Mom of 5 Fatally Wounded After Throwing Chicken Nuggets into the Air During Playful Game with Her Pet Dogs

A mother of five tragically passed away after being bitten while her dogs fought over food she was giving them, an inquest has revealed.

Michelle Hempstead, 34, from Essex, England, died in a local hospital on July 30, 2024, after her dog bit her upper arm, severing an artery, according to Sky News, the BBC, and the Independent.

The inquest on Monday, Sept. 29, heard that Hempstead had been tossing chicken nuggets into the air at her home on July 29 when the incident occurred, per the BBC.

Essex senior coroner Lincoln Brookes told the court that Hempstead owned a Pomeranian named Pom and a mastiff-rottweiler cross called Trigg, according to Sky News.

Brookes explained that after Pom “had a go at Trigg,” the rottweiler Trigg “did go to bite him or snap at him, and this is a big dog with big jaws,” the outlet reported.

PEOPLE reached out to the Essex Coroner’s Court and Essex Police for comment, but neither had responded immediately.

Despite the incident, Brookes noted that the dogs were “quite well behaved” and described Trigg as “an otherwise gentle giant.”

Although Hempstead was rushed to the hospital, she ultimately died from multiple organ failure caused by the blood loss. Her partner, Samuel West, told the court that Hempstead had purchased the chicken nuggets from McDonald’s.

“She liked to throw them up in the air and the little one, Pom, was going for the big one, not aggressively but he used to growl and snap when he wanted to get the nugget first,” West said.

He added that as Pom reached for the nugget, “Trigg’s done this thing where he chomps his mouth.”

“It looked like to me it wasn’t a grab,” he continued. “He just went to do a chomping thing and caught her under the arm.”

West described Trigg as “docile,” saying he “loved [Hempstead] to death, and didn’t have a bad bone in his body,” according to the BBC.

“You didn’t have to worry about him with anything, he wasn’t vicious in any way, shape or form,” he said. He added that Trigg would sleep on Hempstead’s bed, and she would even feed him food directly from her mouth.

West called the incident an “absolute freak accident,” per Sky News.

“Michelle Hempstead died of the consequences of traumatic blood loss following a single bite from her large dog in her home, which severed an artery,” Essex senior coroner Lincoln Brookes told the court.

“The bite was not malicious and occurred when she was caught during a brief fight between her two dogs over food,” he added.

Brookes also highlighted the family’s recent loss: “The double tragedy about this is that she [Ms Hempstead] and the rest of her family suffered a terrible bereavement only a few weeks beforehand, of the death of her daughter. She was still reeling from that.”

Authorities said the dogs had been removed from the property and “disclaimed for destruction,” according to Sky News.

In a letter read in court, Hempstead’s mother, Karen, described her daughter as “loving, resilient, not afraid to speak her mind, hard working, caring, extremely brave, resourceful, generous,” according to the BBC.