SAN FRANCISCO, CA (KRON) — Imagine eating something so hot that it tears a hole in your esophagus and have to spend more than three weeks in the hospital. That is exactly what recently happened to one California man.
The details came out during a study by UCSF. The culprit is a ghost pepper.
The 47-year-old man had eaten a hamburger smothered with a ghost pepper puree as part of contest.
It was so hot it caused a two-and-a half centimeter tear in his esophagus.
This is how hot the pepper is: In Scoville units, which measures the heat, it clocks in at over one million.
A habanero comes in at half-a-million. A jalapeno anywhere between 2,500 to 8,000.