Young man dies from toad egg poisoning

Previously, at around 3:00 p.m. on November 30, KC (born in 2004), RCS (born in 2006) and RCA were farming in Klăh Băng village. Then, all three young men caught a toad to get its eggs to steam and eat. About 30 minutes after eating, two of the three young men, KC and RCS, had headaches, nausea, vomiting, difficulty breathing, and jaundice all over their bodies. At around 4:30 p.m. the same day, both were taken by their families to Gia Lai Provincial General Hospital for emergency treatment.

Recently, many people have been poisoned by eating toad meat and eggs.

However, KC died on the way to the emergency room. RCS was given timely emergency care and is now out of danger and is being monitored and treated by doctors. The other person, RCA, had milder symptoms after tasting some toad eggs, induced vomiting, and did not go to the hospital.

Previously, in June 2023, Hoa Binh General Hospital provided emergency care to two patients who were poisoned after eating toad meat and eggs. The patients were a mother and daughter in the same family, admitted to the hospital with symptoms of headache, abdominal pain, vomiting, frequent bowel movements, and numbness in the limbs. The 17-year-old daughter also had symptoms of difficulty breathing, chest pain, and arrhythmia.

The patient’s family said that the mother and son were butchering the toad to prepare food. Although they had already peeled off the skin and removed the internal organs, only using the body for processing, they found that the toad had eggs, so they filtered out the egg sac to process with the toad meat.

After the meal, both of them had headaches, stomachaches, vomiting, and frequent loose stools. The patients were taken to Mai Chau District Medical Center by their families for initial first aid and were quickly transferred to Hoa Binh General Hospital. After 2 days of intensive care and treatment, the patients were out of danger and were later discharged from the hospital.

Although there have been many cases of emergency treatment, even death, due to eating toad meat and toad organs, and the health sector has been promoting the issue for many years, poisoning cases still continue.

Referring to the issue of toad meat and egg poisoning, Dr. Le Ngoc Duy - Head of the Emergency and Anti-Poison Department, National Children's Hospital warned that although toad meat does not contain toxins, many other parts of the toad contain toxins, including deadly toxins such as tetrodotoxin.

In addition, the liver, eggs, skin, pus, eyes and nerve ganglia (along the spine) of toads also contain bufotenin - an extremely toxic substance that can easily cause death. This poison is difficult to decompose even when processed at high temperatures. Therefore, if toad meat is processed incorrectly, it can lead to poisoning or even death.

“To prevent poisoning, people should absolutely not eat toad organs or eggs. When encountering someone with toad meat poisoning, it is necessary to quickly induce vomiting to eliminate as much of the toxin in the body as possible and quickly take the patient to the nearest medical facility for timely emergency care,” Dr. Duy emphasized.

Experts warn that toads contain toxins throughout their skin, salivary glands, internal organs and eggs. Toads can be toxic throughout their entire life cycle: eggs, tadpoles, baby toads, and adults. Toad venom can cause dangerous symptoms in the digestive, respiratory, nervous and especially cardiovascular systems. Therefore, people should not eat toad meat for food because toad venom can be dangerous to human health and life.

NGUYEN KHANG

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