Hot sauce is something pizza eaters can't live without. However, in an incident in Chicago, it actually saved the life of a man by provoking a seizure attack that led to an important health diagnosis.
Randy Schmitz Orland Park, Illinois is a cancer survivor and while he was on a vacation in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, eating a meal at the Pepper Place, a spontaneous hot sauce challenge led to a massive seizure attack.
He tried the flagship product of the restaurant called "Flashbang" hot sauce made of habanero, Carolina reaper and scorpion peppers. In fact, before you can munch on this hot sauce, a signed waiver is required.
He had to dip a toothpick on the hot sauce and put it in his tongue. What he didn't expect was that he'd get violently sick and black out minutes after tasting a small sample of the sauce.
"I've done some other challenges in the past - this was possibly the worst one," Schmitz, 30, told ABC News. "I made it the five minutes. My sister then said she wanted to take the challenge, but I said, 'You might want to hold off, I'm feeling really sick'," he added.
The 30-year old initially did not feel well right after consuming the sauce and he went outside to get some fresh air. He was about to sit on a bench when he fell unconscious. When he woke up, he was already in the hospital. Doctors believed the hot sauce caused dehydration that led to a bout of seizure.
After his vacation, he went back home and was confined in Northwestern Memorial Hospital where an MRI was requested. After the MRI, he learned he had a cancerous brain tumor. Fortunately, it was still in the early stages of development.
He underwent surgery to remove the brain tumor and finished his radiation treatment in time for his wedding. He is now grateful that the hot sauce saved his life.
"They don't know exactly how long it was in there, so it would have just kept growing and might have gotten to the point where they couldn't remove it," he said. "My life would have been over.