Soy sauce overdose led a 19-year-old teenager to slip into a coma after he gulfed down a whole quart of the salty condiment. The high sodium intake did not sit well with his body, causing him to pass out.
What started out as a fun frat party initiation ritual in 2011 at the University of Virginia, quickly turned lethal. The unidentified teenager was ordered to drink a quart of soy sauce causing him to overdose on such a high amount of salt, but thankfully he survived with no lasting neurological problems. The soy sauce overdose report published online June 4 in the Journal of Emergency Medicine.
According to court documents released around the time of the soy sauce overdose, the teenager reacted by convulsing and foaming at the mouth and was rushed to the hospital by a frat member.
The soy sauce overdose caused the kid to suffer from hypernatremia, which is when the blood contains a high concentration of sodium. This can cause water from the brain to fill the bloodstream in order to make everything balanced. As a result, the organ can shrink and bleed out.
Dr. David J. Carlberg treated the teenager by flushing his body out with sugar water which balanced out the high sodium levels.
"He didn't respond to any of the stimuli that we gave him. He had some clonus, which is just elevated reflexes. It's a sign that basically the nervous system wasn't working very well," Dr. Carlberg explained.
He added, "We were more aggressive than had been reported before in terms of bringing his sodium back down to a safer range."
