A 5-year-old boy from Southern China has been in intensive care for more than two weeks after swallowing rat poison at his kindergarten.
According to Chinese media, the doctors told the boy's mother surnamed Tang that the possibility of saving him is 'nearly zero.'
Swallowing rat poison
The boy who remains unnamed fell sick on October 22 after his lunch at the Xindi Students Service kindergarten.
Reports said the boy was gripped by a stomach ache and then started vomiting and having violent convulsions.
Upon seeing this, his teachers immediately rushed him to the hospital where he suffered a cardiac arrest.
Thereafter, the boy was moved to a specialist hospital in Guangzhou.
It was only at this point that the boy's mother was finally informed of her son's situation.
Worsening condition
Up until then, doctors were still unsure of what caused his illness.
It was only after conducting a urine test that doctors found fluoroacetamide – an organic compound used in rat poison, in the boy's body.
The boy's condition seemed to also worsen from before. Besides having a cardiac arrest, he also suffered from excess fluid in his brain and the inflammation of his heart muscle.
With all these serious conditions, he was ultimately placed on a life support machine.
Other students from kindergarten not ill
Tang also said that another child suffered stomach ache and diarrhoea at the same time.
However, the child's symptoms were nowhere as severe as her son's.
Local police also commented that the school has been closed due to an ongoing investigation.
But they added there were no reports of other students suffering similar symptoms.
