Gaby Scanlon of Lancashire, England, just had one of the worst 18th birthdays conceivable. She celebrated at a bar which served her a Jagermeister cocktail made with liquid nitrogen, either to cool the booze or create a gimmicky smoke effect caused by water condensing around the -196C liquid. The bar is legally required to handle the chemicals properly, but Scanlon learned the hard way not to trust a bartender with little to no training in handling something as dangerous as liquid nitrogen.
After drinking one of the liquid nitrogen novelty cocktails, Gaby Scanlon developed severe pain and had to be rushed to the hospital. The rapid warming of the improperly-handled drink caused the air in her stomach to expand quickly, rupturing the organ. Here’s a demonstration of the same process using a bottle and 1500 ping pong balls.
Gaby was diagnosed with a ‘perforated stomach’ and the police said her condition actually could have been fatal if the doctors didn’t operate immediately. Removing her stomach saved her life. But, uh, how does a person live without a stomach? Apparently it’s possible! The BBC explains that people without a stomach can still eat and drink normal food but just have to watch their portions and take vitamin supplements. [Gizmodo]
Liz Nicholls, the principal of Scanlon’s school, tells the BBC the teenager is one of their “most hardworking and mature students.” It really sucks that the liquid nitrogen safety lesson had to be demonstrated by a good student who only drank one cocktail that was presented as something safe to drink. We usually hope these things happen to dropouts with criminal records who said, “Hey, watch this!” before chugging liquid nitrogen on camera while trying to get on TV.
We’re sad to see that the teenager who needed to get a total gastrectomy was doing something a lot of people at that bar had probably done. But did our sympathy prevent us from making the joke in the banner picture? Nope. I guess you could say we’re . . . *sunglasses* . . . coldblooded. YEAHHHHHHH!!!!