Seafood poisoning, two Quang Ninh residents in critical condition

A patient with sea urchin poisoning is being actively resuscitated at Bai Chay Hospital.

Two patients were hospitalized in a deep coma, with complete loss of tendon and pupil reflexes, respiratory failure, and a critical prognosis.

On June 7, two people ate grilled fish. After eating, they experienced numbness in their lips and tongue, weakness in their limbs, vomiting, and difficulty breathing. They were taken to the hospital by their family for emergency care.

Immediately upon admission, doctors at Bai Chay Hospital urgently performed emergency measures to detoxify and actively resuscitate according to the protocol such as artificial ventilation, mechanical ventilation, activated charcoal injection, gastric lavage, etc. After 24 hours of active treatment, up to now, the two patients have escaped the risk of death, with stable survival index, conscious muscle reflexes, and limbs responding to doctors' orders.

These are two critical poisoning cases among the poisoning cases that this hospital has received since the beginning of the year.

Specialist Doctor I Nguyen The Hung, Head of the Intensive Care Department, Bai Chay Hospital, said that sea urchin toxin has a strong impact on the nervous system (especially paralysis), and also affects the cardiovascular system and digestion. With only a very low dose of poison, it can cause sensory disturbances such as numbness of the lips, tongue, hands, feet, paralysis of motor muscles, respiratory muscles, dilated pupils, vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea, and can cause heart rhythm disturbances... causing the patient to quickly fall into a state of respiratory failure, brain hypoxia, nerve damage, cardiac arrest, respiratory arrest, and even rapid death if not treated promptly.

According to medical research, the tetrodotoxin in sea urchins is very toxic, concentrated mainly in the ovaries. Especially during the breeding season, this toxin has a higher concentration. In addition, puffer fish, blue-ringed octopus, starfish, some species of crabs, newts, some species of sea snails... also contain tetrodotoxin. This toxin is heat-resistant, so the cooking process does not guarantee the elimination of the toxin.

The shape of the sea cucumber is very similar to that of the sea urchin, so doctors recommend that people should be careful to distinguish between the sea cucumber and the sea urchin when using them to prepare dishes, and absolutely do not eat dishes made from the sea cucumber. When discovering that someone has been poisoned by eating sea cucumber with the above symptoms, quickly take the patient to the nearest medical facility for timely first aid and emergency care.

According to VNA