Why You Probably Shouldn’t Chug Eggnog: It Sent This Guy To The Hospital
During a bout of eggnog chugging at a holiday office Christmas party, a Utah man rushed to the hospital after he inhaled the beverage into his lungs and was, in a sense, dry-drowning.
According to Ryan Roche, who never backs down from a challenge, “I just opened up my throat and didn’t even swallow. I pretty much just poured it down,” he told KSL News in a video interview, motioning with his hand how he knocked the eggnog back during the competition. “I think it was one of those spur of the moment kind of things.”
Roche, who chugged the entire carton in 12 seconds without breathing (all for a Ruth’s Chris Steak House gift card), was the winner: but when he stood up, he noticed something was off and began coughing.
He’d aspirated all of the eggnog into his lungs — which left him unable to control his motions or even breathe properly. Panting and still feeling nauseous hours later, Roche’s friends took him to the hospital, where he was hooked up to a double IV and oxygen, and doctors tried to fight the infection already forming in his lungs from the foreign liquid.
When liquid or food “goes down the wrong pipe” into your lungs, it’s known as aspiration — and it can lead to serious problems later on down the road. Research has shown that aspiration is the leading cause of pneumonia in the intensive care unit. In order to prevent accidentally aspirating food or liquids, you should chew things completely and eat slowly as well as take small bites. And you should probably avoid chugging an entire carton of eggnog in 12 seconds.
After 3 days in the hospital, Roche returned home and has since recovered from his antic’s consequence.
“It was rough,” Roche told KSL News. “Eggnog: not ideal for the lungs.”