BENGALURU: A three-year-old girl mistook pyrethroid solution — a cockroach pesticide — for a soda-based beverage and took a sip, following which she suffered continuous seizures. In need of lifesaving treatment and paediatric emergency specialists amid lockdown, the girl had to be shifted from one hospital to another.
The girl was finally brought to People Tree Hospital near Yeshwantpur close to midnight on April 24, more than 10 hours after the incident. Her condition stabilised on April 26 and she was discharged.
The child’s father told TOI the pesticide had been transferred to an empty beverage bottle. “We had kept the bottle on the terrace balcony, along with plants, so as to keep it away from the kids. But somehow my daughter saw the bottle and took a sip from it thinking it to be juice. The liquid fell on her hand and dress and its rancid smell was hard to miss,” he said.
She was rushed to a nearby hospital, but the family wasn’t satisfied with the treatment as the girl’s seizures hadn’t stopped. Around 11pm on April 24, she was taken to People Tree Hospital. The girl was first intubated in the ICU. The doctors wanted to understand what was it that she gulped and the bottle had to be brought to the hospital.
“Initially, it wasn’t clear what she consumed. Only later we realised it could be pyrethroid,” said Dr Supraja Chandrashekar, consultant paediatric intensivist chief, People Tree paediatrics.
The doctors rang up the poison helpline of All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi and consulted experts. “When she was brought to the hospital, neither was she responding to verbal communication nor was she able to open her eyes. She was comatose. She responded to treatment and improved the next day,” said Dr Supraja.
Dr Supraja said since the announcement of the lockdown, they have seen three more similar cases. “These include an eucalyptus ingestion leading to seizures in a two-year-old boy, a child who inhaled floor cleaner kept in a beverage bottle and another who sucked the wick of a mosquito repellent,” she added, suggesting parents be careful to avert absolutely preventable paediatric emergencies.
The girl was finally brought to People Tree Hospital near Yeshwantpur close to midnight on April 24, more than 10 hours after the incident. Her condition stabilised on April 26 and she was discharged.
The child’s father told TOI the pesticide had been transferred to an empty beverage bottle. “We had kept the bottle on the terrace balcony, along with plants, so as to keep it away from the kids. But somehow my daughter saw the bottle and took a sip from it thinking it to be juice. The liquid fell on her hand and dress and its rancid smell was hard to miss,” he said.
She was rushed to a nearby hospital, but the family wasn’t satisfied with the treatment as the girl’s seizures hadn’t stopped. Around 11pm on April 24, she was taken to People Tree Hospital. The girl was first intubated in the ICU. The doctors wanted to understand what was it that she gulped and the bottle had to be brought to the hospital.
“Initially, it wasn’t clear what she consumed. Only later we realised it could be pyrethroid,” said Dr Supraja Chandrashekar, consultant paediatric intensivist chief, People Tree paediatrics.
The doctors rang up the poison helpline of All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi and consulted experts. “When she was brought to the hospital, neither was she responding to verbal communication nor was she able to open her eyes. She was comatose. She responded to treatment and improved the next day,” said Dr Supraja.
Dr Supraja said since the announcement of the lockdown, they have seen three more similar cases. “These include an eucalyptus ingestion leading to seizures in a two-year-old boy, a child who inhaled floor cleaner kept in a beverage bottle and another who sucked the wick of a mosquito repellent,” she added, suggesting parents be careful to avert absolutely preventable paediatric emergencies.
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