A man who took part in a ghost pepper eating contest ended up hospitalised and feeding through a gastric tube after the burning hot chili pepper left him with a hole in his oesophagus. 

The 47-year-old man showed up at a San Francisco emergency room complaining of intense chest pain and regular vomiting, the Business Insider reported. 

Doctors administered a 'gastrointestinal cocktail', but when that failed to alleviate symptoms, he was admitted into surgery.

Surgeons discovered a one-inch tear in his oesophagus and ended up collecting fluid from his chest which contained hamburger, onions and other "green vomitus material".

The spontaneous oesophagal rupture is known as Boerhaave syndrome, caused by trauma from vomiting. Without treatment, almost all Boerhaave patients die. 

Ghost peppers, also known as Bhut Jolokia, are among the hottest chili peppers known to man. With a rating of 1 million on the Scoville heat scale, they are an estimated 400 times hotter than Tabasco sauce. 

The man required three chest tubes and one gastric tube in total. He could not tolerate fluids for 17 days and still needed a gastric tube when he eventually left hospital after 23 days. 

It's safe to say he probably wishes he had never finished that chili burger. 

 

 

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