A teen ate leftover rice and noodles. Hours later, doctors amputated his legs and fingers

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. Soon after, he felt abdominal pain and his skin turned a shade of purple, according to a report by The New England Journal of Medicine.

The teenager was admitted to a hospital for "shock, multiple organ failure, and rash,” and his condition quickly declined. He experienced abnormal breathing, high blood pressure and vomiting. The student had been healthy overall with regular drinking and smoking habits, the report said.

After further tests, he was diagnosed with meningococcal purpura fulminan disease, which caused his stiff neck, nausea, respiratory collapse, shock and organ failure, according to the report. Purpura fulminan is a rare complication that comes with septic shock, which the college student experience, according to the report.

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The condition is caused by bacteria and brings symptoms such as sudden fever and vomiting. The Centers for Disease and Control Prevention warns it can “lead to death in as little as a few hours.”

Over the course of his hospital stay, his condition worsened and he developed necrosis, the death of tissue and cells. At that point, doctors had to amputate his legs and fingers, according to the report. He also needed a pacemaker for 13 days to treat his cardiac dysfunction.

Experts have warned against the dangers of improperly storing leftover rice because items such as rice and pasta contain a bacterium called Bacillus cereus. The bacteria produces a toxin when heated and left out too long, according to the CDC. In 2008, a teenager died in his sleep after eating leftover pasta that wasn't refrigerated overnight, a case that was reported in the Journal of Clinical Microbiology.

The medical team learned that although the Massachusetts student had received a first dose of the meningococcal vaccine, he never received the recommended booster. His roommate also ate the leftover food and vomited but didn't have life-threatening reactions.

https://news.yahoo.com/teen-ate-leftover-rice-noodles-155422253.html

 

I have worked on several pharma sites but was amazed to see equal or superior contamination procedures in a cooked rice/ready meal packaging factory in the UK.

Full bio suits, the works. Contaminated rice is dangerous stuff.

 

did the above-mentioned chef & restaurant workers eat their own restaurant food?

I know a restaurant where chefs and restaurant workers will gather together before the restaurant is open to the patrons.
And they will eat the food prepared by the chefs.
the food includes non-poisonous, nontoxic leftovers.
If the chefs and restaurant workers don't dare to eat their own restaurant food,
avoid that restaurant at all costs.

 

How would you know?

 

Damn, I did not know that! I typically cook up a cup of brown rice, which lasts me for about 3 or 4 meals. Fortunately, I refrigerate it within about 20-30 minutes after it's cooked. I'll make it closer to 20 minutes going forward; no sense playing chicken with the rice gods.

 

You might also want to reheat leftovers enough to kill any lingering bacteria.

 

Indeed. Perhaps more so than before. I really didn't know I was doing Danger Man stunt work.

 

I didn't realize there was an art & science to cooking and storing of rice until I lived in South Korea.

I quickly learn to prevent killing myself or causing serious stomach problems...I eat rice immediately after cooking it and I don't store it as leftovers.

Then when I went to graduate school...one summer I took a food bacteriology class for fun in between my graduate studies that put the rationale behind not storing rice because individuals will in error think to "reheat" or "warm-up" the rice prior to eating the leftovers or put the leftovers as an ingredient in other recipes.

• Today, I only cook enough rice for only one meal. Thus, no storing just to be safe. Rice is something that's easy/fast to cook so that I don't need to make enough for several meals.

The bacterium from improper storage or improper cooking of rice is called Bacillus cereus and the nasty booger produces a toxin after improper storage or reheating rice at a temperature not hot enough (> 140 F).

This type of food poisoning is often misdiagnosed as a 24-hour FLU by those that stay home and treat themself in error with flu medicine.

P.S. I never eat fried rice at a restaurant unless I can watch how they prepare it...I want to see steam coming off the rice prior to using it make fried rice and not see them pull leftover rice from refrigeration or not see them use rice from a batch of cooked rice sitting on some table.

wrbtrader

 

Yeah, but I eat a small amount at one sitting that it hardly seems worth it to cook it up each time separately. Besides, I must have been doing something ~right since I haven't yet run into any trouble. Even so, I will tighten up my game a bit.

You must be a real hit at Chinese restaurants.

 

I only go to restaurants that cook the food in front of you...not many like that which is a reason why I don't eat out that much.

Something like this (look closely at the cook in the background of the video with steam coming off the cooked rice prior to the main cook in the video doing the same)...





Restaurants like the above in the United States are more common in South Korea involving them cooking the meal in front of you.

wrbtrader