Docs save child who nearly died getting poisoned by rare venom Abrin

NEW DELHI: A seven-year-old child who had a near-death experience after getting poisoned by Abrin, a poison released by seeds from a plant called Abrus precatorius, was discharged on Tuesday from a private hospital in Delhi, said a press release.

The child was exposed to Abrin which is released by seeds of a plant called Abrus Precatorius also known as Ratti or Gunchi in Madhya Pradesh's Bhind. The particular toxin or poison is as dangerous and fatal as snake venom and carries a high fatality rate if not treated on time, added the press release.

Earlier on October 31, the Department of Paediatric Emergency & Critical Care at a hospital in Delhi received a child in critical condition from Madhya Pradesh's Bhind. At the time of arrival in emergency, the child was showing symptoms of poisoning including bloody diarrhoea, swelling in the brain and shock.

According to Dr Dhiren Gupta, Senior Consultant, Department of Paediatric Emergency and Critical Care of a private hospital in Delhi, "When we received the child, I was surprised to find that the child was poisoned by a poison called Abrin which is released by seeds of a plant called Abrus Precatorius also known as Ratti or Gunchi in India."

"This toxin or poison is as dangerous and fatal as snake venom and carries a high fatality rate if not treated on time. The child was unconscious, delirious (irritable), suffering from encephalopathy (swelling in the brain) and unstable vitals (high pulse rate with shock). The challenge before us was that the child presented to us after 24 hours of ingestion and lost the golden hour and unavailability of definitive antidote," the doctor added.

Dr Dhiren further added, "In this kind of poisoning, the ideal treatment is a complete cleaning of stomach levage within two hours of ingestion and Charcoal Therapy." Since there is no antidote which exists for the poison Abrin, the most important factor is avoiding Abrin exposure. If exposure cannot be avoided, then immediately Abrin should be taken out of the body as quickly as possible.

In the hospital, Abrin poisoning is treated by giving victims supportive medical care to minimize the effects of the poisoning. The types of supportive medical care depend on several factors, such as the route by which the victim was poisoned (that is, whether the poisoning was by breathing in, swallowing, skin or eye exposure).

Care should include helping victims breathe, giving them intravenous fluids (fluids given through a needle inserted into a vein), giving medications to treat conditions such as seizures and low blood pressure, administering activated charcoal (if Abrin was recently swallowed), and washing out their eyes and stomach.

"We did the same and the child was saved. Before reaching Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, RK's younger brother aged 5 years who had also ingested the same seeds became critical, developed seizures, went into a coma and expired within 24 hours. Fortunately, RK was brought to the hospital on time and saved by the doctors," the doctor said.

The toxin, abrin is a poison which is like viper snake venom. Abrin causes illness by getting inside the cells of a person's body and preventing the cells from making the protein they need. Without the protein, the cells die. Eventually, this harms the whole body and death occurs.