In a tragic incident, a man named Magno Sergio Gomes died after eating a poisonous pufferfish, a species that can kill 30 humans with its venom. The incident occurred in Aracruz, Espirito Santa, Brazil, according to New York Post.
“Magno had never cleaned pufferfish before,” the deceased’s sister Myrian Gomes Lopes told Newsflash. The fish was given to him as a gift by a friend. Despite never having handled the seafood before, Gomes and his friend gutted it, removed its liver, boiled it and ate it with lemon juice.
Less than an hour later, Gomes started feeling extremely unwell. “Magno started to feel numb in his mouth,” his sister recalled. He drove himself to the hospital and went into cardiac arrest for eight minutes as the numbness kept spreading.
According to the US Centers for Disease Control, Gomes, 46, suffered from the effects of tetrodotoxin, an extremely potent poison that originates in the liver and gonads of pufferfish. Used by the blowfish to deter predators, the toxin is over 1,000 times deadlier than cyanide with no known antidote.
If eaten in large quantities, the toxin interferes with the “transmission of signals from nerves to muscles” thereby paralysing the muscles that can become fatal.
According to Myrian, Gomes was on ventilator support but to no avail. He passed away after spending 35 days in the hospital as his entire system was paralysed due to the toxin.
"The doctors told our family that he died from poisoning, which had quickly traveled to his head. Three days after being admitted, he had several seizures, which greatly affected his brain, leaving little chance of recovery," his sister mentioned.
However, his buddy miraculously survived but has been having problems with his leg. “He’s not walking very well,” Myrian said. “He was neurologically impacted, but he is recovering.”
Meanwhile, raw pufferfish is a delicacy in Japan and is known as fugu. People reportedly enjoy the slight buzz that comes with ingesting very little amount of the toxin. However, only licensed fugu chefs are allowed to prepare the delicacy, due to the dangerous nature of the fish.
“We take pride in preparing blowfish safely,” said Ueno Ken’ichirō, owner of the fugu restaurant Fuku no Seki in the Yamaguchi Prefecture. Japan sees around 50 cases of poisoning every year.
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