This is very reminiscent of something which happened to a friend of mine a couple of years ago. She'd never eaten Japanese food before and I took her to a local

This is very reminiscent of something which happened to a friend of mine a couple of years ago. She'd never eaten Japanese food before and I took her to a local sushi joint. She mistook wasabi for guacamole and ended up putting a large lump of it in her mouth. Fortunately, I noticed it immediately and asked her to spit it out, and by then her eyes were already teary and her breathing was quite labored. She didn't at first, perhaps because she was concerned about the embarrassment it'd cause. I had to repeat again, this time adding that she shouldn't be worried about anything and just spit it out and she did. Finally, rinsing the mouth with a jug full of cold water and eating some Gari (the pickled sweet ginger that's served with Sushi) alleviated her symptoms. I texted her the link to this hinting that I might have saved her life that day. Evidently, she still avoids Japanese food, thanks to that incident.