I was rushed to A&E after too many chicken wings - worst pain of my life

I was rushed to A&E after too many chicken wings - worst pain of my life Nea-Jude was rushed to hospital after being bed-bound with extreme pain A woman ended up in hospital after consuming too many Wingstop chicken wings. Nea-Jude Ioannou says she was rushed to King's College Hospital in London after being left bedridden with severe abdominal pain. The 22 year old claims paramedics feared her appendix had burst. After six hours waiting in A&E, she was finally seen by doctors and given a CT scan, which revealed the culprit was actually severe constipation - caused by eating too many Wingstop takeaways. Nea-Jude says she had been placing two orders a week, opting for the spiciest flavour, Atomic, on her wings - which doctors said was the root cause of her troubles. She said: "It started with pains in my lower abdomen that were building and building, then for three days I was basically bed-ridden unable to move. "It was the worst pain that I have ever felt in my life. I wasn't able to eat or sleep because of the pain. Even the paramedics thought I might have appendicitis, so they immediately rushed me to A&E. It was just severe tummy issues from Wingstop. "I think I felt a bit silly. I felt like I brought it on myself. The NHS is so overrun already, and I felt like a nuisance." Nea-Jude says the stomach troubles, which she has spoken about this week, were accompanied by night sweats, pins and needles, and pain when breathing. The former student, who was studying Film and Television at University of the Arts London at the time, had hoped the symptoms would clear up on their own, but after five days she finally rang 111 and operators dispatched an ambulance to her Peckham accommodation. She arrived at hospital at around 6pm and didn't leave until 7am the following morning at the time of the incident back in 2024 – with her dad even catching a flight back from New York to be by her side. When the results revealed the issue was actually constipation, Nea-Jude says the doctor told her it is becoming increasingly common in Gen Z. The marketing worker believes this is partly down to food influencers posting videos known as mukbangs featuring extreme foods. The flavour she ordered, Atomic, is made with Habanero peppers and measures between 200,000 to 350,000 Scoville Heat Units. She said: "There is such a culture around spicy food and mukbang culture now with trying the craziest foods. Now it is seafood boils and hotpots. "I was getting the most crazy flavours ever. It is all about challenging yourself with food. "I think mukbangs are contributing to the issue. I see a reel come up on my feed for a new place with a quirk to it and you think 'I need to try this.'" Nea-Jude also holds money apps partly responsible for making takeaways more accessible, alongside fast food chains that directly target students through their marketing campaigns. She added: "They were really marketing to students that you could buy now and pay later and I thought it was so easy so I was getting Wingstop all the time. "Especially as a student it was really appealing because it was fast and the meal deals you could get were cheap for Deliveroo. I think it was across my whole diet. It became easy fixes. The rise in how easy it is to get takeaways with these high salt low fibre meals just causes more issues with people's digestive systems." Hospital staff provided her with pain relief and a fortnight's worth of laxatives, which finally took effect three days later, bringing considerable relief. Since then, Nea-Jude, who now lives in Crouch End, North London, says she takes her wellbeing far more seriously and visits her GP regularly for check-ups. She also makes efforts to eat more wholesome foods, though she still occasionally treats herself to a takeaway - Wingstop included - even if she steers clear of the Atomic flavour. After sharing her story on TikTok this week, she says numerous others have got in touch to say they've experienced something similar. Nea-Jude said: "It really made me evaluate what I am putting in my body and since then I have been on a health grind. I have seen so much change in my life and in my energy. I still love a Wingstop as a treat. The food in moderation is fine, it is just the habit that I had with it."