On June 10, People's Hospital 115 said that the unit had just successfully handled a rare case of severe poisoning. This is a male patient, 52 years old, transferred from the lower limb to the upper body in a state of severe respiratory failure and reduced blood oxygen, SpO2 is only 30%, due to weak muscles throughout the body.
exploiting the medical history, the patient caught a sea cucumber in Can Gio, processed it and ate it himself. About 30 minutes later, the patient began to have symptoms of tastelessness in the mouth, stiff jaw, numbness in the tongue, weakness in the limbs and then quickly progressed to respiratory failure.
At the local hospital, the patient was determined to have Tetradotoxin poisoning due to accidentally eating seaweed - a species with the shape of a child but containing dangerous toxins.
The team of doctors from the Emergency Department of People's Hospital 115 quickly arranged an endotracheal infusion, ventilator support because the patient's respiratory muscles were paralyzed and transferred to the Intensive Care and Anti-Poison Department.
Determining that this was a severe poisoning case and there was no specific detox drug, the doctors applied advanced resuscitation techniques in the department. This is a method of evaporating blood to filter for additives and using 3 filters continuously to increase the effectiveness of substances with high distribution capacity such as Tetradotoxin.
After 2 days of active treatment, the patient recovered his respiratory muscles and safely removed the endotracheal tube. After that, the patient was discharged from the hospital in a completely stable condition.
In Vietnam, seaweed is often confused with seaweed, especially when purchased at the market or fishing along the coast. The shapes of these two species are similar, so only experienced people can distinguish them accurately. Making mistakes can have serious consequences, even death.
Tetradotoxin is an extremely powerful neurotoxin, found in some marine species such as toad, sea reptile, blue-range octopus... Tetradotoxin does not have a specific drug, just a small amount can also cause respiratory paralysis, leading to respiratory arrest and death if not treated promptly.
What is especially dangerous is that this toxin is not destroyed by heat. Therefore, even when cooked, the risk of poisoning still exists.
