Barnsley man in hospital after three-day cola bottles binge

A man who spent six days in hospital after munching his way through 3kg of cola bottle sweets has said doctors were shocked he survived.

Nathan Rimmington had a sudden “hankering for cola bottles” one night so ordered a huge bulk bag online – and ate them over three days.

The bag of gelatin sweets contained almost 11,000 calories and the 33-year-old, from Barnsley, said he was so “bunged up” he could not walk or get out of bed.

Mr Rimmington said: “It’s not the cleverest thing I have ever done in my life – I can’t even look at a cola bottle now.”

“I just couldn’t stop eating them,” he said.

“The bag was packed to the rafters with cola bottles – like a sandbag.”

Even though Mr Rimmington started to feel unwell after day one, he continued to feast on the chewy treats.

He even went for a carvery on the third day, before finishing the bag for dessert.

The next day – Monday – the HGV driver was sweating profusely and “did not feel right”, but put it down to the pork he ate.

By Tuesday, he could not walk and was in agony.

Mr Rimmington saw a doctor the following day and they ordered him to go to hospital as his blood pressure was “astronomically high” and he was in so much pain.

“The doctors were stumped,” he said.

“They tested me for food poisoning and I had a CT scan but it all came back clear.

“But after an internal investigation they asked if I liked sweets because I was completely blocked up with gelatin.”

After he confessed he had eaten a whole 3kg bag over three days, the doctors told him they were surprised it had not killed him.

Mr Rimmington was diagnosed with acute diverticulitis, sudden inflammation and infection of the large intestine and needed to be hooked up to IV drips to flush out his system.

He now also has to take blood pressure tablets every day.

Mr Rimmington said even though the doctors laughed at his ailment he was also reprimanded by a consultant about how irresponsible he had been – and he has not touched a cola bottle since.

“He was strict but firm with me – I didn’t do it on purpose but it was really stupid, ” he said.

Mr Rimmington said his diet and lifestyle had improved since the incident a year ago and his advice was “Haribo in moderation”.

Haribo declined to comment when approached by the BBC.