- Your fridge is there for a reason. Please use it.
Eating leftovers is a great way to save money and cut back on food waste. Some foods, like many curries, actually taste even better after maturing for a bit.
But it’s vitally important to store and refrigerate your leftover food properly. Otherwise you might get seriously sick — or lose several limbs.
Contaminated leftovers led to extreme and tragic results last year in Massachusetts. Doctors had to amputate both legs and all 10 fingers of a 19-year-old college student, according to the New England Journal of Medicine.
The teen had eaten leftover rice, chicken, and lo mein noodles at a restaurant with a friend, the case report reads. After he finished his meal, he was fine initially, but 20 hours later things took a turn for the worst.
The student started experienced abdominal pain and nausea. He started throwing, with everything he spewed out being colored a strange red.
As his symptoms worsened, the poor guy developed a headache and muscle soreness. His vision got blurry, he got chills and chest pain, and was having trouble breathing.
Five hours later, his skin began to turn purple. At that point, one of the student’s friends drove him to a hospital.
Getting Even Worse
By the time he got to the hospital, the teen’s muscle pain had gotten so bad he rated it at 8 out 10 on a pain scale. Doctors noted that although he was wasn’t delusional or disoriented, he was pale, anxious, and “moderately distressed.”
We’re no medical experts, but we’d say being moderately distressed in his situation should be perfectly normal.
As the doctors examined the student, he vomited again, this time a “yellow-green material.” They put him on IV, but over the next half hour, his breathing got progressively more difficult and he started turning gray.
The student’s blood pressure started rising rapidly. Two hours after arriving at the hospital, he began developing a deep purple rash all over his body.
The doctors decided that the man was deteriorating too quickly for them to be able to save him. So, they put him on a helicopter and transferred him to the intensive care unit at a different hospital.
Out Comes the Saw
Upon arrival at the second hospital, the doctors managed to get more information from the student’s family. The friend who’d eaten the same food as him had puked once, but not developed the same serious symptoms.
They also found out that the student was relatively healthy. He did smoke cigarettes and weed and enjoyed a drink every now and then, but nothing in his habits could explain his bizarre symptoms.
The student ended up staying at a hospital for several weeks. Unfortunately, his hands and feet started getting necrotic.
To prevent the necrosis from spreading, the doctor had no option but to remove his legs below the knee. They were also forced to amputate each and every one of his fingers.
His heart and other organs also began to fail. In response, the doctors gave him a pacemaker which he had on him for 13 days.
A Terrible Disease
Test results eventually revealed that the student had contracted a meningococcal disease called purpura fulminans. This rare disease causes stiff neck, nausea and vomiting, breathing problems and lung failure, general organ failure, and septic shock — all symptoms that matched what the student experienced.
The condition is often fatal, and according to the CDC it can kill in just a few hours. It’s caused by bacteria, which could’ve originated from people or improperly stored food.
It’s not clear whether someone coughed on the student’s food or whether it was stored improperly. But the results are equally horrifying, whichever the case.
This just goes to show how important it is to get your leftover in the fridge quickly — especially if they’re rice or pasta. According to the CDC, these two foods can be particularly hazardous.
On top of bacteria causing meningococcal disease, pasta and especially rice often contain a bacterium called Bacillus cereus. These bacteria produce toxins at room temperature and when heated that causes, among others, severe diarrhea and vomiting that can last up to 24 hours.
In 2008, a sporty and healthy 20-year-old man got sick with Bacillus cereus after eating spaghetti that hadn’t been refrigerated. He died in his sleep overnight.
So, please, be careful with your leftovers. Put them in the fridge and don’t eat food that’s been sitting around on a table overnight.