Community Chat

[Northray]

Teen ate leftover Chinese and had to have his legs and fingers amputated.  I always eat leftover rice and noodles probably left out a bit too long.  As if life isn't scary enough.

Removed link because of political sidebars.

[gizmogal]

Makes sense to refrigerate leftovers and eat them promptly after removal from the fridge, whether you reheat or not. It's the room temperature storage that is conducive to bacteria growth. Not every rice or noodle leftover is fraught with the peril of death.

His roommate ate the same thing and merely vomited. So if you like that part of the story better, continue as always.

To avoid being scared in future, just change a little by properly addressing food safety issues with leftovers of any type. This was a good reminder to be attentive.

[Desertdi]

WHERE did this unfortunate incident occur?

[Northray]

---

@Desertdi wrote:

WHERE did this unfortunate incident occur?

---

Says Massachusetts. 

[meallen616]

@Desertdi  and everyone,

 I was wonderimg the same as you, so, I googled it ,

Hours after eating leftovers from a restaurant, a 19-year-old was admitted to the hospital with multiple organ failure and later had both his legs and all his fingers amputated. The Massachusetts college student had eaten rice, chicken and lo mein from a restaurant.

[CANDLEQUEEN]

I worked with a lady who once left out Tuna Salad overnight in an apartment with no air conditioning in the hot summer......She and her husband ate it the next morning after smelling and looking at it, and both ended up sick!!

I said how could you even think that something like that would not need refrigerating? I never leave anything out!!!!!!

[gizmogal]

---

@Desertdi wrote:

WHERE did this unfortunate incident occur?

---

The article said he was a Massachusetts college student. It was in the first line of the second paragraph of the article. I have to guess he didn't go out side of Massachusettss for treatment.

The incident was also reported IN NEJM from the files of Massachusetts General Hospital located in Boston, MA.  There was a link to that report in the article. The case file describes exactly what occurrred from a detailed medical point of view.

Here is another link :

https://www.nejm.org/doi/story/10.1056/feature.2021.02.19.100086

[Carmie]

It appears the food was loaded with bacteria when purchased from the restaurant.  The person who ordered it and ate it immediately got sick and vomited.

Instead of throwing out the leftovers, they were left in the fridge.  The roommate ate the leftovers after even more bacteria grew in the food overnight.

This is horrible and very sad..  If you do your own cooking at home, you know how long it has been " left out" or now many days ago it was cooked.

If you order from a restaurant, you have no idea how the food was handled.

Normally, if you eat unsafe food, your body will let you know immediately.  I had a bout with severe food poisoning while in Vietnam from a buffet in an upscale restaurant.  I was the only one out of 14 people who were with me that got sick. It was a life changing experience.

I do not like to eat restaurant food. 

[Northray]

---

@gizmogal wrote:

---

@Desertdi wrote:

WHERE did this unfortunate incident occur?

---

The article said he was a Massachusetts college student. It was in the first line of the second paragraph of the article. I have to guess he didn't go out side of Massachusettss for treatment.

The incident was also reported IN NEJM from the files of Massachusetts General Hospital located in Boston, MA.  There was a link to that report in the article. The case file describes exactly what occurrred from a detailed medical point of view.

Here is another link :

https://www.nejm.org/doi/story/10.1056/feature.2021.02.19.100086

---

Thanks for that link.  So now I have to worry about rice and I guess any kind of resturant food, coz it's not like they always serve you fresh food? Poor kid. 

[MorningLover]

I copied the article (long)..

NYPost: A 19-year-old college student developed sepsis and lost his legs and fingers after eating leftover Chinese takeout food in what a doctor described as a “perfect storm” of events.

Dr. Bernard Hsu, a licensed toxicologist, described how the young man became severely ill after eating tainted leftovers, including lo mein, chicken and rice.

“This was a freak accident happening in a perfect storm sequence of events,” Hsu, who did not treat the man, said in a YouTube video on Feb 16.

The teen’s case was first reported in March 2021 in the New England Journal of Medicine, which detailed how he was admitted to Massachusetts General Hospital as he was suffering from “shock, multiple organ failure, skin mottling, and a rapidly progressive reticular rash.”

“The patient 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,” the outlet said.

“Multiple episodes of emesis [vomiting] occurred, with vomitus that was either bilious or red-brown. The abdominal pain and vomiting were followed by the development of chills, generalized weakness, progressively worsening diffuse myalgias [muscle pains], chest pain, shortness of breath, headache, neck stiffness, and blurry vision,” it added.

The part-time restaurant worker’s temperature was over 105 degrees Fahrenheit, his heart rate was 166 beats per minute and his respiratory rate was 28 breaths per minute, the medical journal said.

“A diffuse reticular [netlike] purpuric rash was present on the face, chest, abdomen, back, arms, and legs, sparing the palms and soles,” it added.

He underwent blood and urine tests and was diagnosed with a bacterial infection called Neisseria meningitidis, which caused his blood to clot and his liver to fail.

His skin necrosis was said to be caused by “purpura fulminans,” a severe complication of meningococcal septicemia.

Doctors discovered that he had only received one of three doses of a meningococcal conjugate vaccine without a booster, and had only received one dose of a serogroup B meningococcal vaccine out of two or three recommended by the CDC.

After getting parts of all fingers and his legs below his knees amputated, the man went on to have a “relatively good recovery.”

A friend had eaten the same meal as the victim and vomited — but did not become progressively sick, according to the report.

The shocking case has received renewed attention thanks to a Hsu’s video posted on his YouTube channel called “Chubbyemu,” which has 2.46 million subscribers. The video, which identifies the student as “JC,” has been viewed over 1 million times as of Tuesday afternoon.