A 14-year-old boy from Massachusetts has died after taking part in a viral trend, the teen’s family claims.
Officials reported the tragic passing of Harris Wolobah on Friday. His family suspects that his passing may be linked to “complications” arising from the “one chip challenge” he participated in earlier in the day – a trend that’s been circulating in school districts across the country which involves munching on a tortilla chip laced with Carolina Reaper and Scorpion peppers.
Last Friday, 14-year-old Harris Wolobah lost his life after taking part in the “one chip challenge”
Image credits: gofundme
Image credits: paquichips
“Eat the entire chip. Wait as long as possible before drinking or eating anything,” Paqui’s ‘one chip challenge’ states on its website. “Post your reaction on social media with #onechipchallenge and mention @paquichips.”
The cause of Wolobah’s death remains unverified, while officials have refrained from disclosing additional details regarding the surrounding circumstances.
Although the cause of Wolobah’s death remains unverified, his family strongly suspects that it may be linked to the spicy tortilla chip he was given at school
Image credits: paquichips
Image credits: paquichips
Speaking with NBC10 Boston, Lois Walobah, Harris’s mother, shared that she had received a call from the school nurse on Friday. Her son had informed the nurse that a fellow classmate had given him the chip, which had subsequently resulted in a severe stomachache.
While Harris’ condition improved after returning home, at around 4:30 p.m., as he was preparing to leave for basketball tryouts, his brother urgently yelled that he had collapsed. The boy was then promptly transported to a nearby hospital, where he was tragically pronounced dead.
Mrs. Wolobah expressed her belief that her son should have been taken to the hospital rather than being sent home after his visit to the nurse’s office.
“Eat the entire chip. Wait as long as possible before drinking or eating anything,” the brand’s site states
Image credits: paquichips
Image credits: FrugalHippy
“As a mother and educator, I cannot imagine how hard this is on his family, friends and teachers. My heart goes out to all who knew and loved him,” Worcester Public Schools superintendent, Rachel Monarrez, said after learning about the tragedy.
Douglas Hill, one of the boy’s basketball coaches, had this to say about Harris: “The first thing was shock, like, when they said the name, I had to literally ask a hundred times, like, if this was him.”
“In a million years, you never would’ve imagined any kid, nevertheless Harris, so it was definitely difficult.”
Image credits: FrugalHippy
The teen’s family set up a fundraiser on Sunday for his funeral expenses with over $27,000 already donated.
“Harris was a light that lit up the room with his presence and subtle charm. He was an intelligent, quirky and incredibly talented young man who loved video games and playing basketball!” the fundraiser’s description reads.
Since originating in 2016, the dangerous challenge has gained popularity with the emergence of TikTok, inspiring some school districts to ban the chip
Image credits: Andres Ayrton (not the actual photo)
While the one-chip challenge is simple in its premise, the glowing red warning label, found both on the back of the coffin-shaped box and the brand’s website, should not be taken lightly.
“Do not eat if you are sensitive to spicy foods, allergic to peppers, nightshades, or capsaicin, or are pregnant or have any medical conditions. Keep out of reach of children,” the warning states.
“After touching the chip, wash your hands with soap and do not touch your eyes or other sensitive areas. Seek medical assistance should you experience difficulty breathing, fainting, or extended nausea.”
Celebrities, including the likes of Tony Hawk and Shaquille O’Neal, have also participated in the challenge
Image credits: First We Feast
Since its origin in 2016, the challenge started gaining traction among teens along with the growing popularity of social media giant, TikTok.
Just last year, an incident occurred at ILTexas Keller-Saginaw High School, where a student lost consciousness and experienced seizures in the classroom after consuming the chip.
Such cases have prompted school districts in various states, including Georgia and Colorado, to issue warnings to parents about the risks associated with this widely popular challenge.
Although the brand has not yet issued a statement regarding this incident, the company’s representatives told TODAY after a similar incident last year that Paqui takes “safety very seriously and have worked hard to ensure our products are properly and clearly labeled with allergen and safety information.”
The statement continued, “It is our intent that consumers take on this challenge with a full understanding of what it is and if it is appropriate for them.”
This is what people online had to say about the tragedy
As a nurse, I am curious to know what happened and the cause of death. It could be a freaky coincidence, which does happen, it is likely the chip triggered something to lead to his death. That being said, there isn't anything or anyone we can really blame here. With only the information given here, the school nurse had no reason to send him to the hospital, especially if his only symptoms were a stomach ache. Even if he went, he would not have been considered urgent and more than likely triaged as low priority, especially since he felt better. It also isn't the manufacturers or the stores fault. They make the warnings clear, and they did not force the kid to eat it. And honestly, this is the only possible death possibly linked to this chip in the 7 years since the chip has been out, and although tragic, it is not a reason to demand something be pulled from the shelves. For example, hot dogs, elderberries, mushrooms, chicken, and peanuts cause tens of thousands of deaths a year, as does water, yet you can find those foods bring sold all over the world. Also car accidents (thousands caused by people driving recklessly or doing some crazy driving stunt or challenges. And if it wasn't this, it would be some other ridiculous challenge of an extreme hot sauce cocktail, a jar of cinnamon, or drinking excessive water, all challenges that have come and gone, and ended up putting people in the hospital or people dying. These types of things will always be around unfortunately, and educating kids and adults that they can be very dangerous, even deadly, is a start. This is very sad, and I hope his loved ones find the answers and the closure they need and use this to help educate others about the dangers that can happen, but demanding pulling all the chips and blaming the manufacturers and stores is not the solution .
For folks saying this should be banned - So a gun is OK but ban a chip that comes with a million warnings and is made obvious that you should not consume if you are at risk?
Weak comparison. The f*****g guns aren't f*****g ok either. If we had any sense we'd take them by force and slag them all. So no, neither of them are ok.
Guns kill people. That is their only purpose. A chip with peppers on it and a package covered in warnings is no different than alcohol, tobacco or headache meds. All can kill you and you consume at your own risk. You can die from too much water and too much sun. Bad things happen to people but just because it CAN kill doesn't mean it was made to so it's not the same.
It was one f*****g chip. A chip you are SUPPOSED to eat. And he died. It is the f*****g company’s fault.
Benadryl, aspirin, Tylenol, alcohol, cigarettes... all require IDs for purchase. Even with warnings, this chips accessibility needs to be enhanced.
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The boy was 14 years old so your reasoning is flawed.
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I'm not pro gun, but to be fair, no where does it advise you to put the gun in your mouth, bit of a false equivalent. A corn chip is made for ingesting. A gun is a non edible inanimate object. Most people are aware not to touch, play with, or put a gun in their mouth by 14. 14 is an age where a lot of kids start lightly experimenting with grown up things (some healthy, some not) and a spicy chip challenge sounds pretty harmless. The"XXXTREME" advertising style in products aimed at young men makes the warnings look like an advertising gimmick.
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Okay, let's put some dangerous poison in a package, write "consume at your own risk" on the package, plaster "CHALLENGE" all over the package and then blame it on the person who ate it and died. Also: guns are not okay either.
Its not a dangerous poison ffs. Educate yourself before typing, millions, literally millions of people have done the one chip challenge.
VioletHunter, seriously, Gary is right. IT IS NOT POISON! It is just a very spicy chip. He ignored the warning labels. He voluntarily ate it, no one forced him. It's tragic, but it was his choice. And since, the OP does not even give a cause of death, you honestly are jumping to conclusions.
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Wtf is wrong with you people? A man is dead and all you can think about is how to make it his fault when it clearly was not? You want to have an argument about guns rn? Edit: guns are so different. You clearly are just wanting to argue about politics.
Bro I think he said nothing about making it the dead kid’s fault. Also, the guns part is a bit misleading but bro this has nothing to do with politics
I’m saying this has nothing to do with politics. So this guy needs to stop with the “the chip is a problem but guns arent?” stuff. A gun isn’t food.
It's unfortunate that he passed away, but as JD Boogie said above...there were probably underlying conditions or something else that happened that day to cause his passing. There have been MANY people that have eaten this chip and lived. SO, as others said, it has very little to do with the chip itself.
It's odd to me the "Oh my God! How can they sell this! It needs to be banned!" people aren't waiting for the investigation to finish... it's a spicy chip. Literally thousands of people have eaten this with no issue. I am willing to wait and see what the facts are without having a knee-jerk reaction.
Yeah, spicy food in itself isn't dangerous, or a problem. The cause of death is NOT "poison". Would these people also blame a baker if they marketed their apple pie by challenging people to eat them, and someone with apple allergy died from it? It's tragic when s**t like this happens, and it's not really anybody's fault if the kid and his parents didn't know of the underlying medical issues that caused this reaction. Sometimes bad, awful, unfair things just HAPPEN.
I agree. It's Chilli. People pass away eating peanuts but they're not banned or labelled as poison. It's very sad a young lad lost his life but he could have had a heart condition and dropped whether eating the chip or not. He could have had a burst appendix which caused the abdo pain and collapse. There's many explanations, we are just assuming he ate 1 chip hours before so that must have been it. Let's wait for the report before we ban spicy food.
As a nurse, I am curious to know what happened and the cause of death. It could be a freaky coincidence, which does happen, it is likely the chip triggered something to lead to his death. That being said, there isn't anything or anyone we can really blame here. With only the information given here, the school nurse had no reason to send him to the hospital, especially if his only symptoms were a stomach ache. Even if he went, he would not have been considered urgent and more than likely triaged as low priority, especially since he felt better. It also isn't the manufacturers or the stores fault. They make the warnings clear, and they did not force the kid to eat it. And honestly, this is the only possible death possibly linked to this chip in the 7 years since the chip has been out, and although tragic, it is not a reason to demand something be pulled from the shelves. For example, hot dogs, elderberries, mushrooms, chicken, and peanuts cause tens of thousands of deaths a year, as does water, yet you can find those foods bring sold all over the world. Also car accidents (thousands caused by people driving recklessly or doing some crazy driving stunt or challenges. And if it wasn't this, it would be some other ridiculous challenge of an extreme hot sauce cocktail, a jar of cinnamon, or drinking excessive water, all challenges that have come and gone, and ended up putting people in the hospital or people dying. These types of things will always be around unfortunately, and educating kids and adults that they can be very dangerous, even deadly, is a start. This is very sad, and I hope his loved ones find the answers and the closure they need and use this to help educate others about the dangers that can happen, but demanding pulling all the chips and blaming the manufacturers and stores is not the solution .
For folks saying this should be banned - So a gun is OK but ban a chip that comes with a million warnings and is made obvious that you should not consume if you are at risk?
Weak comparison. The f*****g guns aren't f*****g ok either. If we had any sense we'd take them by force and slag them all. So no, neither of them are ok.
Guns kill people. That is their only purpose. A chip with peppers on it and a package covered in warnings is no different than alcohol, tobacco or headache meds. All can kill you and you consume at your own risk. You can die from too much water and too much sun. Bad things happen to people but just because it CAN kill doesn't mean it was made to so it's not the same.
It was one f*****g chip. A chip you are SUPPOSED to eat. And he died. It is the f*****g company’s fault.
Benadryl, aspirin, Tylenol, alcohol, cigarettes... all require IDs for purchase. Even with warnings, this chips accessibility needs to be enhanced.
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
The boy was 14 years old so your reasoning is flawed.
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
I'm not pro gun, but to be fair, no where does it advise you to put the gun in your mouth, bit of a false equivalent. A corn chip is made for ingesting. A gun is a non edible inanimate object. Most people are aware not to touch, play with, or put a gun in their mouth by 14. 14 is an age where a lot of kids start lightly experimenting with grown up things (some healthy, some not) and a spicy chip challenge sounds pretty harmless. The"XXXTREME" advertising style in products aimed at young men makes the warnings look like an advertising gimmick.
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
Okay, let's put some dangerous poison in a package, write "consume at your own risk" on the package, plaster "CHALLENGE" all over the package and then blame it on the person who ate it and died. Also: guns are not okay either.
Its not a dangerous poison ffs. Educate yourself before typing, millions, literally millions of people have done the one chip challenge.
VioletHunter, seriously, Gary is right. IT IS NOT POISON! It is just a very spicy chip. He ignored the warning labels. He voluntarily ate it, no one forced him. It's tragic, but it was his choice. And since, the OP does not even give a cause of death, you honestly are jumping to conclusions.
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
Wtf is wrong with you people? A man is dead and all you can think about is how to make it his fault when it clearly was not? You want to have an argument about guns rn? Edit: guns are so different. You clearly are just wanting to argue about politics.
Bro I think he said nothing about making it the dead kid’s fault. Also, the guns part is a bit misleading but bro this has nothing to do with politics
I’m saying this has nothing to do with politics. So this guy needs to stop with the “the chip is a problem but guns arent?” stuff. A gun isn’t food.
It's unfortunate that he passed away, but as JD Boogie said above...there were probably underlying conditions or something else that happened that day to cause his passing. There have been MANY people that have eaten this chip and lived. SO, as others said, it has very little to do with the chip itself.
It's odd to me the "Oh my God! How can they sell this! It needs to be banned!" people aren't waiting for the investigation to finish... it's a spicy chip. Literally thousands of people have eaten this with no issue. I am willing to wait and see what the facts are without having a knee-jerk reaction.
Yeah, spicy food in itself isn't dangerous, or a problem. The cause of death is NOT "poison". Would these people also blame a baker if they marketed their apple pie by challenging people to eat them, and someone with apple allergy died from it? It's tragic when s**t like this happens, and it's not really anybody's fault if the kid and his parents didn't know of the underlying medical issues that caused this reaction. Sometimes bad, awful, unfair things just HAPPEN.
I agree. It's Chilli. People pass away eating peanuts but they're not banned or labelled as poison. It's very sad a young lad lost his life but he could have had a heart condition and dropped whether eating the chip or not. He could have had a burst appendix which caused the abdo pain and collapse. There's many explanations, we are just assuming he ate 1 chip hours before so that must have been it. Let's wait for the report before we ban spicy food.