A boy is dead and another was hospitalized after drinking a tube containing a syrup-like liquid they had picked up on the road in the southern Vietnamese province of Dong Nai.

The Dong Nai Children’s Hospital said on Monday that it had received eight-year-old L.H.P. and seven-year-old V.N.D.Q. from Phuoc Tan Ward in the province’s Bien Hoa City with symptoms of poisoning at around 9:00 pm on Saturday.

According to Q.’s mother, N.T.S., as neighbors, Q. and P. had hung out at around 5:00 pm on the same day.

While playing, the two children found a tube containing a red liquid that looked like syrup and both drank it.

About two hours later, P. fell into a coma, accompanied by constant general convulsions and a drop in blood pressure.

P. was rushed to Shing Mark Hospital in Bien Hoa, where he was given a CT scan, but no abnormality was detected.

Doctors then tried to treat P.’s convulsions.

But as his health conditions deteriorated, he was transferred to the Dong Nai Children’s Hospital, where doctors gave him mechanical ventilation, injections of anticonvulsants, anti-shock infusion, vasopressor infusion, and heart support.

However, the child had an arrhythmia and a cardiac arrest after that.

He passed away at 2:00 am on Sunday.

Meanwhile, Q. only suffered a headache, dizziness, and nausea.

Hearing P.’s situation, Q.’s family took him to the Dong Nai Children’s Hospital.

After undergoing a colon cleansing and infusion therapy, Q.’s health has improved, with his test results showing health indicators within normal limits. 

The child patient has continued to be monitored at the hospital.

Doctor Nguyen Van Suu, head of the emergency examination department at the Dong Nai Children's Hospital, said that after the child had been admitted to the emergency room, his family members brought in the red tube with no label in question, which was later determined to belong to the group of rat poisons using fluoride acetate.

According to Dr. Suu, this type of rat poison, originating in China, has been banned for a long time. 

It is a very poisonous drug, with poisoning symptoms occurring quickly just ten minutes after consuming it. 

The first manifestations include vomiting, abdominal pain, and diarrhea, which will be then followed by irritation, convulsions, more severe coma, arrhythmia, hypotension, and death.

“This rat poison group has been banned for a long time,” Dr. Suu said.

"It is very rare.

“These are the first cases that have been treated by the hospital.”

Poisoning due to rodenticides can have lasting effects, especially on kidney function, even if the patient receives timely emergency treatment and survives.

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