One meal last July ended Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Dustin May's season -- and almost his life.
On July 10, May was rehabbing from a flexor tendon and Tommy John revision surgery at the Dodgers' facility in Arizona when he ordered a salad for dinner.
That's when May suffered a "complete freak accident," he told the Los Angeles Times on Friday.
May felt a piece of lettuce get stuck in his throat after the first bite of his salad and tried to wash it down with some water.
After experiencing extreme pain in his throat and stomach for 15 minutes, the pain subsided and May went home.
Once home, his wife encouraged him to go to the emergency room. At the hospital, May had a CT scan to determine the severity of the injury.
He learned that he had torn his esophagus and would have to undergo emergency surgery that evening. His hopes of returning to the Dodgers that season were thrown out the window.
"It was extremely frustrating," he said. "You can't plan for it. You can't try to prevent it. It just happened."
Doctors performed "basically a full abdominal surgery" that left May with a scar that stretches from his stomach to lower chest.
"It was definitely a life-altering event," May told the LA Times. "It was definitely very serious. It's not a very common surgery. It was definitely an emergency."
May believes he has his wife to thank for saving his life. He doesn't think he would have survived the night without the surgery.
As part of his recovery, May was not allowed to lift weights more than 10 pounds.
In November, he was able to participate in "light throwing activities," according to the LA Times.
May finally got back to his full strength near the start of the year.
Now, May has a new perspective on life, and with spring training games starting Thursday, he is hoping to make the Dodgers' roster this season.
"It just kind of gives me a different viewpoint on a lot of things in life," May said. "Just seeing how something so non-baseball-related can just be like -- it can be gone in a second. And the stuff it put my wife through, it definitely gave me (a feeling) of, 'Wow, stuff can change like that.' It was definitely very scary."