From People.com…
Thanks to TikTok, a 2021 case study about a man who went into organ failure and needed multiple amputations after eating leftover lo main went viral over the last week, bringing up questions about how avoid the same outcome.
Thankfully, a case like his is exceedingly unlikely, says Randy Worobo, a professor of food science at Cornell University.
“It’s a very, very rare occurrence,” Worobo tells PEOPLE. “There’s many other types of foodborne illnesses that occur that are less severe, but I suspect based on the description, that a clostridium perfringens [the bacteria that most commonly causes food poisoning] grew in his leftovers.”
That bacteria can produce toxins that will invade the body and go into the cerebral spinal fluid, causing illness and death.