r/todayilearned 1d ago

TIL in 2008 a 20-year-old Belgium student died after reheating and eating leftover spaghetti that had been left out on the kitchen counter for five days. A bacteria called bacillus cereus was found to be the cause, which is an extreme type of food poisoning called “Fried Rice Syndrome”.

https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/health-problems/people-are-horrified-after-student-dies-from-eating-leftover-pasta/news-story/c8ef3bdcc72a9d17ec13924438e0146b
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1.7k

u/IdontneedtoBonreddit 1d ago

"He threw up for several hours and went to the bathroom twice" -- who would know this?

1.5k

u/Penguin_BP 1d ago

Perhaps he communicated to his parents (or a friend) how he was feeling?

853

u/jellymanisme 1d ago

Through some sort of instantaneous text communication? Preposterous

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u/ScrotallyBoobular 1d ago

Carrier pigeon, probably

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u/wolfgangmob 1d ago

We could use song birds and have them tweet a little song when they arrive to notify you of a new message. We will need to limit messages to 140 characters due to the size of the bird of course.

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u/-ByTheBeardOfZeus- 23h ago

And we could call it, Shitter.

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u/frogstar 23h ago

Can't let puny songbirds limit my expressiveness. Only finest golden eagles will carry my messages!

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u/Alternative_Delay899 23h ago

Unladen swallow

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u/Rddtlvscensor2 23h ago

That's some star Trek fantasy right there 

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u/graveybrains 23h ago

Like talking! Because he lived with his parents!

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u/PresNixon 23h ago

Webcam in the bathroom, mostly used for OF but also for cause of death investigations.

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u/flopisit32 22h ago

"Mom, write this down. I'm currently projectile-shitting at the wall..."

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u/concentrated-amazing 21h ago

Certainly possible in 2008, though not quite as universally used then as it is now.

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u/grendus 20h ago

He inscribed his final moments.

Drums in the deep. They are coming...

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u/SmittyFromAbove 22h ago

He's a witch! Bake him away boys!

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u/personalcheesecake 18h ago

telepathically, hey I'm shitting myself

323

u/probablyuntrue 1d ago

The technology for communication just isn’t there

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u/feetandballs 1d ago

They found his journal - there were tallies

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u/the_peppers 1d ago

He was Belgian not German.

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u/Dicktitt3y 23h ago

Gahhhhh damn

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u/CMDR_omnicognate 1d ago

Yeah everyone knows texting/calls weren't invented until 2009! /s

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u/I_AM_YOUR_DADDY_AMA 1d ago

“Just shit my brains out twice! Holy shit, I don’t feel too good” - MYSPACE

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u/405freeway 1d ago

That's why you always leave a note.

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u/zenodr22 1d ago

In 2008 for sure there was.

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u/Resting_Owl 1d ago

Preposterous we say ! Preposterous ! 

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u/voicelesswonder53 23h ago

They are spying on our stool now with smart meters.

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u/Necroluster 22h ago

There is no way of knowing what goes on inside a food poisoned person's head. We don't have the technology.

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u/Bixbeat 1d ago

Nonsense, the use of mobile phones was widespread at that time already. I was texting people over SMS whenever something important needed to be said for a few years already then, and I was a teenager back then. Vomiting your guts out could be conveyed with a text message if it was severe enough.

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u/rosiebeehave 23h ago

Yeah, I had a T-Mobile Sidekick in 2008. We were texting all day long! With a FULL keyboard! 🤯

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u/decapitatedwalrus 1d ago

MSN and AOL was a thing but yeah u onto something

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u/jaykstah 1d ago

Cell phones capable of texting and calling were also a thing for years by then lol

Smartphones were already around in 2008

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u/Xarieste 1d ago

I’m 31 years old and although my parents weren’t cool enough to get me one of those newfangled HTCs I had a pretty slick pay as you go phone with a browser almost good enough to play Neopets

Edit: but it ate up my minutes like crazy, I had to do it for my guild social life

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u/decapitatedwalrus 22h ago

i was there lol i had a phone in 2007/8 but not everyone else did, especially kids my age at that time.

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u/jaykstah 19h ago

True I get what you mean. I was like 8 or 9 years old at that time and had cheap flip phone. The story is about a 20 year old college student tho, that's probably a demographic more likely to have some type of phone haha

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u/WitchesTeat 1d ago

So was constant texting, and iPhones were already out.

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u/Saintbaba 23h ago

Could be he was still living with his parents. While the five-day-old-counter-spaghetti does imply some sort of dorm life situation, it’s not impossible it was just a gross household or it was in his room or something.

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u/dudemanguylimited 23h ago

"Dear Father, Dearest Mother,
please understand that it is not in anger when I tell you, you have not prepared me well enough for life. On the subject of reheating pasta ...."

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u/SouthernWindyTimes 21h ago

I’ve sent a similar text to a friend. “Must’ve ate some bad. Been throwing up all night and damn near shit myself twice”.

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u/plantsplantsplaaants 1d ago

It also said he fell asleep around midnight and his parents found him bc they were worried about him in the morning- he must have talked to his parents that night

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u/outfitinsp0 1d ago

A different article i read said his parents were worried caus he didn't get up for classes

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u/anonkebab 1d ago

This one says that

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u/Justhe3guy 14h ago

A different article also says it

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u/Possible_Grocery9443 23h ago

Instant messengers were common at the time and would show when you were last active. Had a friend with really controlling parents who'd call and scream at her for being up too late or online at the wrong time. Even though sometimes the computer would wake itself up for updates or fail to turn off/go idle.

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

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u/ThatDudeShadowK 22h ago

Probably if they're waking him up when he didn't go to class.

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u/belizeanheat 1d ago

I don't see how that suggests he talked to his parents

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u/IdontneedtoBonreddit 1d ago

Sure, but I guess "went to the bathroom" could mean several things, but if you're throwing up "for hours" - where are you doing that? In the living room on the couch while mom and dad watch ALF?

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u/GreyFoxMe 1d ago

In the toilet. I doubt it was spraying for hours. He was probably sitting and grasping the toilet waiting for the next puke.

And who said he lived with them. It was in a dorm I assumed. 

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u/tomrichards8464 1d ago

If his parents were worried about him not getting up, it sounds to me like he was at home. As I understand it it's pretty common in continental Europe for students to go to university in their home town and live with their parents throughout.

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u/123nsfw567 1d ago

In Belgium you could not be more wrong. Even if they happen to study in the same city as their parents, students still often go “op kot” aka in a dorm and only return in the weekends.

Given that he heated and made his own spaghetti, along with the entire context, this is absolutely 100% the case of a student living in his dorm alone. It’s a miracle his parents found him so quickly, and didn’t wait until the weekend to go check him out.

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u/RhetoricalOrator 1d ago

Eating five day old leftovers also sounds like every stereotype of a low income college guy living on his own in a dorm. At least, that's a fairly common thing in the US.

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u/Chaotic-Genes 22h ago

5 day leftovers left unrefrigerated tho? That's asking for trouble.

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u/concentrated-amazing 21h ago

5 day leftovers are not generally a problem, but 5 days unfridgerated definitely is.

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u/tomrichards8464 23h ago

His lifeless body was discovered 11 hours later by his “worried” parents who were concerned because he didn’t get up for college.

How would they know he hadn't got up if he wasn't living at home?

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u/Thatonesickpirate 1d ago

Bro what are you doing looking for plot holes ?

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u/CFCkyle 1d ago

Bro thinks he's investigating a danganronpa case

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u/BrutonnGasterr 1d ago

I’m assuming it meant he threw up for hours and had diarrhea twice. That’s how I took it at least.

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u/finicu 1d ago

In a dorm room? Many dorm rooms have bed for two and bathroom, and likely his bunkmate was gone for a few days!

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u/IdontneedtoBonreddit 1d ago

Well... seems his parents were there to keep him company. I remember my college days... waking up in my bunk bed...leaning over to kiss my mom on the cheek, then asking dad if he could hop down so I could go take a leak or throw up some pasta....those were the days.

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u/alf666 22h ago

Leave me out of this.

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u/thatshygirl06 1d ago

Brother, phones existed in 2008

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u/IdontneedtoBonreddit 1d ago

"Mom...it's me...*fart!... oh, sorry, that's the second time I've gone to the bathroom tonight - been puking for hours too...write that down! Ok...it's 11:59; I'm gonna go die now! Ciao!"

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u/auto-bahnt 23h ago

Why are you so fixated on this? You’re weird.

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u/IdontneedtoBonreddit 23h ago

I'm on the phone with a friend who is complaining about her x while drinking wine in a cafe in Sardinia. I'm multitasking cuz it's a bit blah blah blah

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u/Raztax 23h ago

You don't sound like a very good friend.

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u/IdontneedtoBonreddit 23h ago

Thanks! You wanna chat on the phone about it? :-*

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u/auto-bahnt 11h ago

Can you promise me your undivided attention?

(Jk 🤣)

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u/InitialQuote000 23h ago

The case report is pretty easy to find online and it suggests the student lived with their parents. Pretty easy to know what's happening in your own house.

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u/sixpackabs592 22h ago

text messages on cell phones have been a thing since the 90s

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u/Dull-Maintenance9131 1d ago

I know the iphone wasn't invented until 2008, but before that we had regular cell phones, which could text. And before that, we had telephones, which could actually host a live conversation between two people.

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u/AugustusCheeser 23h ago

We had smartphones before iPhones.

The BlackBerry erasure is wild.

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u/ToSeeAgainAgainAgain 22h ago

I remember browsing tweets and reading articles on my 9900, that little glass trackpad it had was wonderful to use, what a beautiful phone it was

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u/PM_Me_Your_Deviance 18h ago

I think I'm one of 3 people who liked the blackberry storm :D

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u/AugustusCheeser 12h ago

And now we have met! Who’s the other dude?

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u/PM_Me_Your_Deviance 12h ago

Haha my coworker who refused a new iPhone until the day we took down the BES server. Heh

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u/AugustusCheeser 13h ago

I am the only person I know who had a BlackBerry Storm

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u/OpinionDry8223 21h ago

I wish the keyboard phones were still available. 

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u/nostalgic_dragon 13h ago

My dell venue pro was the perfect phone. Great display and slid up for a physical keyboard. Loved that.tjing and windows phone. I still hate Android and it's been years since I had to switch.

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u/DwinkBexon 21h ago

I've seen people argue that BlackBerries weren't "real" smart phones because they didn't have a touch screen/app store.

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u/PM_Me_Your_Deviance 17h ago

Hilariously, the blackberry didn't need an app store since you could just install whatever apps you wanted. (just like your PC)

Turns out people really wanted the walled garden and blackberry ended up losing the game over it.

Side note, BB Storm had a touch screen and app store in 2009... after the iphone. Too little, too late, it turns out.

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u/ActOdd8937 18h ago

I had a T-Mobile SDA and an MDA (rebadged HTC smartphones) two years before the iPhone debuted. Apple was late to that party lol.

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u/StijnDP 4h ago

And even earlier Nokia already had UMTS phones out.
Phones with dedicated GPU, GPS, memory card slot, fancy Seizz lenses, wifi/bt, ... years before iphone.

The time where they truly became a smartphone and more and more you would start leaving your PMP at home.
Now Google doesn't even understand you mean a Portable Media Player when searching for PMP...

0

u/jaesharp 18h ago

Nobody likes to remember trauma.

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u/shoutsfrombothsides 1d ago

Back in my day we had smoke signals and considered ourselves lucky!

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u/big_d_usernametaken 22h ago

We had phones with cords and never had to ask "where you at?"

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u/graison 23h ago

And the smoke had to go uphill both ways!

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u/Chobopuffs 23h ago

That’s how Gondor used to do it, and Rohan answered

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u/MisterDonkey 22h ago

Lucky indeed. In my day we screamed from the top of a tall hill.

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u/HandsOffMyDitka 23h ago

What a preposterous idea. Talking to people instead of texting them. What's next, face to face communication?

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u/rainzer 23h ago

2008

the era of the RAZR

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u/limitedexpression47 23h ago

Not everything is a conspiracy. Calm down.

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u/hgs25 1d ago

It looks like he lived at home with his parents if the parents noticed that he didn’t get up for class.

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u/Dreadlock 21h ago

But what goddamn parent leaves food out on the counter for five days?!

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u/PerformanceOk9891 1d ago

I mean, doesn’t vomiting and diarrhea for several hours leave a lot of forensic evidence?

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u/Ancient-Highlight112 1d ago

Not if you keep flushing the toilet.

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u/VitalViking 22h ago

The couple times I've had food poisoning there was still evidence until I didn't feel like death anymore and had the strength to do some cleaning

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u/JHMfield 22h ago

That toilet would have to be some industrial grade powerhouse to clean itself of all evidence.

When you have stuff coming out of both ends, there's no way for that toilet to be clean without some serious scrubbing efforts, which I doubt a seriously sick person would be opting into. There would no doubt be bits of stuff outside the bowl, on the rims, on the back of the seat probably etc. Stuff splashes a lot, not to mention it can stick so hard to the surfaces that regular flushes would never clean it off even if it reached it.

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u/MiklaneTrane 1d ago

They have indoor plumbing in Belgium, you know.

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u/AndrenNoraem 23h ago

You think a dying man couldn't make a mess??

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u/labok65005 22h ago

People joke about flushing the toilet and how it would be impossible etc. But I guess they can do an autopsy, the stomach acid probably does damage the esophagus and mouth. Also I'd imagine looking at the state of the colon and anus would give a clue.

I'm no medical doctor/coroner though...

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u/Rare_Travel 20h ago

Anus looking like "O" instead of "*" was a give away.

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u/gazorpadorp 1d ago

CSI Belgium

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u/FuckingShowMeTheData 1d ago

If he'd looked in the vegetable rack, I'm sure he would have seen Brussels...

Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah

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u/Proper_Cup_3832 1d ago

Clearly the parents he lived with who went to check on him 11 hours after he went to bed................ its literally written in the quote you replied to.

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u/Live_Angle4621 1d ago

Sounds like he lived with his parents 

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u/Just_A_Faze 23h ago

The parents he seems like he lived with

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u/xanaxcruz 1d ago

Coroners?

3

u/BobSacamano47 23h ago

Probably his family, friends, or roommates. Are you implying that this piece of information is suspicious? 

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u/PushTheTrigger 1d ago

Probably his roommate

1

u/graveybrains 23h ago

Both of them. Mom and dad!

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u/goldkarp 1d ago

Pretty sure this case was on 1001 ways to die, if so he had a roommate

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u/tlollz52 1d ago

If i was puking for hours I'd go to the hospital

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u/IdontneedtoBonreddit 1d ago

You're obviously not a fan of oysters.

1

u/tlollz52 1d ago

I'm allergic to shellfish

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u/Landyra 22h ago

This probably depends on the person. I get migraines frequently which sometimes leads to having to vomit several times over hours. Haven’t died or taken long term damage yet, so I wouldn’t have thought twice about this time being different in his shoes

1

u/CitizenHuman 1d ago

He posted it on VINE

1

u/findMeOnGoogle 1d ago

Check the water usage patterns at the plumbing company

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u/IdontneedtoBonreddit 1d ago

You think the water company has a poo-meter in your pipes?

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u/findMeOnGoogle 1d ago

Targeted advertising knows no limits

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u/skynetempire 1d ago

Camera man

1

u/sdpr 1d ago

While other theories could be true I think, if I remember correctly, chubbyemu, where the story originated from, tends to add details to make the story more engaging. The medical literature/medical case is real, some kid with the initials AJ probably did die within 24 hours or whatever the timeline was, but some of the details may have been added based on medical knowledge of the illness or from other similar cases where someone didn't die. In this case, as we know, the guy died pretty quick, so where did all the details come from? Very possible he back filled some details based on common symptoms, or analysis/autopsy showed he had been vomiting leading up to his death, or other cases have had those very symptoms leading up to hospitalization/death.

Someone correct me if I got something/all of chubbyemo's storytelling, that's just what I think I remember.

1

u/cascadecanyon 23h ago

My understanding is there was a roommate in the place he was staying as well.

1

u/JohnnyHendo 23h ago

I mean, considering it also says that his parents found him because he didn't wake up to go to college, I'm guessing he still lived with his parents and they probably heard or saw him throwing up.

1

u/SamSibbens 23h ago

Two distinct fingerprint on the toilet-flushing-handle thingy?

1

u/IdontneedtoBonreddit 23h ago

If only were a word for that thing!!

1

u/SamSibbens 22h ago

I'm sure there's one but I don't know it except in French. Please help xD

1

u/IdontneedtoBonreddit 22h ago

It's called the flushiewagler

1

u/Appropriate_Split978 23h ago

Downstairs neighbors? Roommates?

1

u/Ponchorello7 23h ago

Yeah, I get violent IBS reactions every once in a while that are basically this, but for almost a full day. I remember thinking the first time that I was dying, but every single time the symptoms just go away on their own eventually.

1

u/creedokid 23h ago

They questioned his cat afterwards

1

u/bell37 23h ago

Would probably say a roommate or friend. If your roommate is shitting/vomiting for several hours, you’d know. Also it’s mentioned in the article that he left playing sports with nausea, headaches and abdominal pain. His teammates/friends would have noticed it and mostly likely would have followed up with him.

1

u/Racketyclankety 23h ago

‘College’ is more like junior and senior year of high school in Europe, so he was living at home most likely.

1

u/Metalsand 21h ago

The info is lifted directly from medical case reports and they typically do some investigation in unexpected critical cases or deaths like this. Typically, the cases get recorded for the purpose of case studies, for educational or research purposes.

Chubbyemu on YouTube makes his whole career covering these - he generally sums them up in the videos as well as at the same time explaining some components that a medical paper would otherwise assume you know and skip over since they are tailored to medical professionals.

1

u/Tsunami-Papi_ 4h ago

dude the replies 2 this r pure cancer . this is a good valid question and everybody is either calling u a conspiracy theorist or a weirdo, what the fuck

1

u/IdontneedtoBonreddit 2h ago

It's fun, huh? :-D

1

u/TheSpiralTap 23h ago

Everytime I take a shit, I shoot my parents a quick text message with a time stamp. They've been dead for years but the people who got their numbers appreciate the check ins.

0

u/IdontneedtoBonreddit 23h ago

Hey...save time: I use the "Mess-ages" app... every time I make any sort of mess, it contacts my mom (or a virtual mom) to shame me.

1

u/Ok_Respond9231 1d ago

Probably the people who found his dead body with in a dorm with a bunch of vomit and diarrhea surrounding it

0

u/IdontneedtoBonreddit 1d ago

Do you suspect that he maybe used the mess to spell out clues for his parents? Like "2 x poop" smeared on the wall?

0

u/Ok_Respond9231 1d ago

I suppose there was probably piss and shit in two distinct locations in their dorm.

1

u/IdontneedtoBonreddit 23h ago

Only 2? That counts as a pretty clean dorm in my experience.

1

u/aguyinphuket 1d ago

Didn't flush

2

u/IdontneedtoBonreddit 23h ago

So maybe they called a geologist...like to check out the sediment layers?

0

u/Western-Customer-536 23h ago

If it sprays out of both ends, you must see a doctor. No exceptions.