Noodles from the previous day: Student loses fingers and legs after a portion of noodles – Normally, eating a portion of noodles from the previous day should not be worth reporting. However, such a meal was fatal to a student from the USA – 24 hours later he was fighting for his life in the hospital.
The young man lives in a shared apartment. One of his roommates had treated himself to a portion of rice, chicken, and Chinese noodles the day before, but didn’t finish it all. The rest went into the fridge. Said student found the opened meal the next day and unsuspectingly attacked it.
What he didn’t know was that meningococcal bacteria, which can lead to very serious illnesses and even death in humans, had now spread there.
The 19-year-old began to feel progressively worse, vomited several times during the night and suffered from severe headaches. His roommate was later to explain that he had also thrown up after eating the first time, but then forgot to throw away the noodles.
The suspicion of having caught food poisoning was obvious. But when the 19-year-old student noticed a rash on his hands the next day, his roommate, who was now feeling better, took him to a hospital to be safe.
During the journey, the teenager’s condition deteriorated: his eyesight deteriorated, his neck became stiff and he even had to be given artificial respiration.
At first the doctors were at a loss, since the patient had not taken any allergies, drugs or had a medical history that could have provided any information. It also seems strange that the roommate had merely vomited.
Im „The New England Journal of Medicine‘ writes the attending physician, Dr. Pavan K Bendapudi:
“The most extraordinary features of this case were its bleeding disorders and the rapidity with which the disease worsened.”
A blood test finally revealed that the 19-year-old had caught a severe meningococcal infection. This was already so advanced that his legs and fingers threatened to die from severe blood poisoning.
To save the young man’s life, the doctors had no choice but to perform an amputation.
In fact, about ten percent of the European population has meningococcal bacteria in the nasopharynx without developing any signs of the disease. But if symptoms do appear, the course can be fatal. Children and young people are particularly at risk.
An infection can cause inflammation of the meninges, high fever, nausea and vomiting, chills, joint and muscle pain, cramps or impaired consciousness. If the bacteria get into the bloodstream, they trigger life-threatening sepsis – blood poisoning, as in the case of the student. If this is not treated promptly with an antibiotic, there is a risk of losing limbs.
In contrast to his roommate, the student was only hit so hard because he was not sufficiently vaccinated.
Although he had received a meningococcal vaccination at school, he missed getting the recommended second dose four years later. Ultimately, this was what allowed the bacteria in his body to spread so quickly.
In Germany, vaccination against a certain type of meningococcus is recommended for all children from the age of twelve months. The Standing Vaccination Commission recommends that children and young people who have not yet been vaccinated have the vaccination by the age of 18.
However, it was too late for the 19-year-old: it was to take a full 26 days before he regained full consciousness – without fingers and without legs.
He’s doing better now, given the circumstances. However, it is still unclear how the bacteria could have multiplied on the food so quickly.
To avoid such incidents, experts recommend freezing cooked dishes no later than two hours after preparation, or at least putting them in the refrigerator. In general, the leftovers should be able to be stored there for two to three days without any problems, depending on the type of food.