MA - Harris Wolobah, 14, dies after eating extremely spicy tortilla chip as part of viral challenge - Worcester, 1 Sept 2023

[ifindedout]

Mass. teen dies after taking part in viral spicy chip challenge, family says

A 14-year-old student from Worcester, Massachusetts, died on Friday, officials say, and his family says his death was caused by complications from eating an extremely spicy chip that’s the subject of a viral challenge.

www.nbcbayarea.com

BBM
Harris Wolobah's mother confirmed to NBC10 Boston that the family believes the teenager died of complications from the One Chip Challenge, though the results of an autopsy were pending.

The Worcester school community was mourning Harris, a sophomore at Doherty Memorial High School, Worcester Public Schools Superintendent Rachel Monárrez said in a statement on Sunday, calling him "a rising star."

Harris' cause of death has not been confirmed, and officials didn't share more info information about the circumstances around it.

[...]

Harris' mother, Lois Walobah, told NBC10 Boston that she was called to the school by a nurse on Friday and that her son had told him a classmate gave him the chip, leaving him with a bad stomach ache.

He felt better after they went home, but at 4:30 p.m., when he was about to leave for basketball tryouts, his brother yelled that he'd passed out, she said. Harris was taken to a nearby hospital where he was pronounced dead.

The super-hot 'One Chip Challenge' is back, and getting banned by schools

The viral social media challenge involves eating a chip made with two of the hottest known peppers.

www.today.com

The "One Chip Challenge" is making headlines again and it's not because of fun social media videos.

The infamous hot chips by Paqui are being banned by school districts across the country after reports that kids are going to the hospital after trying them.

What is the 'One Chip Challenge'?​

The “One Chip Challenge" by Paqui, which originally debuted in 2016, involves eating a chip laced with Carolina Reaper and Scorpion peppers.

The "high voltage" chip, which comes individually wrapped in a coffin-shaped box, turns participants' tongues blue, according to the Paqui website.

[...]

Why are these chips so hot?​

Dr. Brett Christiansen, a pediatrician at Marshall Hospital and the Marshall Pediatric Clinic in Placerville, California, told TODAY Parents that the chips are made with two of the hottest known peppers.

"Not only do they cause a burning sensation in the mouth when ingested, but they may also do so in the throat, esophagus, stomach, lower gastrointestinal tract and even on the way out," Christiansen said.

Christiansen said the ingredient creating the "heat" is called Capsaicin, and may also cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and abdominal pain.

 

[IceIce9]

The cause of death was not immediately clear; it will be up to 12 weeks before the results of an autopsy are available, Tim McGuirk, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, said.

Fatality Draws Scrutiny to Spicy ‘One Chip Challenge’ Product

Harris Wolobah, a 14-year-old in Worcester, Mass., died after he ate a Paqui brand tortilla chip dusted with two of the world’s hottest peppers, his mother said.

www.nytimes.com

 

[Sonny Crockett]

Extremely disturbing. I would definitely stay away from anything that spicy even if this news story hadn't been released. From reading about this, it's obvious this chip can really tear your stomach up.

What's especially odd is that this apparently came after eating just one chip?! I'd be interested to know if they can definitively prove a connection between the chip & the death.

 

[Oakie]

If these things had been around when I was in high school (mid-70s), I would have been all over them. I've always loved hot spicy foods, and was one of those kids who'd drink straight Tabasco sauce on a dare. These might have been too much, though....

 

[IceIce9]

I’ve worked at dozens of different firehouses in my career, and some of the firefighters do all kinds of crazy dares and challenges. One popular challenge is to see which of them can eat a whole ghost pepper. Many of them can, and do. They often grow them in their gardens at the firehouses.

It is hard to believe that just one chip could result in death. It will be interesting to see the autopsy results.

 

[IceIce9]

If these things had been around when I was in high school (mid-70s), I would have been all over them. I've always loved hot spicy foods, and was one of those kids who'd drink straight Tabasco sauce on a dare. These might have been too much, though....

I love spicy food too, and I use Tabasco and other hot sauces, fresh jalapeños and habaneros in my cooking. I have to remind myself to leave the hot sauce out when I am cooking for others because most people don’t like it as spicy as I do.

 

[ChatteringBirds]

Sincere condolences to his family.

There are other brands the kids are eating and bringing to my own son's school that aren't as spicy as the Paqui brand. Very spicy but don't use the Carolina Reaper, etc.

Kids are just into spicy chips right now. I think they see it as a type of bonding opportunity.

 

[Oakie]

I love spicy food too, and I use Tabasco and other hot sauces, fresh jalapeños and habaneros in my cooking. I have to remind myself to leave the hot sauce out when I am cooking for others because most people don’t like it as spicy as I do.

I have that same issue. My spice bell curve is way ahead of that of most Americans....about on a Thai or Indonesian level. Even my Cambodian immigrant neighbors think my stuff is too hot.

 

[IceIce9]

I have that same issue. My spice bell curve is way ahead of that of most Americans....about on a Thai or Indonesian level. Even my Cambodian immigrant neighbors think my stuff is too hot.

I often hear people tell me they have the same bottle of Tabasco that they bought when they first got married years ago, or that they haven’t used up the bottle of Tabasco since they moved into their first apartment.

I buy the large bottle of Tabasco and go through a bottle every three or four months. And it isn’t the only hot sauce I use.

 

[ifindedout]

Mass. teen died from eating a spicy chip as part of social media challenge, autopsy report concludes

A Massachusetts teen who participated in a spicy tortilla chip challenge on social media died from ingesting a substance containing a high amount of the chili pepper extract capsaicin, according to autopsy results. Harris Wolobah, a 14-year-old sophomore at Doherty Memorial High School in...

www.nbcphiladelphia.com

Harris died of cardiopulmonary arrest “in the setting of recent ingestion of food substance with high capsaicin concentration,” according to the autopsy from the Chief Office of the Medical Examiner. Capsaicin is the component that gives chile peppers their heat.

The autopsy also said that Wolobah had cardiomegaly, meaning an enlarged heart, and a congenital defect described as “myocardial bridging of the left anterior descending coronary artery.”

A myocardial bridge occurs when a segment of a major artery of the heart runs within the heart muscle instead of on its surface, according to Dr. James Udelson, chief of cardiology at Tufts Medical Center.

“It is possible that with significant stimulation of the heart, the muscle beyond the bridge suddenly had abnormal blood flow ('ischemia') and could have been a cause of a severe arrhythmia,” Udelson told the AP in an email. “There have been reports of acute toxicity with capsaicin causing ischemia of the heart muscle.”

Large doses of capsaicin can increase how the heart squeezes, putting extra pressure on the artery, noted Dr. Syed Haider, a cardiologist at MedStar Washington Hospital Center.

But while the autopsy results suggest that a heart defect probably made Harris more vulnerable to the negative effects of the chile pepper extract, people without underlying risk factors can also experience serious heart problems from ingesting large amounts of capsaicin, Haider said.

 

[worm]

I grow those and other hot peppers with no interest in eating them but I give a good many away to folks who are fond of spice.

 

[imstilla.grandma]

“Today we filed a wrongful death lawsuit on behalf of this wonderful family for the loss of their beloved son, Harris,” said Douglas Sheff, one of the attorneys representing the family in the lawsuit filed in Suffolk Superior Court. The lawsuit seeks a judgement determined by the court that would include punitive damages.

Sheff said the parties created “a perfect storm” that led to Wolobah's death that included Paqui producing the spicy chip and encouraging people to post videos of themselves eating the chip on social media while the lawsuit alleged Walgreens sold the “poisonous chip” to children.

“The defendants charged about $10 for each chip, $10 for the chip that killed Harris, $10 for his life,” Sheff said. “Isn’t it clear that these defendants knew full well that this chip was unreasonably dangerous? And isn’t this an obvious marketing campaign designed to attract kids to that very danger?”

Lawsuit filed: Teen died after eating spicy chip, part of online challenge

BOSTON (AP) — A lawsuit was filed Thursday against Hershey, Walgreens

hayspost.com

 

[borndem]

We'll see how this lawsuit goes... when it goes... if it goes...
It seems that his heart had some problems, too. SMH.
It's just such a shame that things like this happen -- especially to our teens (and, of course those even younger).

 

[bombardier]

“Today we filed a wrongful death lawsuit on behalf of this wonderful family for the loss of their beloved son, Harris,” said Douglas Sheff, one of the attorneys representing the family in the lawsuit filed in Suffolk Superior Court. The lawsuit seeks a judgement determined by the court that would include punitive damages.

Sheff said the parties created “a perfect storm” that led to Wolobah's death that included Paqui producing the spicy chip and encouraging people to post videos of themselves eating the chip on social media while the lawsuit alleged Walgreens sold the “poisonous chip” to children.

“The defendants charged about $10 for each chip, $10 for the chip that killed Harris, $10 for his life,” Sheff said. “Isn’t it clear that these defendants knew full well that this chip was unreasonably dangerous? And isn’t this an obvious marketing campaign designed to attract kids to that very danger?”

Lawsuit filed: Teen died after eating spicy chip, part of online challenge

BOSTON (AP) — A lawsuit was filed Thursday against Hershey, Walgreens

hayspost.com

with the amount of potentially ""dangerous"" foods sold freely to kids (candies you could choke on, energy drinks that give you tachycardia, spicy hotsauces comparable to this chip, meats that could contain pathogens, etc) and his preexisting heart condition, i dont really see this lawsuit getting anywhere, but its possible what the family is hoping for is a settlement to avoid the bad press.

 

[ChatteringBirds]

It's one thing to say a product should never have been on the market, another to say it shouldn't have been packaged or marketed the way it was, and another to say it should never have been sold to minors. These are complex cases, not always so simple, IMO.

I also think the Paqui chip is a bit of a unique product because of what it is, its specific ingredients, and the marketing/sales at a time when chip challenges on social media were so popular. JMO.