Improperly Stored Leftover Rice Causes 19-Year-Old To Get Life Threatening Disease, Legs & Fingers Amputated
A 19-year-old was admitted to the hospital after experiencing deadly symptoms that required doctors to amputate both his legs and all his fingers. This occurred only hours after eating leftover rice, chicken and lo mien from a restaurant.
The man was first admitted to the hospital when he noticed that he was having episodes of “vomiting, chills, generalized weakness, progressively worsening diffuse myalgias, chest pain, shortness of breath, headache, neck stiffness, and blurry vision,” according to a report by The New England Journal of Medicine.
It was reported that his symptoms rapidly turned into multiple organ failure and shock. Eventually, the overall conditions worsened throughout his stay at the hospital, causing his cells and tissue to die which resulted in the amputations.
Following the amputations, the man needed a pacemaker for 13 days to treat his cardiac dysfunction which was also a complication from the leftover food.
A type of bacteria known as Bacillus cereus can produce a toxin that comes with fatal consequences. The toxin can appear when food such as rice or pasta that naturally contains the bacteria, is left out for too long without being refrigerated.
The man was diagnosed with Meningococcal disease which is caused once the toxin from the bacteria enters the body. It would have had to develop on the leftover food sometime from when he purchased it at the restaurant and later ate it.
He was reported to be a normal and healthy college student in Massachusetts with no abnormal drinking or smoking habits before the reaction.
The Center for Disease and Control Prevention says that the disease can “lead to death in as little as a few hours” and that 1 in 5 survivors suffer from losing a limb, deafness, nervous system problems or brain damage.
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