Dustin May’s road back to the Los Angeles Dodgers’ starting lineup was derailed in summer 2024 by a “complete freak accident” involving salad.

“It was definitely a life-altering event,” May, 27, told the Los Angeles Times in an interview published on Friday, February 14, recalling his health scare.

May planned to return to the Dodgers as a pitcher last summer after undergoing Tommy John revision surgery following a flexor tendon in mid-2023.

The athlete recalled being “pretty close” to his comeback with the Dodgers when a piece of lettuce set him back even further. May explained that on July 10, 2024, he went to dinner while in Arizona, where he was rehabbing at the Dodgers’ Camelback Ranch facility.

He ordered a salad and after one bite, felt lettuce stuck in his throat. When he tried to wash it down with water, May said he knew something was wrong.

“It was definitely very serious,” May told the outlet, sharing that he suffered a tear in his esophagus that required emergency surgery that evening.

May initially thought he would be OK after the “mega-painful” sensation subsided after 15 minutes at the restaurant. However, once home, his wife, Millie, expressed concern about the situation.

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“I’m not a big panicker. It kind of chilled out. So I was like, ‘I’m fine. I don’t need to do anything,’” he remembered.

May’s wife insisted they got to the emergency room to “get it checked out” which is when he had a CT scan. The test revealed how severe the tear was and he was rushed into surgery.

“I probably wouldn’t have made it through the night if I didn’t have it,” he said of the procedure, noting that the surgery was not “very common” and it was “definitely an emergency” situation.

May called the procedure “basically a full abdominal surgery” that added six-months to his recovery schedule. (He was nearly done with his elbow rehab at the time of the esophagus incident.)

“It wasn’t on my bingo card for 2024,” May confessed, adding that it was “extremely frustrating” that the freak accident caused him to miss the 2024 baseball season — and the Dodgers’ 2024 World Series victory.

The MLB player is back on track to return to the Dodgers’ lineup by opening day this spring, however, he won’t soon forget the health scare.

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“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.”

He added that his goal is to be healthy enough to be back in the bullpen this season — but nothing is set in stone. “I just have to go out and prove that [I’m ready],” May explained.

May joked that it’s “been a minute” since he’s been healthy enough to play. “But I’m definitely excited, and definitely have a deeper appreciation for the game,” he concluded.