Woman hospitalized with brain swelling after sniffing too many peppers
A Brazilian woman named Thais Medeiros is still recovering in hospital, six months after suffering severe brain swelling from sniffing a super-spicy chili pepper.
“I miss her very much and I want my daughter to come home, but I understand that she has to stay there,” says the patient’s mother, Adriana Medeiros. told Globos Brazilian news site G1.
The freak accident happened in February while the 25-year-old was helping her boyfriend cook dinner for his parents at his home in Anápolis, in central Brazil.
The occasion was made worse when Thais sniffed at a pickled goat’s pepper – a fiery variety popular in the region that has a Scoville rating (a rubric used to measure pepper spiciness) between 15,000 and 30,000—and rubbed his nose with it.
According to Jam Press, Thais reportedly came down with an itchy throat, after which she was rushed to a hospital in Anápolis. She was then transferred to a facility in her hometown of Goiânia, G1 reported.
Tests revealed the patient had been suffering from swelling of the brain, known as edema, which experts believed was due to an allergic reaction to the pepper.
It was reportedly so severe that Thais were left in comas for several days after smelling the chili.
Meanwhile, her mother Adriana pointed out that her daughter suffers from pre-existing conditions such as bronchitis and asthma.
Salvation seemed to come after Thais was discharged from hospital on July 31; However, she was forced to return four days later after experiencing a high fever and reddish urine, G1 reported.
And although Thais was originally supposed to return home on August 10, she suffered a bronchospasm – a narrowing of the airways in her lungs – that prevented her from leaving the apartment.
There is currently no definite release date for the Thais, who are unable to speak or walk after the ordeal.
Doctors fear she will not be able to resume normal activities due to neurological problems caused by the lack of oxygen.
Her desperate mother just wants her daughter to come home.
“The [other] “Daughters ask why she doesn’t come home and I think about her all the time,” Adriana said. “When I make her food that she likes, I remember our moments together and it hurts too much.”
