A young man eats leftovers from a classmate’s meal, contracts a serious infection and has his legs cut off

A 19-year-old American boy suffered severe reactions after consuming leftover chicken noodle meal, which resulted in the amputation of limbs. The case was explained in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2021, but this week it had repercussions in the American press.

According to the report, the patient, who has not been identified, he ate the leftovers of a dish ordered the night before by the colleague with whom he was sharing homethat he would not finish consuming it because he felt sick.

After ingesting the food, the young man experienced abdominal pain and nausea, followed by chills and vomiting., chest pain, neck stiffness, blurred vision, headache and shortness of breath. He was taken to the hospital by his friend.

Symptoms didn’t start until after the meal, and the patient hadn’t felt any discomfort in the 20 hours prior to his first hospitalization, according to the report.

In the emergency room, the patient had good blood oxygenation, with a slight increase in heart rate and blood pressure, as well as pallor.

Admitted to another hospital, the young man began to experience respiratory distress and a drop in blood oxygenation indexes.

Medicated and on oxygen support, he was taken to a third hospital, where his systolic blood pressure dropped to 70mm/Hg and his pulse also dropped significantly.

From then on, the picture became even more complicated, when the American began to have purplish rashes all over his body. After administering new drugs, he was taken by helicopter to a fourth hospital.

Upon his fourth hospitalization, doctors began reviewing the patient’s and his family’s records. He had no known allergies and had received all required childhood vaccinations. Family history revealed that his father had coronary artery disease, his mother hypothyroidism and his brother had viral meningitis at 6 weeks of age.

Pavan K. Bendapudi, the physician present in the case, reported that the course of the case was rapid and included SIRS (systemic inflammatory response syndrome), which is characterized by fever, shock, severe lactic acidosis (lack of intracellular oxygenation and accumulation of lactic acid in the bloodstream) and acute respiratory and renal failure.

Laboratory tests identified an infection with the N. meningitidis bacterium and the diagnosis was purpura fulminans due to meningococcemia.. The evolution caused tissue necrosis and forced the amputation of the young man’s legs below the knees, as well as his toes.

According to the MSD Manual of Diagnosis and Treatment, purpura is a condition that causes small blood clots throughout the body, blocking blood flow to vital organs.

The medical guide also states that “fulminant syndromes of meningococcemia include Waterhouse-Friderichsen syndrome (sepsis, profound shock, purpura cutis, and adrenal hemorrhage), sepsis with multiple organ failure, shock, and disseminated intravascular coagulation.”

The manual indicates that of patients who recover, between 10% and 20% are left with serious sequelae, such as irreversible deafness, mental retardation, or loss of phalanges or limbs.