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Scanlon is currently in serious but stable condition, local police said in a statement over the weekend.
"Medical opinion is that this would have proved fatal had the operation not been carried out urgently," police said.
When exposed to air, liquid nitrogen creates a dense fog and is used by bartenders and chefs to add an element of visual drama to dishes or to freeze things quickly, such as ice cream.
It is also used for removing warts and has industrial uses. Contact with flesh can cause cryogenic burn or "frostbite".
Professor of food physics at Leeds University Malcolm Povey said liquid nitrogen should not be consumed while still liquid, as it turns into a gas inside the body and causes the stomach to swell and burst.
"The liquid nitrogen would rapidly change into gas and blow the stomach up like a balloon...the idea that people put this stuff in drinks is just unbelievable," Povey told Reuters.
The bar which served the drink has stopped selling all liquid nitrogen drinks, said police, who are investigating the incident.
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Youth really is wasted on the young. However, she did trust the bartender. If a bartender hands you a drink they are taking the legal liability that what they are giving you is safe to consume. The issue of whether you've had too much is another story. But the bartender and the bar are both liable and will be sued for millions and will lose.
True. However, this appears to be a "one off" in as much as if liquid nitrogen was unsafe always, there would be many, many more issues coming to the forefront. I didn't hear of any other incidents like this from the same place/bartender, so the obvious seems to hold true: this is a one time incident that was accidental.
Is there a legal liability? That depends on the law of the location involved. Surely a safe drink is expected. And likely delivered for 99.999999%. This girl was just that .00000001%
Liquid nitrogen can be somewhat self-insulating: the nitrogen rapidly boils when it comes in contact with a warm surface, leaving a layer of vapor that momentarily protects the surface from further contact with the liquid. It is very possible that this woman could have drunk some liquid nitrogen without having it feel any colder than an ice water.
The heat in the stomach would lead to rapid boiling of the liquid nitrogen. It is surprising how much volume the gas from even a tiny amount of liquid nitrogen occupies -- the volume goes up by a factor of x1000. Even a quarter shot glass of liquid nitrogen would produce a volume of gas many times the size of the stomach, so it is not hard to see how what might appear to be a harmlessly small amount of liquid can, in fact, cause very serious damage.
Then why didn't she just burp? or vomit?
Why didn't she vomit the gas out? Really? Really?
That is a good question. I think that some effect like vomiting did happen, but could not help because the damage was probably happening too fast.
Meanwhile pot stays illegal.
You put liquid nitrogen in that bong water, you're no better off.
whats colder than cold?..ice cold!
Do bartenders really have the right to put what ever they want into drinks as long as there is no law against it? What is next gasoline or has that been tried?
the clitoris...nature's rubic's cube...lol
Dear Indigo-Rage...there you go again...interjecting politics into the discussion. I am a Christian most capable on Independant and Conservative thought who just happens to like my single batch Bourbons and single malt scotches "neat."
This is natural selection at it's finest. I hope the practice continues so stupid people are removed from the gene pool.
According to some people, it's ok to sell someone something that makes them lose their stomach and have no liability. I'd sure love to live in this idiocracy where no business is responsible for the harm they do.
-371 F, in a drink, then no stomach she will now be on a liquid diet of very taste less kind, to enjoy food, she will have to chew and the spit out every bite.
Freedom from regulation buys a strange form of freedom.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_nitrogen
At atmospheric pressure, liquid nitrogen boils at −196 °C (77 K; −321 °F) and is a cryogenic fluid which can cause rapid freezing on contact with living tissue. When appropriately insulated from ambient heat, liquid nitrogen can be stored and transported, for example in vacuum flasks. Here, the very low temperature is held constant at 77 K by slow boiling of the liquid, resulting in the evolution of nitrogen gas. Depending on the size and design, the holding time of vacuum flasks ranges from a few hours to a few weeks.
Nothing dumber about drinking a steaming drink than there is about dipping things in a big, brown fountain into which everyone else is dipping things. I'd say that no matter what it looks like, there's a reasonable expectation that what you are being sold is not going to make your stomach explode. Who decided that putting liquid nitrogen in drinks was ok?
Life is tough. It's even tougher when you're stupid.
Liquid nitrogen is (and has been) used across the food/drink industry without issue. Either it was prepared incorrectly or some stupid drunk (her or a friend most likely) made her consume it incorrectly. Either she didn't know how to consume it correctly OR someone tricked her into drinking something that shouldn't have been drank. Odd how this is the ONLY person to have had this problem from this location. A smart person would realize if it was the LN there would have been other people with the issue.
Looking at all the variables available to us, the only one that sticks out is the girl. Something she did (or was alllowed to be done to her) is the issue, not the use of LN.
Why does anyone need liquid nitrogen in the first place; can't a "drink" be sold on its "drinkability". Just like fire in bars for bands which has resulted in deaths more than once, it doesn't add anything except to keep dumbed down minds drinking.
The bar actually SOLD these drinks?
What... what!?
*shakes head*
Thank goodness she didn't butt-chug it.
I'm curious how this young woman will live without a stomach? Very tragic situation and heartless of people to blame her without even knowing what happened. I know that if I went to a bar, I would trust that the drink I was being handed by a professional bartender was safe to drink (other than it being alcohol and destroying my liver of course).
All you need a small intestine to live comfortably. Even then, there was this one girl lost her small intestine due to the suction of a pool drain and lived for months with just a stomach before dieing. Both absorb food, but a stomach usually absorbs simple things like sugars.
But she will never have substantial employment. If someone cannot work, I believe that the state should take care of them. Others do not believe that, but whether one believes help is due or not, it is still a social cost.
I am certain that if she was old enough to drink, she was old enough to know what was in the drink she ordered-
Stupidity-that's what it was--these young people have all the answers, know everything, and put a high priority on drinking, texting and hanging out--she is dam luck to be a live.
It's tragic, but I just don't understand how someone can drink something that is even a portion of a -320 degree Fahrenheit liquid let alone hold it without realizing there is something wrong. Even if it was a shot.
If she's from a wealthy family, this the bartender's fault.
The new-old watch words of the twenty-first century are "Caveat Emptor".
When you live in a world where everyone is out to make a buck, everyone is desperate to make a buck, and the quickest way to make a buck is to jump on the bandwagon of the latest harebrained trend...
then... CAVEAT EMPTOR.
Save yourself. It's every man for himself. And it's just beginning.
Have used liquid nitrogen to shrink fit parts in automotive work.Dangerous stuff.I have also used it to quick chill adult beverages,have to be careful not to keep the beverage container in the nitrogen too long,ha ha,.Never had any desire to try a drink made from it,always thought it was too dangerous.Want to see something funny wait until a rainy cool day throw liquid nitrogen onto a stream of rainwater,man what a show.
Anyone who passed high school science should have known this was a REALLY bad idea.
A few small pieces of dry ice have the same effect and the "exploding stomach" problem isn't as common. It's also cheaper.