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83YO Dies After Eating Pufferfish She Ordered from Facebook While Husband is Still in ICU

2023-03-29 , 6:27 pm

When trying a new food item for the first time, it’s always good to ensure that your body won’t have any severe reactions to it.

Especially if the food is something that could be poisonous if not prepared properly.

Unfortunately, a couple in Johor were unaware of the lethal effects that could arise from eating pufferfish not properly prepared.

For the unaware, the pufferfish contains a lethal toxin called tetrodotoxin, and as little as 0.002g of it can be enough to kill an adult human.

After preparing pufferfish for lunch on Saturday (25 March), the couple started to experience breathing difficulties and other symptoms, prompting their son to send them to the hospital.

Sadly, the 83-year-old wife passed away, and her husband is still in the intensive care Unit (ICU) as of now.

Here’s what happened.

Couple Had Ordered Pufferfish to Cook at Home Through Facebook

Based on reports by Sin Chew Daily, the couple had ordered the pufferfish via Facebook.

After receiving it on Saturday (25 March) morning, the 83-year-old woman named Mdm Lin Xiuwan (Hanyu pinyin) and her husband, 84-year-old Mr Huang Chuanxin (Hanyu pinyin), decided to prepare it for lunch that day.

The couple’s son, Mr Huang Kunshan (Hanyu pinyin), confirmed this when he spoke to China Press and shared that his parents chose to fry two of the pufferfish for their lunch alongside other dishes.

Together, they ate around two-thirds of one pufferfish at around 2 pm.

Son Sent Parents to Hospital After They Experienced Numbness

While all seemed fine when the couple first ate the fish, Mdm Lin apparently started to experience numbness in her hands, feet and lips around one and a half hours after she ate the pufferfish.

When responding to queries from The Star, Johor’s health and unity committee chairman, Ling Tian Soon, added that Mdm Lin was also shivering and had breathing difficulties.

Afterwards, Mr Huang also started exhibiting the same symptoms around one hour after his wife’s symptoms began.

Upon returning home at around 4 pm, the younger Mr Huang realised that his parents were feeling unwell.

He then sent them to the hospital immediately.

After reaching the hospital, Mdm Lin was immediately taken to the ICU.

However, she unfortunately passed away at around 7 pm that day.

Death Caused by Food Poisoning

After the incident, the younger Mr Huang reported it to the Ministry of Health in Malaysia, causing the ministry to collect the pufferfish for testing.

In an update given today (29 March), Mr Ling announced that Mdm Lin’s death was caused by food poisoning with neurological manifestation, “possibly due to toxin ingestion”.

The food poisoning eventually resulted in respiratory failure and an irregular heart rate, which ultimately caused Mdm Lin’s death.

Her son also agreed to an autopsy, and Mdm Lin’s body was returned to her family for her funeral after the autopsy.

When talking about his parents’ experience, the younger Mr Huang explained that his parents were eating pufferfish for the first time and were unaware of the fish’s poison content.

Additionally, he expressed how his mother’s passing was extremely unexpected to him when speaking to Oriental Daily.

Husband is Still in ICU

Apart from that, the younger Mr Huang also told Oriental Daily that his father is currently still in the ICU.

According to him, his father is currently dealing with a lung infection and is still under observation to see if he can breathe independently or not.

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Seller Ordered to Stop Selling Pufferfish

As for the seller of the pufferfish, Mr Ling also said that authorities were able to locate the fisherman and seller, who are from Mersing and Batu Pahat respectively.

The fish was obtained by the fisherman from Mersing before he sold it to the seller in Batu Pahat.

On the day of the incident (25 March), the seller sold 15kg of pufferfish to five buyers online.

Thankfully, none of the other customers consumed the fish.

The Health Department in Malaysia also took fish samples from the seller to carry out analysis, and the seller has been ordered to stop selling pufferfish as well.