A 30-year-old man in Delhi was left with a hole in his stomach and had to get that part removed after he drank down a cocktail laced with liquid nitrogen.

The man was partying at a Gurgaon pub with friends. They ordered the pub's latest offering - a cocktail with liquid nitrogen. He drank it before the smoke coming out of the drink could evaporate. What followed was extremely restlessness, abdomen swelling and breathing difficulty. The man was rushed to a nearby hospital, where blood tests revealed severe lactic acidosis – high level of lactic acid in the blood which commonly results from oxygen deprivation in the body.

        What he had consumed was liquid nitrogen that has a boiling point of -195.8 degree Celsius and is used to instantly freeze food and drinks. The colourless liquid is also used to cool computers and in cryogenic medical procedures like removing warts and cancerous tissues by freezing them. When used to freeze drinks, these should only be consumed after the nitrogen has completely evaporated.

         “Consuming liquid nitrogen can cause havoc in a person’s system. By nature, liquid nitrogen expands manifolds and evaporates when left at room temperature. The gas did not have an escape route after the person consumed it and the sphincter closed, this is what led to a perforation (a hole) in his stomach,” said Dr Amit Deepta Goswami, the person’s doctor and consultant of bariatric and minimally invasive surgery at Columbia Asia Hospital, Gurgaon.