College Student Nearly Dies After Soy Sauce OD
When I first saw this story on LiveScience (via Consumerist), I did a double-take… It’s tough to believe that someone – even a college student – could be so foolhardy.
“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.”
The abstract of the case report is here.
This incident reminds me of a Robert A. Heinlein quote: “…stupidity is the only universal capital crime; the sentence is death, there is no appeal…” If not for the unusually aggressive emergency treatment the man received, he very likely would have died. Death-by-soy-sauce has happened before (see here and here, for example) – and it makes perfect sense. The stuff’s practically liquid salt – even just a glance at the label would reveal that much. Just because it’s “food” and is safe to consume in small amounts doesn’t automatically make it safe in large amounts.
June 11, 2013
It’s amazing what happens on a dare, mostly stupid things. I’m sure there was no thought of how much salt is in soy sauce and what it could do to his system.
Luckily he did’nt die!