20-year-old student found dead in bed after eating leftover spaghetti

A student died in his sleep after eating spaghetti that had been left on his work surface for five days.

The 20-year-old was terribly ill after eating leftover tomato pasta that had been stored at room temperature.

He went to bed to try to sleep sick but his devastated relatives found him dead hours later, the Sun reports.

An autopsy later revealed that the student from Brussels, Belgium, had died of food poisoning caused by a bacterium called Bacillus cereus.

Bacillus cereus is a spore-forming bacterium that produces toxins, causing vomiting and diarrhea, according to the Food Standards Authority.

While the student had both of these symptoms, he treated them as regular food poisoning, drinking a lot of water and not taking any medicine.

But the toxins quickly resulted in the failure of his liver.

The case has been studied in new research by Dr. Bernard, a licensed practitioner who studies and shares strange medical cases on his YouTube channel.

The death, which occurred in 2008, was also featured in the US Journal of Clinical Microbiology.

Speaking on YouTube, Dr. Bernard said, "Many people eat pasta, or any other form of noodle, that stays a day or two and they're fine

"Watch out for food left over for more than a few hours, and if food smells funny, it's always better to be safe than sorry."