An American man had some bad luck after participating in an eating competition with one very dangerous component: ghost chili peppers, or bhut jolokia.
The man began to vomit rather violently after eating a hamburger with ghost chili pepper puree. He suffered from severe abdominal pain, leading to his admittance at a local hospital. Doctors found a hole in his esophagus that was 2.5-centimeters, which necessitated emergency surgery and 23 days in the hospital.
Though doctors initially thought that the man was reacting to a gluttonous meal, the hole in the man’s esophagus allowed them to conclude that it was another source. People who suffering from a such a rupturing of the esophagus, known as Boerhaave syndrome, are in danger of death or other complications.
The ghost chili pepper was thought to be the hottest chili in the world at 1,000,000 Scoville heat units (SHU). It was surpassed by the Carolina Reaper pepper in 2013.
