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Woman Sent To Hospital After Eating 'Large Amount Of Wasabi' She Thought Was Avocado

Woman Sent To Hospital After Eating 'Large Amount Of Wasabi' She Thought Was Avocado

Classic case of culinary mistaken identity.

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie

We've all been there when we've mistaken food for something else, right?

You might think you're digging into some beautiful meatballs and then you find out it's bull testicle. You might get ready to devour a delicious stir fry until you notice that the noodles are actually bugs.

Whatever the case, sometimes your senses deceive you and you end up worse off. But few of us have been sent to hospital because of a classic case of culinary mistaken identity like this woman in Israel.

According to an article in the British Medical Journal, the 60-year-old was at a wedding and as she was looking at some of the food on offer, her eyes lit up at a bowl of avocado.

gastronomiaslow/Creative Commons

Most of us would take the bowl and let everyone else beg for you for some, but this lady took a 'large amount' of it on her plate and headed back to her table. She dug into the avo, as you would, but quickly noticed something was wrong...very wrong.

The Israeli woman realised that what she had just stuck in her mouth was not delicious avocado but actually wasabi.

Those who have tasted wasabi before will know that you only need a tiny drip of it for the paste to take full effect in your mouth and nose. Even the slightest bit above your tolerance levels will leave your eyes watering and you nose burning.

So you can only imagine what this woman was experiencing.

via GIPHY

An ambulance was called and the woman was transported to hospital where doctors diagnosed her takotsubo cardiomyopathy aka 'Broken Heart Syndrome'.

This condition is a 'left ventricular dysfunction that typically occurs after sudden intense emotional or physical stress and mimics myocardial infarction', according to the BMJ.

It can sometimes happen after sudden and shocking news, accidents, intense fear, asthma attacks, and even a big argument.

PA

There have been some notable cases of Broken Heart Syndrome, namely Will and Grace actor Debbie Reynolds dying just after her daughter, Star Wars star Carrie Fisher.

The symptoms are similar to that of a heart attack, but thankfully sufferers usually recover within a month.

The British Medical Journal states: "To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of takotsubo cardiomyopathy triggered by wasabi consumption."

So next time you're sliding down the buffet line, be incredibly sure that what you're dolloping onto your plate is creamy avocado and not heart stopping wasabi.

Featured Image Credit: Brian Indrelunas/Creative Commons

Topics: Food, Community