http://sg.news.yahoo.com/soy-sauce-overdose-sends-man-coma-140647636.html
A young man who drank a quart of soy sauce went into a coma and nearly died from an excess of salt in his body, according to a recent case report.
The 19-year-old, who drank the soy sauce after being dared by friends, is the first person known to have deliberately overdosed on such a high amount of salt and survived with no lasting neurological problems, according to the doctors in Virginia who reported his case. The case report was published online June 4 in the Journal of Emergency Medicine.
Too much salt in the blood, a condition called hypernatremia, is usually seen in people with psychiatric conditions who develop a strong appetite for the condiment, said Dr. David J. Carlberg, who treated the young man and works as an emergency medicine physician at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, D.C.
Hypernatremia is dangerous because it causes the brain to lose water. When there is too much saltin the bloodstream, water moves out of the body tissues and into the blood by the process of osmosis, to try to equalize the salt concentration between the two. As water the leaves the brain, the organ can shrink and bleed, Carlberg said.
After the man drank the soy sauce, he began twitching and having seizures, and the friends took him to an emergency room. That hospital administered anti-seizure medication, and he was already in a coma when he was taken to the hospital where Carlberg was working, the University of Virginia Medical Center, nearly four hours after the event.
"He didn't respond to any of the stimuli that we gave him," Carlberg said. "He had some clonus, which is just elevated reflexes. It's a sign that basically the nervous system wasn't working very well."
The team immediately began flushing the salt out of his system by administering a solution of water and the sugar dextrose through a nasal tube. When they placed the tube, streaks of brown material came out. Within a half hour, they pumped 1.5 gallons (6 liters) of sugar water into the man's body.
The man's sodium levels returned to normal after about five hours. He remained in a coma for three days, but woke up on his own.
For several days afterward, a part of his brain called the hippocampus showed residual effects from the seizures. But a month after the event, he showed no sign of the overdose: He was back at college, and doing well on his exams, doctors reported.
A typical quart of soy sauce has more than 0.35 pounds (0.16 kilograms) of salt, the researchers said.
Most cases of sodium overdose happen more gradually. In the 1960s and 1970s, doctors actually gave salt to patients suffering from poisoning, to initiate vomiting, until they realized its harmful effects.
Though it's rare in the United States, consuming excess salt was a traditional method for suicide in ancient China, according to the case report.
Carlberg said he believes the young man survived because the team got his sodium levels down so quickly.
"We were more aggressive than had been reported before in terms of bringing his sodium back down to a safer range," Carlberg told LiveScience. Reducing sodium levels more slowly has had poor or mixed results in the past, he said.
Thoughts~
No doubt the first thing that comes to mind is.....what an.....(sorry)...idiot. But thinking again, it must be such an ordeal for the poor 19 year old boy to go through so much and it's very thankful that he didnt suffer any aftermath.
Other than the dozens of comments lamenting on his stupidity, the 1 comment which received the most number of likes on FB is;
"With friends like this, who needs enemies??"
So damn well-said! Dearie also told me a sad story before, of a boy who drank a glass of BOILING HOT water on his friend's dare and died immediately. Dont remember much, but I think it was a primary school boy. Imagine how sad the parents might be? Sigh.......... We say boys, so we cant blame the friend much. But college boys(as per the mentioned news)?? Sigh....this piece of news just goes to show some things;
1) Ego is important, but do consider the situation and subject at hand before acting on impulse
2) Recognize who are your friends and who are your enemies
3) Read more! Get more knowledge. It doesnt necessarily mean if you have good grades means you have a good brain(as per the 19 year old boy in the news who has good grades)
4) Stop living yourself for other people; whether it's to please other people, OR to annoy other people. Just live for YOURSELF(and your loved ones if any)!!!
Last time, there was this girl, we call her V, who was at loggerheads with another girl in her secondary school. And V tried so hard to seduce her boyfriend, so as to break her heart or something. And when she failed, she asked my friend to try. They were around maybe 14 or 15 then.
I heard about this maybe 1 or 2 years later, when we're around 17.
I was simply appalled. I never expect girls can get so malicious and vicious at such a tender age. I thought this kinda 心机/心计 only happens in drama serials, for the sake of entertainment. (=.=)''''' I mean true, we all have(*pause to think*....eh actually I dont really have leh) girls whom we dont really like(I really dont have any loggerheads) when we're in high school, but is it really necessary to do all this??
Hmmm.....as much as I sound boring.....I still feel 做人简单就好。
不要有害人的心，但要懂得保护自己。
Free your heart from any hatred and you can find your own happiness very soon. \(^o^)/
I never hate any of my ex(s) no matter how we ended up being separated. Because I would like to think that we're not suitable for each other, our fate had ended and we have our own individual paths in life to continue. =) I might repent on what I could have done better, locked any sweet memories to a distant corner, and simply forget the unhappy stuff. When I say "forget", I really forget(unless it's super jialat), I have poor memory anyway. HAHAHA! Maybe this is my secret recipe to a quick "recovery" to achieve my own happiness with the next potential who comes along. Hee hee!
I learned a new phrase yesterday though;
The lesser you give a damn about something, the happier you will be.
Haha kinda true~ For most trivia stuff. Of course not with my dear hubby. =)
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