Pufferfish victims recovering

By LULU MARK
THE three people admitted in the Port Moresby General Hospital Intensive Care Unit after eating a poisonous specie of pufferfish have a fighting chance to survive, Hospital Emergency Physician and St John Ambulance chief medical officer Dr Mangu Kendino says.
“They all had paralysis and difficulty breathing and were given immediate mechanical ventilation and critical care.
“There is no antidote for this type of poisoning,” she said.
“Their recovery will depend on supportive intensive care until the poison wears off,” she added.
Kendino said the quick response by all the health responders outside and inside the hospital had probably given the three a fighting chance to recover.
“The three patients are no longer relying on ventilators to breath,” she added.
The three are a 25-year-old man, a 13-year-old boy and a 22-year-old woman from Gereka village outside Port Moresby.
They were believed to have eaten the internal organs of a large pufferfish and were brought to the hospital by a St John Ambulance on Friday.