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A healthy, 47-year-old man who ate a hamburger topped with pureed ghost pepper ended up in a San Francisco emergency room after a life-threatening retching fit:
The man's condition, a "spontaneous esophageal rupture," which is also called Boerhaave syndrome, is "a relatively rare phenomenon," said lead study author Dr. Ann Arens, who was a physician in the department of emergency medicine at the University of California, San Francisco at the time of the man's case in the summer of 2015. (Arens is currently an emergency medicine doctor and medical toxicologist at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis.)
Spontaneous esophageal rupture is caused by violent vomiting and retching, Arens said. In other words, the man's reaction to the ghost pepper, rather than the pepper itself, caused the rupture, Arens said. The condition is very dangerous, and is fatal in 20 to 40 percent of all cases, even when patients receive treatment, the report said. "If [the condition is] left untreated, mortality approaches 100 percent," the authors wrote. When patients die from a ruptured esophagus, the cause of death is likely a "rapid and fatal infection," Arens told Live Science.
The man was sent home from the hospital 23 days after the operation, the report said. His feeding tube was still in place when he was sent home, but Arens said the tube was only temporary, until the esophagus healed. She said she believes the man is currently doing well. When Arens spoke to the man after the surgery, he "did not seem keen to try [eating a ghost pepper] again," she said.
Ghost peppers are also known as bhut jolokia. Also at USA Today.
Esophageal Rupture After Ghost Pepper Ingestion (DOI: 10.1016/j.jemermed.2016.05.061) (DX)
Spontaneous esophageal rupture, Boerhaave syndrome, is a rare condition encountered by emergency physicians, with a high mortality rate. This case serves as an important reminder of a potentially life-threatening surgical emergency initially interpreted as discomfort after a large spicy meal.
(Score: 3, Funny) by tibman on Wednesday October 19 2016, @03:15PM
Check out Robert Liston [wikipedia.org]. He performed an operation that had a 300% mortality rate.
SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by AthanasiusKircher on Wednesday October 19 2016, @03:30PM
That was the only operation in history with a 300 percent mortality.
Funny anecdote, but I highly doubt this claim. If you're going to count infections and deaths in other people that occur because of operations, a LOT of germs used to be spread without modern surgical hygiene -- and not just to the patient. I'm pretty sure that there have been many points in history when some "doctor" took out a knife and cut into a cyst or some other disease-ridden mass, which sprayed stuff all over the room, either hitting people directly or spreading to them during clean-up, thus infecting a bunch of other people. And when you had stuff like plague with reasonably high mortality rates, it's very likely there were many situations that had a 300% mortality (or more) from an incident like this.
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Wednesday October 19 2016, @03:57PM
How is amputating two different patients considered one operation?
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 3, Informative) by tangomargarine on Wednesday October 19 2016, @04:01PM
Oh--after reading the other "famous cases," it sounds like he didn't intend to get the assistant's fingers as well. Geez.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2, Troll) by Arik on Wednesday October 19 2016, @04:58PM
That would have been one heck of an operation to witness, I am sure.
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by Pslytely Psycho on Thursday October 20 2016, @05:02AM
Sounds like the basis of a really dark comedy....perhaps M*A*S*H 1840, The Opium Wars.
Alex Jones lawyer inspires new TV series: CSI Moron Division.