UK - Teenager's stomach removed after drinking cocktail

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edgarshade

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BBC News (Newsbeat)

Sunday, 7 October 2012

A teenager has had emergency surgery to remove her stomach after drinking a cocktail containing liquid nitrogen.

Lancashire Police say the 18-year-old woman was out with friends in Lancaster on Thursday 4 October when it happened.

She is reported to have become breathless and developed severe stomach pain before being taken to hospital.

Officers say she would have died if doctors had not performed the urgent operation.

The woman, from Heysham in Lancashire, was taken to the Lancaster Royal Infirmary at 11pm.

She was diagnosed with a perforated, or pierced stomach. The 18-year-old is now is a serious but stable condition.

Lancashire Police have not named the place where she bought the cocktail, but say it has stopped selling it: "The premises involved have fully cooperated with all agencies and have suspended drinks involving liquid nitrogen" a spokesperson said.

They say they are looking into what happened.

"The investigation is still in its early stages and we are still interviewing witnesses to establish the full facts."

The force told Newsbeat they have been warning other bars in the town about what has happened.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/19866191
 
WTF, people were serving liquid nitrogen in drinks?
It must have burned a hole (many holes) through the women's stomach.
You would think that it would have burned her mouth to start with, and that might have been a clue.
Now, she has to live without a stomach. Doesn't sound pleasant.
The bar that served her the drink should be held responsible.
But, are you allowed to buy alcohol in the UK at age 18?
If she was underage, it makes it look even worse for the bar.
 
But, are you allowed to buy alcohol in the UK at age 18?
If she was underage, it makes it look even worse for the bar.
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Yeah Im pretty sure you are. Here in Aus it is 18 as well.

Drinking liquid nitrogen? Can anyone explain anything about this? I suppose it's a really small amount to make it like a freezing cold cocktail?
 
Liquid nitrogen is nitrogen in a liquid state at an extremely low temperature. It is produced industrially by fractional distillation of liquid air. Liquid nitrogen is a colorless clear liquid with density of 0.807 g/mL at its boiling point and a dielectric constant of 1.43.[1] Liquid nitrogen is often referred to by the abbreviation, LN2 or "LIN" or "LN" and has the UN number 1977.
At atmospheric pressure, liquid nitrogen boils at −196 °C (77 K; −321 °F) and is a cryogenic fluid which can cause rapid freezing on contact with living tissue. When appropriately insulated from ambient heat, liquid nitrogen can be stored and transported, for example in vacuum flasks. Here, the very low temperature is held constant at 77 K by slow boiling of the liquid, resulting in the evolution of nitrogen gas. Depending on the size and design, the holding time of vacuum flasks ranges from a few hours to a few weeks.
Liquid nitrogen can easily be converted to a solid by placing it in a vacuum chamber pumped by a rotary vacuum pump.[2] Liquid nitrogen freezes at 63 K (−210 °C; −346 °F). Despite its reputation, liquid nitrogen's efficiency as a coolant is limited by the fact that it boils immediately on contact with a warmer object, enveloping the object in insulating nitrogen gas. This effect, known as the Leidenfrost effect, applies to any liquid in contact with an object significantly hotter than its boiling point. More rapid cooling may be obtained by plunging an object into a slush of liquid and solid nitrogen rather than liquid nitrogen alone.
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wiki...
 
I'm guessing the bar served drinks with a tiny splash of liguid nitrogen to produce an exciting-looking "dry ice" effect. If it's only a little bit and you wait for it to evaporate before drinking, it's probably fine. But on this occasion maybe the barman put too much in and the girl downed it at once. Could have been an accident or alcohol-fuelled bravado. Either way, they won't be serving those drinks again in a hurry.
 
liquid nitrogen is a toxic chemical. It destroys human tissue.
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Toxic is the wrong word. It's actually inert if I'm not mistaken. The danger comes from the temperature.

I mean, we don't watch Kill Bill and conclude that steel is toxic.
 
Scientists have warned of the dangers of using liquid nitrogen for culinary purposes after a teenage girl who had drunk a cocktail containing the substance underwent emergency surgery.

Gaby Scanlon is believed to have suffered an adverse reaction after drinking a correctly prepared Jagermeister drink made with liquid nitrogen to produce a steaming “cauldron effect.”

The sixth form pupil was celebrating her 18th birthday with friends in Lancaster city centre when she had the drink at Oscars wine bar on Thursday night.

Police said she had her stomach removed afterwards in an urgent operation thought to have saved her life.

The bar is not thought to have made an error in preparing the drink.

But professor Peter Barham, of the University of Bristol's School of Physics, stressed the importance of ensuring proper safety measures were in place when liquid nitrogen was being used in food and drink preparation.

The temperature of the liquid is around -196C and if it is not used properly it can cause frostbite or cryogenic burns, he warned.

"As with any very hot or very cold liquid proper safety measures must be taken,” he said. “Just as no-one would drink boiling water or oil or pour it over themselves, so no-one should ingest liquid nitrogen.

"Liquid nitrogen can be used safely in the preparation of foods. However, since it is not safe to ingest liquid nitrogen due care must be taken to ensure that the liquid has all evaporated before serving any food or drink that was prepared with liquid nitrogen.”

Miss Scanlon, from the Lancashire village of Heysham, reported feeling breathless and then developed severe stomach pain after drinking the cocktail.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/9...nitrogen-drinks-after-girl-loses-stomach.html
 
Liquid nitrogen toxicity has been seen before.

The more famous incidents occur with the usage of liquid N2 to make ice cream, usually at children's science camps or as university/high school demonstrations. While liquid nitrogen does produce a truly superior ice cream consistency, if not thoroughly mixed into the dessert, pockets of liquid nitrogen have caused esophageal burns and the like before.

There are also instances of the laboratory-borne male 20something ingesting spoonfuls of liquid nitrogen for shits and giggles (check pubmed) The end result is almost always massive gastrointestinal discomfort from simultaneous gas embolism and freeze burning - although it's rarely fatal or permanently disfiguring. The major hazard is expansion - 10 ml of liquid nitrogen blows up to about 20 litres of gas at STP. Easy to get a gas embolism, or at least a serious case of bloating.

Liquid nitrogen can be (somewhat paradoxically) held in the mouth for short periods of time without causing undue damage, as a 'vapour curtain' is created between the frosty cold liquid and the warm, soft mucosa of the mouth that is usually sufficient to act as an insulator while the N2 boils off. But unfortunately this can also make ingestion of liquid nitrogen "harder to prevent" tyhan ingesting something that truly burns on contact.
 
FREEZE: Aussie crackdown on liquid nitrogen cocktails

AN AUSTRALIAN liquor authority has ordered bars to stop serving drinks containing liquid nitrogen following the near-death of a British who drank an alcoholic cocktail containing the freezing substance.
UK teenager Gaby Scanlon's stomach had to be removed after she drank a cocktail that contained liquid nitrogen on a night out last week.

On Tuesday, the New South Wales Office of Liquor, Gaming and Racing (OLGR) ordered two Sydney bars, Zeta Bar and The Roosevelt Hotel, to stop the promotion and supply of drinks "containing liquid nitrogen" until an investigation is complete.
An OLGR spokesman warned that any other licensed venues that "promote, sell of supply alcoholic drinks containing liquid nitrogen should be prepared for similar compliance action".

But the operator of The Roosevelt Hotel, Sven Almenning, says, while it will comply with the OLGR orders, its drinks do not actually "contain" liquid nitrogen.

"They do not contain liquid nitrogen and the wording they use shows their lack of knowledge about the method," he said.

Liquid nitrogen is used as a method of freezing food and drinks in some of the world's top restaurants.
Star chef Heston Blumenthal uses it to make gourmet ice cream.

The freezing substance is not meant to be used as an ingredient, Mr Almenning said.

"I think it's important for readers to understand that nitrogen is not an ingredient no more than gas or flames are when you cook a steak," he said.
"If there was any danger in using it we would not be using it [in preparation] in our bar."

Nitrogen takes liquid form at 196 degrees below zero Centigrade.

Thanks to the 'Liedenfrost Effect', people will survive brief contact with liquid nitrogen unscathed. But longer exposures will cause 'cryogenic burns' and kill unprotected flesh in the same way as frostbite.

The OLGR said Roosevelt Hotel and Zeta Bar were complying with the orders.

However, Mr Almenning questioned the premise of the investigation.

"If someone suffered food poisoning, which happens every day in restaurants, we don't ban seafood and oysters because of it until an investigation has been done," he said.

Zeta Bar were contacted for comment but did not respond in time for publication.

Calls were put in to other state liquor authorities.

The Queensland Office of Liquor, Gaming and Racing said they were monitoring the situation.

http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/fo...-liquid-nitrogen/story-fneuz8wn-1226494361078
 
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