Error Of The Week (7)
One of my bugbears with buffets rather than sit-down jobbies
is that you are never quite certain what you are putting into your mouth.
Sometimes you can be in for a big surprise as happened to this unnamed Israeli
woman in her late sixties, according to an article in the BMJ Case Reports
2019.
Attending a wedding party she tucked in with some gusto into
a dip which she thought was avocado. Five minutes later she began to feel a
burning sensation in her chest and down her arms. Not wishing to be a party
pooper she grinned and bore her discomfort but the following day, still feeling
uncomfortable and weak, she went to the quacks.
An ECG revealed that she had suffered what the medics
describe as Takutsubo cardiomyopathy or broken heart syndrome which, in lay man’s
terms, causes left ventricular dysfunction, typically in older women,
especially after sudden, intense physical or emotional stress.
And what had caused the woman’s stress?
Well, what she had tucked into was a bowl of wasabi paste, made
from the hot Japanese root vegetable, which I enjoy but a sparing application
seems to be the sensible thing. According to the article, this is the first
recorded instance of broken heart syndrome to have been brought on by wasabi so
that is something to boast about when the woman next sees her friends.
The moral of the tale, though, is stick to what you know.
