Three young sisters hospitalized after eating rat meat laced with rodenticide in Vietnam

Three young sisters in Vietnam were hospitalized after eating wild rat meat contaminated with rodenticide.

According to Vietnamese outlet Jet News, Ho Chi Minh City Children's Hospital recently treated three sisters — aged 10, 9 and 7 — in an emergency after they ate rat meat laced with rodenticide over the course of a week. The children presented with abdominal pain, diarrhea and bruising across their bodies. The youngest had to be placed on a ventilator after vomiting blood and developing fluid buildup in her lungs.

Doctors at the hospital diagnosed all three with rodenticide poisoning and administered vitamin K1 and other treatments to help restore blood clotting. After about three weeks of treatment, the bleeding had stopped and their clotting function had returned to near-normal levels.

Nguyen Minh Tien, a physician and deputy director of Ho Chi Minh City Children's Hospital, said warfarin and superwarfarin poisoning can occur not only from accidentally ingesting the substance directly but also from eating food contaminated with toxic compounds. "It disrupts blood clotting and can be life-threatening if not treated promptly," he said. He added that people should choose food from clearly identified sources that has been approved by the relevant authorities.