Teenager has stomach removed to save her life after drinking lethal liquid nitrogen cocktail

Mail on Sunday (UK) ^ | 17:54 EST, 7 October 2012 | Jill Reilly

[Olog-hai]

An 18-year-old woman has had her stomach removed to save her life after drinking a cocktail containing liquid nitrogen.

Gabby Scanlan had been drinking at Oscars wine bar in Lancaster to celebrate her 18^th birthday when she was left feeling breathless. After developing serious stomach pain, she was rushed to Lancaster Royal Infirmary where she diagnosed with a perforated stomach. The young woman, from the village of Heysham in Lancashire, then underwent emergency surgery to remove her stomach, reported ITV News. …

Liquid nitrogen is pure nitrogen in a liquid state at a very low temperature. It boils at –196°C (–320.8°F), and can cause rapid freezing when it comes into contact with living tissue. …

[knarf]

Yeah .. like ... the lips and tongue before it even enters the esophagus

[Steely Tom]

She didn’t notice that what she was drinking was at more than 300 degrees below zero and exploded in her mouth as soon as it hit her tongue?

[nascarnation]

The “pornstar martini”.

Wow when I went out drinking @ 18, all we had was cheap beer....

[Nifster]

stupid people....they think that LN2 is just so nifty and does so many wonderful things....like freezer your innards...

Would she have been so willing if alcohol weren’t involved?? Yeah thought not.

Some stupid is just self induced

[publius911]

Let me think...
What does this remind me of?

Oh yeah. Teenagers often do stupid things

Teenager and ignorant?
A double whammy.

[SamAdams76]

She didn’t notice that what she was drinking was at more than 300 degrees below zero and exploded in her mouth as soon as it hit her tongue?

What kind of bar would even serve a drink like this?

[verum ago]

The “pornstar martini”.

I guess she was supposed to spit instead of swallow (ducking for cover).

On an unrelated note, how does her digestive system work without her stomach? Is she going to have to be tube-fed indefinitely?

[muawiyah]

Enzymes ~ lots of folks walking around these days without a stomach.

[Cobra64]

It would never make it to her stomach.

[martin_fierro]

[Popman]

I am sort of dumbfounded....why would a bar serve a drink with liquid nitrogen in it... Even a small amount....

That stuff is extremely dangerous...

That is beyond stupi..... Falls into criminal ....

[Steely Tom]

I did a lot of very risky things in the lab after everyone left, some involving liquified gasses, big lasers, big thyratron-switched power supplies, big low-inductance capacitor banks, huge electromagnets, acetylene torches, muffle furnaces, abrasive cut-off wheels, 50K rpm centrifuges, anechoic chambers, molten metal, molten salt baths, induction heaters... came through it fine, and no one found out. On one or two occasions, a wee bit of spectroscopic-grade C₂H₅OH was involved as well.

I never, in my wildest moment of off-the-wallness, ever for one second contemplated putting liquid nitrogen in my mouth. I had it soaked up to the calves of my jeans once though, although that situation didn't last very long.

[BigCinBigD]

I would dare her to do it again. But she doesn’t have the guts.

[Popman]

I guess the girl never watched “Terminator” where the cyborg takes a liquid nitrogen bath....

[SamAdams76]

You obviously understand the danger of ingesting liquid nitrogen but evidently not this 18-year-old girl. Still, I question why the bar she was in would even serve up this kind of drink? Why didn’t other patrons of this bar have a similar experience? I have a feeling that there is more to this story that we haven’t been told.

[RingerSIX]

This is the girlie version of “hold muh beer!”

[shibumi]

"That is beyond stupi..... Falls into criminal ...."

"What kind of bar would even serve a drink like this?"


In most States in the US (I can't say for sure "all" States) it is illegal to even use dry ice (frozen CO2) in cocktails. The dangers of dry ice are mild compared to liquid nitrogen. It may never have occurred to anyone to make nitrogen illegal thinking that its use in something for consumption would be too far fetched.

But obviously the limits of human stupidity have been stretched once again.

[IMTOFT]

I agree - I spend many years in the lab as a research polymer chemist. We used LN2 as a coolant for certain reactions and as a cold trap for certain distillates (with acetone). I got a minor amount of frost bite on my right foot (still bugs me during the winter) when I didn’t use proper footwear when transferring from a larger container to a smaller...NEVER would I ever consider imbibing LN2 - freshman year physics class, our professor introduced us to LN2, he poured some into an insulated container, dipped in a rose, the LN2 boiled and bubbled over, he took out the rose and smashed in on the lab bench - it shattered...very impressive...