Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Upper Suldung’s poisonous mushroom dinner toll ends at five

GANGTOK, 13 June: Three of the five, two of them minors, admitted at CRH, Tadong, after they consumed poisonous mushrooms and developed complications, have died due to multiple organ failure, confirms the Medical Superintendent, Dr. BK Kanungo.
With this the death toll from one dinner of poisonous mushroom goes up to 5 persons, which include the father who was undergoing treatment at Namchi District Hospital and died on 1 June and the 8- year- old daughter who passed away the same night the family of six and a friend of the children had consumed the poisonous mushrooms which was on 29 May.

Speaking to NOW! today the MS informed that 3 persons, including the mother had passed away in the Intensive Care Unit of the hospital within a week of being admitted here. Only, 13 year old Rajendra Rai and 10 year old Man Kumar Rai were discharged after a full recovery today.
The serving of mushrooms for dinner has inflicted a major fatality in a family from Upper Suldung in West Sikkim. Dhan Bdr. Rai of Upper Suldung , his wife 32 year old Sahera Rai, 8 year old daughter Sunita Rai, 11 year old son Buddhiman Rai and 12-year-old Navin Manger of Upper Kamling, a friend of one of the sons who also ate the mushrooms along with the family, have died.
The mushroom cooked for dinner is informed to have been collected from the forest. It was obviously wrongly identified and was poisonous. It may also be mentioned that luckily, one member of the family was not at home on the fateful night and returned home early on 30 March morning to find the entire family and the guest in a semiconscious state. He shouted for help and the villagers immediately rushed them to the nearest PHC, at Mangley, where they were administered first aid, after which they were rushed to the Namchi district hospital from where five were referred to CRH, Manipal on 01 June.
The MS informed that the cause for all the deaths was the rapid spread of toxins in the blood of the victims. The spread of “various” toxins had clogged the blood which led to spontaneous multiple organ failure.
“The mushrooms were very poisonous and there was not one particular toxin which was damaging their internal organs. There were multiple toxins and every toxin needed a different approach of treatment. In the meantime, the toxins started getting to their organs and that too had to be treated individually which was very difficult since when we were treating the heart, their livers were giving way and when we started with their livers, their kidneys started failing,” informed the MS.
He also informed today that consumption of poisonous mushrooms unlike snake venom did not have any antidote which also made treating these cases very difficult. However, they managed to save two children in the process.
“ It is very sad to see people’s vulnerability to these poisonous mushrooms thus it is advisable not to eat any mushrooms until one is very-very sure that it is not poisonous. These cases are also common in Sikkim and every year during the monsoons we receive such cases. In the three years I have been here at CRH, I have seen such cases coming here every year,” he informed.

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