--- title: Hot Pepper: Ghost Pepper Rips Hole in Man's Esophagus description: A 47-year-old man ate a pepper so hot that he tore a 2.5-cm hole in his esophagus canonical: https://time.com/4536586/ghost-pepper-hot-man-esophagus/ author: Suyin Haynes article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-10-19T15:19:51.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-13T17:26:00.000Z article:section: Health og:title: A Man Ate a Pepper So Hot He Ripped a Hole in His Esophagus og:description: A 47-year-old man ate a pepper so hot that he tore a 2.5-cm hole in his esophagus og:url: https://time.com/4536586/ghost-pepper-hot-man-esophagus/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt17b1bbb47bc37e38/6988aa93f887dcd853e97da0/gettyimages-1674389361.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5000 og:image:height: 2813 og:image:alt: Fresh Bhut Jolokia chilies, also known as Raja Chilies, for og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: A Man Ate a Pepper So Hot He Ripped a Hole in His Esophagus twitter:description: A 47-year-old man ate a pepper so hot that he tore a 2.5-cm hole in his esophagus twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt17b1bbb47bc37e38/6988aa93f887dcd853e97da0/gettyimages-1674389361.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # A Man Ate a Ghost Pepper So Hot He Ripped a Hole in His Esophagus > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's weekday health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free weekday newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=9d7f7f76-27bb-4bb3-8eba-e024223c98ad&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1) by [Suyin Haynes](https://time.com/author/suyin-haynes/) ## Suyin Haynes Updated: Dec 13, 2023 5:26 PM UTCPublished: Oct 19, 2016 3:19 PM UTC  Fresh Bhut Jolokia chilies, thought to rank at around 1 million on the Scoville Scale. Fresh Bhut Jolokia chilies, thought to rank at around 1 million on the Scoville Scale. Jerry Redfern—© 2009 Jerry Redfern by [Suyin Haynes](https://time.com/author/suyin-haynes/) ## Suyin Haynes Updated: Dec 13, 2023 5:26 PM UTCPublished: Oct 19, 2016 3:19 PM UTC **Correction appended, Oct. 19** A 47-year-old man ate a pepper so hot that he ripped a 2.5-cm hole in his esophagus. As reported by [the Washington _Post_](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/10/18/he-ate-an-extremely-spicy-ghost-pepper-hours-later-doctors-found-a-hole-in-his-throat/), the man was taking part in a food eating contest and was challenged to eat a hamburger with ghost pepper puree. The ghost pepper originally hails from India and is regarded as one of the spiciest foods in the world, coming in at third place on Guinness World Records’ [list of the world’s hottest chilies](http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/hottest-chili). Also known by the name bhut jolokia, the pepper is ranked at 1 million on the Scoville Scale, which is a system for measuring the spiciness of different substances. To compare, a bell pepper is zero units on the [scale](http://pepperheadsforlife.com/the-scoville-scale/), the fiery Scotch Bonnet is 350,000 units and the world’s hottest pepper, called the Carolina Reaper, is 1.5 million units. The case study was originally featured in the [_Journal of Emergency Medicine_](http://www.jem-journal.com/article/S0736-4679%2816%2930256-6/abstract), where the man is described as having reacted to eating the pepper by “violent retching and vomiting.” After it was discovered that this reaction to the pepper had torn a hole in his esophagus, which can be fatal, the patient was kept in the hospital for 23 days while surgeons worked on repairing the damage, and he was eventually discharged with a gastric tube in place. \[[_The Washington Post_](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/10/18/he-ate-an-extremely-spicy-ghost-pepper-hours-later-doctors-found-a-hole-in-his-throat/)\] **Correction:** The original version of this story misstated the cause of the man’s esophageal hole. 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