Woman Reportedly Left Red Dates in Thermos Flask for 10 Days & It ‘Exploded’ When She Opened It

You might have hated it when you were young, but it’s always appreciated when your mother boils herbal drinks for you now to keep you healthy.

But what happens when you forgot all about it and let the stuff inside rest for a couple of days?

Well, this happens.

Exploding Thermos Flask

A white-collar worker in Fuzhou, China, had reportedly boiled and soaked some red dates and planned to drink it, putting the drink in her thermos flask. However, like what happens to the best of us sometimes, she forgot to drink it after that.

Remembering it 10 days later, she tried to open it up, but the cap refuses to budge.

After struggling with it for a while, the cap seemingly reached its limit and burst open. Literally.

Unfortunately, instead of flying somewhere far away in the room, the cap flew directly towards her right eye and hit it hard due to the intense pressure released from the bottle. Ouch, just thinking about it makes my eye hurt too.

Rushed To Hospital

According to the woman’s doctor, by the time she had arrived at the hospital, her right eye was all bloody and it had been ruptured by the sheer force of the cap.

Currently, the woman is still in the midst of treatment and had gone through suturing and debridement to reset her damaged eyeball.

Unfortunately, the doctor said that it would be challenging for her vision to recover in full if the damage was too severe.

Why Did The Bottle Explode?

And now for the real question – what happened inside that bottle to make it explode with such force? Are red dates lethal?

In most cases, when fruits, including red dates, are soaked for long periods of time, they release carbon dioxide gas due to the conversion of sugar.

Thermos flasks are also supposed to keep liquids inside it warm or cold. They are double-layered, with the outer layer essentially acting as a sort of vacuum, preventing heat from getting in and out of the bottle.

This also means that pressure levels inside the flask can accumulate easily.

Combined with the already high pressure in the sealed thermos flask, the copious amounts of carbon dioxide gas that had been released over the long period of over 10 days caused a large amount of pressure to build up inside the compressed space.

When opened, the force will be enough to cause an “explosion”, which is what happened to the woman.

In simple terms, think of it as a fart that had been built up in you for a few hours, much less 10 days.

When you finally get to release it, the explosion would have the power to wreak havoc too.

Always Be Cautious

If you don’t wish for the same thing to happen to you when all you wanted to do was enjoy your red date drink, it’s best to take precautions.

Drinking freshly soaked fruit drinks is the best method, and if not, one should occasionally open and close the cap of the thermos flask repeatedly to release the pressure and gases built up inside.

In fact, just make sure to check if your bottle is empty at the end of the day.

Drinking fruits that are soaked for 10 days doesn’t sound too healthy too, right?