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Hot sauce saved life? A man from Orland Park says he owes his life to a bottle of hot sauce.
Randy Schmitz, 30, has told the story of the time he entered the Pepper Palace, a chain dedicated to spicy condiments, which is located in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. He was on vacation with his fiancé and family, according to The Huffington Post.
Schmitz decided to try “Flashbang,” a sauce so potent – combining Carolina Reaper, scorpion, Jolokia, and habanero peppers — that customers have to sign a release before tasting it.
“It was pretty darn hot, but since I didn’t have a huge amount of it, I got over it in a few minutes,” he said in a recent letter to the Pepper Palace, according to The Huffington Post. “My sister was about to take the challenge and sign her name too. I told her to wait cause I wasn’t feeling so well.”
He stepped outside and sat on a bench for some fresh air, and before he knew it, he blacked out and woke up on a stretcher inside a hospital room. He apparently started twitching and shaking violently while sitting outside the store, an incident that was determined by doctors to be a seizure.
Suburban man says hot sauce saved his life – http://t.co/fcDtgdCYtL pic.twitter.com/YGDKmaqO9L
— WGN TV News (@WGNNews) March 13, 2015
The seizure prompted doctors to do an MRI scan of Schmitz’ brain, which revealed a cancerous tumor on his left frontal lobe.
Now that Schmitz is cancer-free, he is crediting Pepper Palace with designing a hot sauce so extreme that it ultimately saved his life. Surgeon Jeffrey Raizer, medical director of neuro-oncology at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, told the Chicago Tribune that having a certain amount of hot sauce can plausibly induce a seizure by delivering a “big jolt to your system.”
“The doctors did not know how long the cancerous tumor had been there and they said if it did not get activated, it would have just kept growing and expanding,” Schmitz said in the letter to Pepper Palace. “I had surgery, got the tumor removed, went on radiation and chemotherapy, and I am now cancer free!! Your Flashbang Pepper Sauce SAVED MY LIFE!!!!”
Pepper Palace sent Schmitz and his now-wife a year’s supply of hot sauce, which includes the brand that “saved his life.” Schmitz, however, is “a little bit nervous” to try it again.
Agencies/Canadajournal
My had a fast growing tumor, like this young man. No symptoms, she just passed out. Odd that he has chemo. Our doctor said chemo does not work on the brain due to the blood/brain barrier. Fast growing rumors are usuall on the surface and have a high rate of recovery, unlike the slow growing deep brain rumors. Wish him well.