A college student developed sepsis after eating leftover Chinese food, resulting in the amputation of his legs and fingers.
The 19-year-old teen, identified only as "JC," ate leftover chicken, rice and lo mein. His medical case was reported last March in the New England Journal of Medicine, which provided details of the student's condition when he was admitted to Massachusetts General Hospital.
According to Dr. Alexandra T. Lucas, the student was admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) after suffering from shock, multiple organ failure and a rash. Before he was admitted to the hospital, he experienced abdominal pains, vomiting, purplish discoloration of the skin and chills after eating the leftovers.
Student had legs, fingers amputated after eating leftover Chinese takeout pic.twitter.com/CgSo1q8rmw
— Fast Music 954 🇭🇹 (@_FastMusic954) February 23, 2022
In addition, the report states that JC's friend ate the tainted food and vomited as well. However, the illness had not progressed as severely as it did in JC.
A YouTube video surfaced online, causing JC's medical emergency to circulate on social media. With 2.46 million subscribers, Dr. Bernard Hsu, a licensed toxicologist, detailed the process of JC getting sick and eventually losing his fingers and limbs.
Dr. Hsu, who did not treat JC, described the medical mystery as a freak accident.
"This was a freak accident," Dr. Hsu said. "happening in a perfect storm sequence of events."
In the video, Dr. Bernard explained that when bacteria is present in the blood, the blood vessels dilate, leading to a drop in blood pressure. JC's blood and urine tests indicated that he had Neisseria Meningitidis.
"When bacteria are present in the blood, the entire body's blood vessels dilate," Dr. Hsu said. "dropping the blood pressure preventing oxygen from getting to the organs."
The video has garnered over 1.2 million views since it was uploaded last week.
