adminThandeka Moyo, Health Reporter
A FOUR-YEAR-OLD girl from Filabusi who had been in the intensive care unit at Mpilo Central Hospital in Bulawayo after eating poisonous mushrooms has died, bringing the family death toll to five.
The Filabusi family lost four other members, all children, who were buried last week.
According to the family, eight members including the children’s grandmother ate the mushrooms two weeks ago. The grandmother and two boys aged seven and 10 have since recovered.
Mpilo Central Hospital clinical director Dr Solwayo Ngwenya said the girl’s condition kept on deteriorating from the time she was transferred from Filabusi District Hospital.
“Unfortunately we have lost the four-year-old girl who was in our ICU for a week. The girl died during the early hours of Thursday and we continue to send our condolences to the family which has lost five members,” said Dr Ngwenya.
“It’s such a tragedy and we plead with members of the public to desist from picking or buying mushrooms from informal suppliers. They would rather buy those from registered shops so that we avoid unnecessary loss of life.”
Meanwhile, Filabusi District Hospital is currently doing a clinical audit as the family alleges that when eight members presented themselves at the hospital after eating the mushrooms, nurses only attended to two children and the grandmother.
The family alleges that there was negligence at the hospital as the other children were sent back home, only for their condition to deteriorate.
The family ate the poisonous mushrooms on March 3, leading to the death of one person on March 6 in Filabusi and another one the following day upon admission at Mpilo.
On March 8, the family lost two children at Mpilo bringing the death toll to four.
Three of the children were buried in Filabusi last Monday while the fourth one was buried on Tuesday.
Their deaths bring to 16 the number of people who have died so far due to mushroom poisoning over the past few weeks. Eleven others died in Mberengwa.
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