Navi Mumbai: The food poisoning at Mahad village near Khopoli claimed two more lives on Thursday, taking the number of deaths to five. The deceased have been identified as 11-year-old Vijay Shinde and Gopinath Nukur (53).
On June 18 night, Shinde was brought to MGM hospital, Kamothe, but due to unavailability of ICU, he was taken to Chirayu Children’s Hospital in Khanda Colony the next day.
Dr. Sunil Padalkar, a consultant at Chirayu Children’s Hospital, said the poison had already spread all over his body at the time of admission. “He had been on ventilator since June 19. He was unconscious throughout his admission time. His blood pressure was low and body had gone cold. We started all medicines needed to revive him, but his internal organs started failing after 24 hours.”
On Wednesday night, he said, internal bleeding started in his lungs. “Creatinine level, which should be at 0.1, went up to to 3, and he had a kidney failure following which his urine output went low. Cholinesterase level, which should be above 200, was unrecordable in his case. After medicines were started, it became 1 and then 8 by Wednesday night.”
The victim’s cousin sister Radha is also in the same hospital and her cholinesterase level is 400. “She was in ICU for two days. She was taken out on Wednesday evening and is stable now,” Dr. Padalkar said.
Nukur was admitted to Sukham hospital in Panvel. “The death could be due to poisoning or cardiac arrest or both. Post-mortem is awaited,” senior police inspector Vishwajeet Kaingade, Khalapur police station, said. Dr. Nagnath Yampalle from Panvel rural hospital said, “In all five deaths, viscera samples have been sent for forensic test.”
Dr. Ajit Gawli, Raigad district civil surgeon, said, “Even now, 27 of them are in hospital, of which 10 are in ICU without ventilator and 8 with ventilator, and 9 are stable. The patients are in Khopoli and Navi Mumbai hospitals.”
