English Section

Afghan boy dies of mushroom poisoning in Poland

02.09.2021 20:00
A five-year-old boy from Afghanistan has died of mushroom poisoning in Poland and his six-year-old brother was also unlikely to survive, doctors told reporters in Warsaw on Thursday.
Photo:
Photo:PAP/Rafał Guz

The two boys, aged 5 and 6, arrived in Poland with their family after the Taliban takeover last month and were in quarantine at a refugee centre in the Warsaw suburb of Podkowa Leśna.

They were taken to hospital with acute liver failure after eating a deadly variety of mushroom called Amanita phalloides, also known as the "death cap."

Pixabay License Pixabay License; Image by Alicja from Pixabay

"Brain death was confirmed today and we pronounced the passing of the child," Jarosław Kierkuś, a senior doctor at the Children's Memorial Health Institute in Warsaw, told a news conference.

Although the older boy responded well to a liver transplant, there have been growing signs over the past 24 hours of severe damage to his central nervous system, Kierkuś said.

He added: "Unfortunately the prognosis for the boy's survival is unfavourable."

The hospital's director, Marek Migdał, said: "Sadly, we didn't manage to help either of the boys." 

He told reporters that "the older child's state is currently similar to the younger boy's condition two days ago."

He added that medical examinations would soon be carried out in the six-year-old "to confirm brain death."

(pm/gs)

Source: PAP