Teen Loses Both Legs, All Fingers After Eating Leftover Chineese Food

A 19-year-old Massachusetts college student had both his legs and all his fingers amputated after eating leftover food from a Chinese restaurant.

The teenager developed sepsis after eating tainted leftovers, including rice, chicken and lo mein from a restaurant, Dr. Bernard Hsu, a licensed toxicologist, said describing the "freak accident" as a "perfect storm" of events.

"This was a freak accident happening in a perfect storm sequence of events," Hsu, who did not treat the man, said in a YouTube video on Feb 16.

Soon after the meal, the teen started experiencing unbearable abdominal pain after which his skin began turning to a shade of purple, according to a report by The New England Journal of Medicine.

The teen was admitted to Massachusetts General Hospital as he was suffering from "shock, multiple organ failure, skin mottling, and a rapidly progressive reticular rash," the report said.

"The patient had been well until 20 hours before this admission, when diffuse abdominal pain and nausea developed after he ate rice, chicken, and lo mein leftovers from a restaurant meal," the outlet said.

"The abdominal pain and vomiting were followed by the development of chills, generalized weakness, progressively worsening diffuse myalgias, chest pain, shortness of breath, headache, neck stiffness, and blurry vision. Five hours before this admission, purplish discoloration of the skin developed, and a friend took the patient to the emergency department of another hospital for evaluation."

On examination, the part-time restaurant worker "appeared pale, anxious, and moderately distressed; he answered questions appropriately and was oriented to person, place, time, and situation," the medical journal said.

"The temperature was 37.4°C, the pulse 147 beats per minute, the blood pressure 154/124 mm Hg, the respiratory rate 24 breaths per minute, and the oxygen saturation 97% while he was breathing ambient air.

"A diffuse reticular [netlike] purpuric rash was present on the face, chest, abdomen, back, arms, and legs, sparing the palms and soles," it added.

During his hospital stay, the teenager’s condition worsened and he developed necrosis, the death of tissue and cells.

Doctors had no other option than amputating his legs and fingers, after which the man went on to have a "relatively good recovery", according to the report.

He also needed a pacemaker for 13 days to treat his cardiac dysfunction.

The doctors discovered that the teenager had only received one of three doses of a meningococcal conjugate vaccine without a booster, and had only received one dose of a serogroup B meningococcal vaccine out of two or three recommended by the CDC, Newsweek reported.

The teen’s friend had also eaten the same meal and vomited — but did not display life-threatening reactions, according to the report.