The boy was poisoned by a fish? Doctor: Every year, people eat fish...

Recently, in the ICU of the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine, 30-year-old Guizhou boy A Ming (pseudonym) was finally rescued after two days of emergency treatment. What hurt A Ming was actually a 4-jin silver carp.

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Amin said that he had been feeling a bit "hot-headed" recently, and remembering the old folks' word-of-mouth that snake and fish gallbladders can detoxify and reduce internal heat, he swallowed half a thumb-sized fish gallbladder raw. In less than two hours, he was poisoned. The fish gallbladder caused severe liver failure, and Amin's life was hanging by a thread, and he almost walked into the "gates of hell".

Want to cleanse the liver and improve eyesight

30-year-old guy swallows fish gall bladder raw

On June 2, which happened to be the weekend, 30-year-old Amin and several co-workers went fishing outside and caught a silver carp weighing 4 kilograms. The group was very happy and planned to use the fresh silver carp for hot pot. It is said that fish gall can improve eyesight and detoxify, so Amin, who was in charge of killing the fish, specially took out the fish gall, which was about half the size of an adult's thumb.

In the evening, after the silver carp hotpot was cooked, Amin and his co-workers drank and chatted happily. They took the fish gall bladder that had been cut out and swallowed it raw with beer.
"My mouth felt very bitter at that moment, and I had to drink about one and a half bottles of beer to suppress the bitterness in my mouth!" Amin recalled that less than two hours after eating the fish hotpot, his stomach began to churn, and he not only vomited and had diarrhea, but also felt dizzy, had a headache, and felt weak all over.

At this time, he checked the Internet with his mobile phone and found out that fish gallbladder is poisonous! Afterwards, Ah Ming went to dig his throat to induce vomiting, thinking that he would be fine if he vomited out all the fish hotpot he had for dinner. However, at around 10 o'clock in the evening, his stomach hurt even more, he couldn't urinate, his face was frighteningly dark, and his eyeballs and neck began to turn yellow...

His family rushed him to a local hospital, where he was diagnosed with "fish gallbladder poisoning." After receiving symptomatic supportive treatments such as gastric lavage, liver and stomach protection, Amin was transferred to the emergency department of the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine for further treatment.

Upon examination, it was found that Amin's alanine aminotransferase value exceeded 10,000 (normal value is below 50), which is hundreds of times the normal value. He showed typical symptoms of liver failure and also had coagulation dysfunction. If the toxins in the body cannot be cleared in time, it may be life-threatening.

With the hospital's intensive treatment, Amin is no longer in danger of death and is still receiving further treatment.

Emergency Specialists:

It is emphasized every year but people still eat it every year

Director Lu Yuanqiang introduced that in recent years, there have been many cases every year of patients being poisoned because of blindly believing in folk remedies and eating fish gall.

The symptoms caused by fish gallbladder poisoning are serious and can lead to liver and kidney damage, and then gradually develop serious symptoms such as acute liver necrosis, renal failure, cerebral edema, myocardial damage (also known as multiple organ dysfunction syndrome, MODS), and eventually lead to death.

What saddened him the most was that some patients who were poisoned by swallowing raw fish gall were lucky enough to escape danger and were rescued, but they suffered from paralysis and incontinence due to nerve damage, and they regretted it for the rest of their lives.

He especially stressed that fish gallbladders should not be eaten, as they can be fatal in the most serious cases, and there is currently no effective antidote! For adults, just a few grams of bile can cause poisoning, and if it is a large fish weighing more than five or six kilograms, one fish gallbladder is enough to kill someone.

This is because the main components of fish bile are bile acid, taurocholic acid, hydrocyanic acid, water-soluble sodium cyprinid sulfate, histamine and other toxins, and the composition is very complex. Among them, hydrocyanic acid, the most toxic, can inhibit the activity of more than 40 enzymes in the human body, making cells unable to use oxygen and causing "intracellular asphyxiation".

These toxins are not destroyed by heating, cooking or alcohol, so even if the fish gall is steamed or fresh fish gall is taken with wine, it can still cause poisoning.

Although not all fish gallbladders are poisonous, it is worth noting that the gallbladders of many freshwater fish that we often eat in our daily lives, such as crucian carp, black carp, grass carp, carp, silver carp, bighead carp, and Wuchang fish, are poisonous. "If you are not sure whether it is poisonous or not, the best way is to not eat any fish gallbladders."

Director Lu Yuanqiang also stressed that the folk remedies that fish gallbladder can clear away heat, improve eyesight, relieve cough and asthma are not true at all . Fish gallbladder not only cannot cure diseases but also can cause poisoning, so it must not be eaten. The incubation period of fish gallbladder poisoning is 0.5 to 6 hours. The shorter the time after poisoning, the worse the prognosis.

It may initially manifest as gastrointestinal symptoms. As the disease progresses, symptoms such as yellowing of the skin and sclera, fatigue, poor appetite, pain in the liver area, oliguria, anuria, edema of the face and lower limbs, and low back pain may appear. In severe cases, there will be multiple organ dysfunction syndrome and shock, which can be life-threatening.

How to prevent fish gallbladder poisoning?

When slaughtering fish, be sure to clean the gallbladder. If the gallbladder is accidentally broken, be sure to cut off the fish meat contaminated with bile to avoid poisoning. If the fish gallbladder contaminates a large area of ​​fish meat, it is recommended to throw away the whole fish for safety reasons. Be careful not to let the fish bile splash into your eyes . Toxic fish bile can cause conjunctivitis, decreased vision, and even blindness in severe cases.

If accidentally ingested, seek medical attention as soon as possible , thoroughly wash the stomach or induce vomiting to remove the poison; you can also drink some egg white or milk under the guidance of a doctor to protect the gastric mucosa and delay the absorption of bile.

If patients with severe fish gallbladder poisoning receive hemodialysis treatment as soon as possible, the toxins in their bodies can be effectively cleared in a short period of time, and the water, electrolyte and acid-base imbalances in their bodies can be corrected, toxins can be excreted smoothly from the body, and the damage caused by toxins to their organs can be reduced.

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Source: Qianjiang Evening News

Review丨Zhang Yu, researcher/PhD, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, national health science expert

Editor: Yinuo

Proofread by Xu Lai and Lin Lin