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Diners Not Fazed By Second Collapse At 'Heart Attack Grill'; Would You Be?

One of the Heart Attack Grill's "triple bypass" burgers.
Matt York
/
AP
One of the Heart Attack Grill's "triple bypass" burgers.

The news that for the second time this year someone has collapsed while dining at Las Vegas' Heart Attack Grill doesn't seem to bother the restaurant's fans.

"It's a treat, a yummy treat," to eat at the place where the "quadruple bypass burger" comes in at about 10,000 calories, one apparently satisfied customer tells Fox5 Las Vegas.

Saturday night, according to local news reports, a woman who was eating at the restaurant collapsed. It isn't known yet whether she suffered a heart attack, as happened to a man back in February.

But restaurant owner Jon Basso (who calls himself "Dr. Jon," the "burgerologist"), says "she was unconscious for a very long time." She had been eating a "double bypass" burger, drinking a margarita and smoking a cigarette, he adds.

The restaurant's theme, as you can tell from its website and its name, is all about overindulgence and the "joy" of food that isn't good for your health. Waitresses dress like nurses. Diners are given hospital gowns. "Dr. Jon" walks around in a white coat, with a stethoscope around his neck. The burger's are "worth dying for." People who weigh over 350 pounds are invited to eat for free. A sign on the door says "cash only, because you might die before the check clears."

Basso has said before that his restaurant is "a breeding ground of addiction. It's intended to be so." But, as he told CNN Headline News in February, "we fairly warn [diners] up front."

What do we all think of this?

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Mark Memmott is NPR's supervising senior editor for Standards & Practices. In that role, he's a resource for NPR's journalists – helping them raise the right questions as they do their work and uphold the organization's standards.

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