Soy Sauce Overdose Nearly Cost Teenager His Life

A soy sauce overdose almost cost a teenager his life.

Soy Sauce overdose sends teen into coma

The unnamed 19-year-old boy drank a quart of soy sauce to satisfy his friends' dare and was rushed to the hospital after he started twitching and having seizures. Nearly four hours later, he was already in a coma.

According to Dr. David Carlberg of the University of Virginia Medical Centers, the teen was unresponsive to all stimuli they gave him, giving them the hint that his nervous system is not working well anymore.

The doctor said that there was just too much salt in his blood, a condition medically termed as hypernatremia. He further said that it is a dangerous condition because it causes the brain to lose water, which will result in the shrinking and bleeding of the said organ.

Knowing this, Dr. Carlberg and the rest of his team immediately started to flush and drain the excess amount of salt from his system. They continued doing this until his sodium level went back within normal range after about five hours.

Though already out of the dangerous sodium levels, the teenager remained in a coma for three days but woke up on his own. He was observed for a few more days and showed residual effects from the seizures but was miraculously able to show no more signs of the effects of the overdose a month after he was treated.

The teen, who is now back in college and is doing well in his exams, is said to be the first man to have overdosed on such high amounts of salt but survived without any lasting neurological problems.

Dr. Carlberg believes that the teenager survived because of the quick intervention his team had done.