ZIMBABWE – Four children from Old Magwegwe consumed rat poison after the youngest among them mistook it for brown sugar and added it to porridge on Saturday morning.
All four are members of one family from Old Magwegwe suburb, aged 5, 8, 12 and 18.
The youngest child, a cousin of the other three, died a few minutes after consuming the porridge and the trio was rushed to the hospital and was said to be in a stable condition.
Mpilo acting chief executive officer Professor Solwayo Ngwenya told newsmen on Saturday that the family had brought the substance which was used as sugar and healthcare workers at Mpilo had discovered that it is rat poison. He said:
We have three patients who are victims of an unfortunate incident that led to the death of a child on Saturday.
All three are stable in the general wards and not intensive care units as previously predicted.
We understand that they made porridge on Saturday and the young one added rat poison to it as he mistook it for brown sugar.
We send our condolences to the family and at the same time encourage members of the public not to bring dangerous substances including fuel, pesticides and any type of poison in the house especially where there are children.
They would rather place these out of reach so that we do not have similar incidents.
