SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
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: 5, Touché) by ikanreed on Wednesday October 19 2016, @05:06PM
I concede that both you and the parent to your post make valid observations and my pedantry was misplaced.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 19 2016, @05:21PM
I have been spontaneously flabbergasted into pure amazement.
We need an admin that can trigger some annoying party balloon gifs all over the site!
(Score: 4, Funny) by Bot on Wednesday October 19 2016, @06:51PM
Signs of the end times:
- society in disarray;
- war, famine;
- signs in the sky;
- somebody admitting on the internet that he, indeed, was wrong.
Account abandoned.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by ikanreed on Wednesday October 19 2016, @07:17PM
Being wrong once is one of the best ways to be right more often.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday October 19 2016, @09:05PM
It's one of the things i like about the site--people cut deep but can also concede when they're wrong.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Thursday October 20 2016, @12:42PM
You should also deliberately call non-nut "nuts", and non-berry "berries", "nuts" and "berries" just to piss off bloody head-up-arse word-redefining botanists!
And you and I know what a "Gothic" font is, as did the Goths. But no, ask a fancy-pantsy typographer, and he'll tell you that you, and I, and an entire germanic race, are wrong.
Twonks, the lot of them. Reclaim the language.
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Thursday October 20 2016, @12:45PM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves