3 in ICU after eating pufferfish

THREE people are fighting for their lives in Port Moresby General Hospital’s intensive care unit (ICU) after they were believed to have eaten poisonous pufferfish on Friday.
Hospital emergency physician and St John Ambulance chief medical officer Dr Mangu Kendino said the patients, a 13-year-old boy, a 25-year-old man and a 22-year-old woman were rushed to the hospital from Gereka village a few kilometres outside the city.
Kendino said they consumed the internal organs (liver/intestines, etc) of a large pufferfish.
She said pufferfish contained a toxin called tetrodotoxin which is found on its skin or internal organs and is one of the most deadly natural poison.
“This poison blocks the ability of muscles to contract and therefore it will affect all muscles, causing paralysis,” she said.
“Paralysis of the breathing muscles means patients will become hypoxic (low on oxygen in the blood). The toxin cannot be broken down by cooking.
“It is, therefore, not recommended for anyone to eat this fish. There is no antidote for the poisoning.
“Therefore, we are not able to administer any type of anti-venom (like we would for snake-bite patients).
“All three patients had paralysis and difficulty in breathing on arrival at the emergency department.
“They were immediately artificially ventilated and eventually transferred to the ICU for ongoing mechanical ventilation and critical care.
“The recovery of these patients is dependent on supportive intensive care, until such time that the toxicity wears off and the patients are able to sustain their own breathing.”