Aspiration pneumonia

I was sitting in the office cafeteria having lunch with my colleagues. My phone was ringing and my friend Shubha had been calling me. Shubha rarely called me during the office hours hence I was surprised why was she calling me. I answered the phone and on the other side I heard Shubha crying, "Shubha what happened? Please tell me," I immediately got worried. Shubha's mother had been unwell and immediately my thoughts went towards her. I was worried that may be her mother got critical.

Shubha was still crying but manage to speak, "it is about Pravin. He is no more. He died last night".

What Shubha told me made me dizzy. I had black out for 5 seconds. Pravin's face flashed before my eyes. Pravin was our friend. Fit, gym goer, and trekker. It was unbelievable that he had died. I remembered meeting him 2 days ago. However he had mentioned that time that he had fever and difficulty breathing. But that was hardly a fatal illness.

I was unable to hold on to my phone and dropped it. By the time I regained myself my phone was on the floor. I pick it up to see that it had been disconnected. I messaged Shubha, "sorry, I dropped my phone. So shocking what happened?"

"Aspiration pneumonia," Shubha texted.

I was numb by this point of time. I was in the middle of my lunch but I was no longer hungry. I did not want to eat anything. My friend's sudden death was shocking and severe enough to kill my appetite. I could not believe that one of my fittest friends had died.

Later that evening I spoke with one of my other friends Varun. I asked him about what exactly had happened. Varun knew because he was Pravin's good friend and was with him throughout the last few days, "last week Praveen had made spicy curry. He told us that it was the speciality from his native village. No wonder it was delicious but it was really hot. We took a bite and decided it was not for us. But Pravin had it in a good amount. But it did not agree with his stomach. That night he got acid reflux. He vomited several times that night. One time he passed out while vomiting. Probably the vomit went into his lungs causing him the aspiration pneumonia. He was hospitalized last 2 days. It happened so fast and he deteriorated. Last night he died at the hospital. I really cannot believe that he is gone". Varun broke down while narrating the events. It was heart shattering to hear what had happened with Pravin.

I closed my eyes and tears started flowing from my eyes. Pravin's death deeply affected me and shattered me. It was unbelievable that he died due to the home cook food only because it had been too spicy for him to tolerate. But of course we could not have gone back in time and rectified that mistake.

That evening in the cafeteria I saw the food menu. They had kept the pickle of green chillies. Looking at the spicy delicacy I decided that it would forever be crossed of my list. I made a promise to myself that henceforth I would not have any food that would be too spicy to tolerate. For I did not want to end up like my friend who had left this world at the age of 26.