A 19-year-old college student lost his fingers and both of his legs after eating leftover noodles.
The young man was rushed to Massachusetts General Hospital after suffering from skin mottling, shock, and a rapidly progressive reticular rash, the USA Today reported.
The New England Journal of Medicine revealed that the teen “had been well until 20 hours before this admission when diffuse abdominal pain and nausea developed after he ate rice, chicken, and lo mein leftovers from a restaurant meal.”
Dr. Bernard Hsu, a licensed toxicologist, shared a video about the incident following ‘a perfect storm’ of events.
According to the report, the teen was working part-time in a restaurant and had been staying with a friend before feeling sick. He had normal drinking and smoking habits.
Hours before he was taken to the hospital, the teen had developed horrifying symptoms, including “chills, generalized weakness, progressively worsening diffuse myalgias, chest pain, shortness of breath, headache, neck stiffness, and blurry vision.”
The student also developed a ‘purplish discoloration’ of the skin so he was rushed by his friend to the hospital’s emergency department.
Doctors saw that his vomit was ‘greenish yellow color, not looking like any particular kind of food.’
“Doctors started to notice a rash containing small spots emerging all over his body,” Hsu said.
“At first, this mottled appearance looked like bruises, but then they became a deep reddish brown, red defined at the edges.”
Less than 24 hours after he ate the leftover noodles, his kidneys failed and his blood started to clot. He was diagnosed with a bacterial infection called Neisseria meningitidis, which causes nausea, stiff neck, shock, respiratory collapse, and multiorgan failure.
During his stay in the hospital, he also developed necrosis, the death of body tissue due to the little blood flow to the tissue.
The teen’s health deteriorated and doctors had to amputate both of his legs and parts of all of his fingers.
The hospital staff discovered that the teenager had received his first meningococcal vaccine but did not receive the recommended booster shot as a teen.
The report also said that “a friend who had eaten the same meal as the patient the evening before admission had vomited once shortly thereafter but had not become progressively ill.”
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