill Avenue in Tempe -- as many Valley 21-year-olds do when they join the fraternal order of legal drinkers.
Murphy and his friends took shots to celebrate his turning 21, and that's when Murphy entered a world of hurt.
"We raised the shot glasses, to, you know, cheers," Murphy tells Fox 10. "The next thing I know is I feel intense pain in my throat."
Along with Murphy's shot was the jagged, metal cap from a Bud Light bottle, which got stuck in his throat and had to be removed -- that night -- at a hospital.
Murphy is the brother of a Fox 10 employee, which is how this story came to light. We tried tracking him down this afternoon, to no avail, but check out the Fox video below.
Doctors removed the beer cap from his throat using a gastroscope -- a device resembling a miniature toilet snake mounted with a camera, a light, and a claw to yank the cap out of Murphy's throat.
The removal was successful, and, if it's any consolation for a ruined 21st birthday, Murphy got to keep the beer cap.
Murphy's family believes that a bartender accidentally flipped the beer cap off of a beer and landed it in the shot glass.
Despite it's being an accident, and the beer cap being removed successfully, the family sued the bar, which settled for an undisclosed amount of money.
