23 children in the rat poison poisoning case in Tuyen Quang have been discharged from the hospital, while 11 children with abnormalities in their electroencephalograms or brain damage continue to receive treatment.
Bach Mai Hospital has just announced that 23 children in the poisoning case due to mistakenly drinking rat poison in Tuyen Quang have been discharged.
Among 34 children (24 children at the Pediatric Center and 10 children at the Poison Control Center), the situation of poisoning injuries included: 4 children with brain damage, 9 children at risk of seizures on electroencephalogram, 13 children on tests showed signs of heart function damage.
According to doctors, on January 26, 23 children were discharged from the hospital and instructed to return for re-examination; 11 children with abnormalities on their electroencephalogram or brain damage will continue to receive treatment and be re-evaluated soon for discharge.
The Pediatric Center and the Poison Control Center are working with neurologists to carefully evaluate the EEG and consider treatment for some children at risk of seizures. If not, the children can still be discharged from the hospital.
On the 28th and 29th of the lunar calendar, children with brain damage will have a brain MRI scan and if the situation is stable, they can be transferred to another hospital or discharged with a prescription and a follow-up appointment.
Sharing before the discharge, a parent said that the family was grateful for the support and kindness of the doctors and medical staff during the past time. When they learned that their child had ingested rat poison, the family was extremely worried.
Now that we have been discharged from the hospital and are home to celebrate Tet, the family is very happy. The doctors have given us thoughtful and thorough instructions and detailed instructions on monitoring our child's abnormalities as well as follow-up visits.
Previously, on the evening of January 22, the Pediatric Center and the Poison Control Center of Bach Mai Hospital received 32 pediatric patients. Most of them were students from grades 1 to 5 at Phu Binh Primary School (Tuyen Quang City) who had mistakenly ingested the rat poison fluoroacetate.
On January 23, the Poison Control Center continued to receive 2 more children; bringing the total number of children who mistakenly drank rat poison treated at Bach Mai Hospital to 34.
After being admitted to the hospital, the children were urgently examined, evaluated, tested, checked for injuries due to poisoning, toxins in urine, MRI scans for children with indications, echocardiograms, etc.
Even when the children are awake and still playing, the doctors closely monitor and treat them according to the protocol. The doctors constantly check, trying not to miss other toxic causes.
Dr. Nguyen Trung Nguyen, Director of the Poison Control Center, said that based on the children's symptoms and toxicology test results, this was a case of poisoning from the rat poison fluoroacetate/fluoroacetamide.
In addition, doctors also carefully monitor and evaluate whether there are other substances causing simultaneous poisoning.
Fluoroacetate/fluoroacetamide is a rat poison originating from China, usually in the form of small plastic or glass tubes containing pink, colorless, brown solutions or pink rice packets. All are unlabeled or have labels written entirely in Chinese.
This is a highly toxic rat poison that causes convulsions, coma, severe brain damage, heart damage, acute myocarditis, acute heart failure, arrhythmia, cardiogenic shock, with hypocalcemia being the typical symptom. Severe poisoning can cause multiple organ damage and failure.
VN (according to VNA)