A 22-year-old man died after downing a bottle of fizzy drink too fast in order to cool off in the hot weather, doctors say.
The unlucky boy died less than 24 hours after Chinese doctors tried to save him.
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Describing the case report inClinics and Research in Hepatology and Gastroenterology, they said the man had guzzled 1.5 litres of Coca Cola in the space of ten minutes due to hot weather.
After four hours of experiencing pain in the stomach, he was sent to the hospital for “emergency treatment”.
The man, who is not being identified, was otherwise in good health and had never been diagnosed with diabetes.
His vital signs were not stable. His vital signs were unstable. He had high temperature, low blood pressure and a rapid heart beat.
A CT scan showed the young man had “extensive portal vein pneumatosis”.
Pneumatosis refers to gas bubbles that form in the bowel walls. The portal vein, which carries blood, runs from the bowel into the liver and is responsible for carrying the gas bubbles.
Doctors said that the liver wasn’t getting enough oxygen and blood.
Treatment was started immediately, primarily to suck the gas out of the man’s body with the use of anti-inflammatories and medicines to help the liver.
After 12 hours, the man was reassessed. He had become more unstable.
Doctors gave norepinephrine. It is a drug that is used to treat life-threatening low blood sugar or CPR in an emergency.
“Finally, the patient died 18h after the treatment,” Shaocheng Lyi, Shaocheng Lyi, and colleagues from Beijing Chaoyang Hospital reported.
“In this case, drinking a large amount of Coca Cola in a short period of time caused gas accumulation in the intestinal tract at first.
“Then the intestinal pressure got a sudden rise, which resulted in the high pressure and led to the gas accumulation in the portal vein subsequently. Finally,the patient died of it.”
The doctors admitted a gas buildup implicating the liver is “rare”.
But other experts are suspicious the man’s death was caused by rapidly consuming fizzy drink at all.
Professor Nathan Davies, a biochemist at University College London, said it was “staggeringly unlikely”.
He speculated it may have been a bacterial infection that caused the gas pockets to form.
Prof Davies told MailOnline: “Usually this type of condition is caused because you have bacteria that has made its way from the normal gastrointestinal tract to somewhere they are not supposed to be, in this case, in the lining of the small intestine.
“It’s possible, but not necessarily likely, that drinking a large amount of carbonated drink could have had an exacerbating effect,’ he said.
“But with no underlying condition it is very hard to see what could have happened.”
Prof Davies cautioned against the consumption of large quantities of soft sugary drinks. These can have serious consequences for your teeth and weight.
Central Recorder reached out and contacted Coca Cola GB to provide comment.
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