Man’s Legs, Fingers Amputated After Eating Leftover Noodles

(Editor's note: The physician who edited the challenge of this case published in the New England Journal of Medicine has said the paper was widely misinterpreted and that the patient's illness was not a result of eating bad leftovers. Read more here.)

BOSTON, MA — Doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital had to amputate parts of a 19-year-old man’s legs and fingers after he began suffering multiple organ failures within hours of eating a leftover noodle meal, according to case documentation that’s getting new attention after a fictional dramatization on YouTube.

According to the case review, initially published in the New England Journal of Medicine in March 2021, the man began experiencing a range of symptoms about 20 minutes after eating the meal leftover from a restaurant.

The symptoms — which ranged from abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting to chest pains, shortness of breath and blurred vision — became progressively worse, according to the case review. When his skin began to turn a purplish color, a friend decided he needed to go to the hospital.

The patient was eventually airlifted to the pediatric care unit at Massachusetts General, where he was treated for shock, organ failure, skin mottling and a “rapid progressive reticular rash” that spread across his body that indicated his skin was dying. Only the palms of his hands and soles of his feet were spared.

The patient developed gangrene, leading the amputations of patient’s legs below his knees and parts of 10 of his fingers, Newsweek reported.

The patient was diagnosed with a potentially deadly infection from bacteria called Neisseria meningitidis. The necrosis of his skin was the result of a condition called "purpura fulminans" — a rare and severe complication of meningococcal sepsis.

The young man, who lived in northern New England with his mother, was staying with a friend for five days before he became ill. He worked part-time at a restaurant, hadn’t traveled recently and hadn’t been exposed to people or animals who were ill.

A friend who had eaten the same meal also vomited once shortly afterward but did not become progressively sicker, according to the case review.

Doctors aren’t sure why the two people reacted differently. Newsweek reported one theory is that the patient had gotten only one of the two or three doses of meningococcal conjugate vaccine recommended for 11- and 12-year-olds by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

What happened to the man is extremely rare, but health officials say it’s important to put leftovers in the refrigerator or freezer as quickly as possible, but no later than two hours after they're cooked — or one hour if temperatures are above 90 degrees.