Dr. Deep Goel
Director & Sr. Consultant
Surgical Gastroenterology,
Minimal Access & Bariatric
BLK Centre for Digestive &
Liver Diseases
BLK Super Speciality
Hospital, New Delhi

Dr. Yogesh Batra
Director & Sr. Consultant
Gastroenterology
BLK Centre for Digestive &
Liver Diseases
BLK Super Speciality
Hospital, New Delhi

THE CASE

A student of a prominent university in Delhi took part in a chilli burger eating competition. The competition was organised by the young friends of the student in a restaurant in West Delhi. The task was to eat maximum chilli burgers. The winner stood to get free burgers for the following two months. The student took the challenge, beating sweat and the burning sensation in his stomach. He finished five of the so-called double-decker chilli burgers, and won the competition. Not long after, within minutes he developed abdominal pain and started vomiting blood.

He was rushed to BLK Super Speciality Hospital where the doctors found that the chilli consumed by him had burnt the inner lining of his stomach leading to heavy bleeding inside. His friends and parents who brought him to the hospital explained what had transpired to the doctors.

The patient was experiencing pain in the abdomen and was vomiting blood. He was suffering from Hypotension and Tachycardia on admission. Endoscopy of the stomach revealed heavy bleeding. Chilli has chemicals that damage the protective inner lining of the stomach leading to bleeding inside. More than 800 millilitres of blood had collected inside the patient’s stomach.





THE PROCEDURE

A close examination of the stomach showed ulcers. There was perforation and bleeding inside the stomach. Endoscopy clipping was done to control the bleeding and seal the micro perforation. His haemoglobin count was 7.4, hence blood was transfused.

THE RESULT

Post procedure, the condition of the patient was stable. He started eating from the third day and was discharged on the fourth post procedure day. Patient was doing well afterwards.

DISCUSSION

Every person has a different tolerance level or sensitivity to chilli. The damage to the stomach depends on the quality and quantity of the chilli. But the key takeaway is that one should not consume more than what one can tolerate. One should stop eating chilli when it causes discomfort or intolerable burning sensation. There are reported cases of death due to excessive consumption of chilli. The cause of death is usually respiratory failure i.e. gastric fluids getting into the respiratory tract. Vomiting several times as an after effect of chilli consumption can result in fluids getting into the windpipe. It is possible that gastric fluids or vomit aspirates into the windpipe of the patient, causing him or her to choke to death.