Sydney mum denies trying to poison son by putting feces in his hospital IV drip

Australia is a hard country with massive droughts, massive rainfalls every 10 years (like now) and quite weird behavior.

Stories like the following appear daily. The weird ones.

Heath Parkes-Hupton of The Australian writes a mum accused of putting feces in her son’s cannula as he writhed in pain at a Sydney hospital was heard being asked by her sick child “why are you doing this to me”, a court has heard.

The boy’s mother is facing a special hearing at Downing Centre District Court for allegedly poisoning her then nine-year-old son through his cannula while he was a patient at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead in September 2014.

The woman, a mother of four who can’t be named, denies infecting the boy and has pleaded not guilty to using poison to endanger a life.

His blood culture later tested positive to the bacteria E. coli.

The mother’s barrister Pauline David told the court on Thursday there were a number of possibilities that could explain how the boy became infected.

Crown witness and nurse Lindie Brown, who was working at a unit manager at the ward where the boy was a patient, told the court he became “very unwell” during one of her shifts.

The court heard the boy had a temperature of 40C and began experiencing rigors – or shaking.

He was also complaining of pains in his back, stomach and head and asked for medicine to “take the pain away”, the court heard.

Ms Brown told the court she then heard the boy ask his mother “why she was doing this to him”.

He then said words to the effect of “you could have put something in my cannula when I was asleep”, Ms Brown said.

The hearing before Judge Justin Smith continues.

The Crown:: Queen Elizabeth’s staff follows serious (not so much) food poisoning protocol

Queen Elizabeth has a crafty way to avoid getting poisoned at the dinner table. A new documentary called Secrets of the Royal Kitchen explores the ins and outs of Buckingham Palace’s kitchens, including the lengths royal staffers go to keep Elizabeth safe. Here’s a quick look at all the interesting elements that go into a state banquet with the Queen.

During state banquets, Her Majesty’s staff are required to follow a serious protocol to keep her safe – and the lengths they go for her safety might surprise you.

A personal chef at the palace prepares the dishes for all of the guests. According to the New York Post, Elizabeth’s staff members then chose a random plate for her in an effort to prevent someone from poisoning her food.

The only way someone would be able to poison Queen Elizabeth is if they contaminated all of the dishes. This tactic has paid off so far, though we couldn’t imagine why someone would want to poison the Queen.

“After everything is plated up, a page chooses at random one of the plates to be served to her majesty,” Emily Andrews, a correspondent for the royals, shared. “So if anyone did want to poison the monarch they’d have to poison the whole lot.”

The documentary also revealed that banquet guests are required to follow some strict rules while dining with  Elizabeth Queen.

This includes finishing their plates before Her Majesty is done eating. This is an old tradition that used to be more of an issue in the past as guests would race to finish their food. It is unclear if the palace requires visitors to follow this protocol or if they have gotten more flexible in recent years.

There are, of course, plenty of other traditions guests are required to follow whenever they are eating with the Queen.

For starters, nobody sits down until Elizabeth has been seated. You also cannot start eating until she has taken her first bite.

Elizabeth also has a personal menu that has been crafted to her liking. She schedules her meals three days in advance to give the palace chef plenty of time to gather ingredients.

When picking her dining options, Elizabeth crosses out dishes she doesn’t like. She also crosses out entire pages whenever she has a royal event that evening and will not be dining in the palace.

Sounds like me being in psyche jail.

And not a mention of microbiology.

Dumbasses.

China teacher arrested for ‘poisoning’ 23 kindergarten students

The first words I wrote for barfblog.com in 2005 as me and Chapman went on a road trip to escape my ex-girlfriend stalker were something about my mother trying to kill me through foodborne illness.

She didn’t like that, and I knew my kindergarten teacher mom had nothing but best intents, but with food safety, who knows.

I’d like to make clear that my mother never intentionally poisoned any of her students.

But, a kindergarten teacher in China did, sending 23 pupils to hospital in early April after a teacher allegedly poisoned their morning porridge.

The incident in Jiaozuo came just before a new regulation took effect Monday, requiring school officials from kindergartens to secondary schools in China to dine with their students to prevent food safety scandals.

The pupils began vomiting and fainting after breakfast, the Beijing News said, citing unnamed city officials.

One parent told the newspaper that he rushed to the hospital after receiving a call from the school to find doctors had already pumped his child’s stomach to prevent high levels of toxicity in his blood.

One child remains in hospital with “severe” symptoms, and seven others have been held for observation, Xinhua reported.

The reports did not specify the ages of those affected, but typically, kindergarten students in China are aged three to six.

A preliminary investigation has revealed that sodium nitrite, which is used for curing meats but can be toxic when ingested in high amounts, caused the poisoning, Xinhua said.

 

Michigan women put heroin in recovery home manager’s food in poisoning attempt

Sarnia is known as the armpit of Ontario, because it’s a chokepoint at the end of Lake Huron and full of oil refineries.

It’s the home of Canadian rockers, Max Webster and nothing else I can think of.

My first wife, the veterinarian with whom I had four beautiful daughters, whomst (I know that’s not a word) have now spawned three grandsons, was from Sarnia.

She would remind me occasionally that she got paid to castrate males of various species.

I slept comfortably for years.

Across the river on the American side is a town called Port Huron.

According to Roberto Acosta of M Live, these two (left) allegedly attempted to poison a recovery home manager by dumping heroin in her dinner.

Officers with the Port Huron Police Department were sent out around 9 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 13 to the home in the 1200 block of Lapeer Road where the 38-year-old victim resided with the two women and others.

The victim is the recovery home manager who heard rumors that she was being poisoned by the two clients, police said.

One of the suspects is believed to have placed heroin in the victim’s macaroni and cheese on Friday, Jan. 11. The victim thought the food tasted funny and eventually discarded the meal.

Port Huron road patrol officers and detectives investigated the incident. The victim was treated at McLaren Port Huron and evidence was obtained by police indicating she’d been poisoned.

Shanna Marie Kota, 39, and Sarah Elaine Prange, 22, were later arrested and lodged in the St. Clair County Intervention Center. Both suspects were arraigned Tuesday, Jan. 15 and pleaded not guilty to two felony counts of poisoning, punishable by up to 15 years in prison, and had their bonds set at $100,000 each, according to district court records.

The suspects are scheduled to be back in court later this month for a probable cause conference.

As a side note, when students collect news, we try to get them to verify the geographical location.

When this story came up, it was labelled Missouri.

My second partner spent part of her youth in Missouri. And part in Michigan.

Anyone who has watched the TV show, Ozarks, knows Missouri is its own special kind of place.

The French professor may not know veterinary technique, but it may not matter?

The Food Taster: German man suspected of killing 21 co-workers by poisoning their food

Darko Janjevic of DW reports German authorities launched a probe into a string of deaths at a metal fittings company after an employee was caught trying to poison a co-worker’s lunch. Police found quicksilver, lead and cadmium in the man’s home.

The man was arrested for the incident in the town of Schloß Holte-Stukenbrock, northwest Germany. However, police now suspect he may be responsible for up to 21 deaths of people working for the same company.

The police detained the 56-year-old suspect in May this year, after one of his co-workers noticed an unknown white powder on his food. The would-be victim alerted his superiors and asked them to review the recordings made by security cameras, which then showed the suspect adding the substance to the co-worker’s lunch.

“In the beginning we thought it was a misconceived prank between co-workers, and not a murder attempt,” said Tilo Blechinger, the manager for the metal fittings manufacturer ARI Armaturen, to the DPA news agency.

The case escalated to an attempted murder after authorities identified the powder as lead acetate, a highly toxic and nearly tasteless substance that could cause serious organ damage.

Woman in India ‘kills party guests with poisoned food because they ridiculed her cooking’

Pradnya Survase, of Khalapur, faces the death penalty after five guests died at the feast in Mahad, in Raigad district, on June 18. Police said Survase intended to kill her husband, her mother-in-law, two sisters-in-law, along with her mother-in-law’s sister and her husband after they ‘regularly insulted’ her complexion and cooking.

Pradnya Survase is alleged to have poisoned family members with pesticides in dal. According to authorities, Survase allegedly mixed snake poison into a container of dal that was then served to guests, which left 88 people in hospital and led to the deaths of five.

Vishwajeet Kaingade, senior police inspector of Khalapur police station, told the Hindustan Times: ‘Pradnya claims that since her marriage two years ago, she has been insulted regularly for her dark complexion and accused of not being able to cook well.’ Survase, divorced from her first husband, also believes relatives had damaged her second marriage. She is alleged to have served poisoned dal to the guests. Around 120 people were invited to the housewarming and a village cook prepared food which was served from 2.30pm until 11.30pm. But those who ate later in the day began complaining of nausea, vomiting and stomach ache just a few hours later. The newspaper reports that 88 people were hospitalised and four children, aged between seven and 13, died along with 53-year-old Gopinath Nakure, two of whom were related to Survase. Vilash Thikrey, a 13-year-old who survived the poisoning, remembers the dal tasting ‘bitter’. 

Teens injesting laundry detergent in what’s dubbed the Tide pod challenge

CBS News reports that in this latest social media fad, teenagers are putting detergent pods in their mouths in what’s being called the “Tide Pod Challenge.”

Ingredients in the pods include ethanol, hydrogen peroxide and polymers – a highly-toxic mix of detergent meant to wipe out dirt and grime. Manufacturers have been concerned about toddlers mistakenly ingesting them, but now teens are popping them on purpose and posting videos of the results online, reports CBS News correspondent Anna Werner.

Nineteen-year-old Marc Pagan, who did it on a dare, told CBS News he knew better but did it anyway.

“A lot of people were just saying how stupid I was or how – why would I be willing to do that,” he said. “No one should be putting anything like that in their mouths, you know?”

Ann Marie Buerkle, acting chairman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, says ingesting any of the liquid carries a deadly risk.

“This is what started out as a joke on the internet and now it’s just gone too far,” Buerkle said.

The pods are bright and colorful and to children they can look like candy. At least 10 deaths have been linked to ingesting these pods. Two were toddlers, eight were seniors with dementia.

Procter & Gamble, the maker of Tide products, told CBS News: “They should not be played with… Even if meant as a joke. Safety is no laughing matter.”

More than 62,000 children under the age of six were exposed to laundry and dishwasher detergents, between 2013 and 2014.

The next year, Consumer Reports said it would no longer recommend detergent packets, citing “the unique risks” while urging the “adoption of tougher safety measures.”

“Laundry detergent pods are highly concentrated detergent,” says Tammy Noble, a registered nurse and spokeswoman for the Iowa Poison Control Center. “Biting into them can cause diarrhea, some vomiting and sometimes that vomiting can even go on and on, excessive vomiting where we worry about it leading into dehydration.” Even if it’s being done as a joke and the person never intends to swallow the detergent, biting into the pod will likely make it squirt right down their gullet.

“It can cause burns in the mouth, the throat and the stomach,” Noble says. “Or there’s been cases where it accidentally gets into the lungs, where they aspirate it. That can cause significant breathing problems and sometimes that patient needs to be put on a ventilator to help them breathe.”

Frozen spinach recalled in Italy, possible mandrake contamination

Something is probably lost in translation. But as reported by Repubblica Milano and translated in ProMed, a batch of Bonduelle brand frozen spinach was removed from the market.

The decision of the company, which produces the food in question at a Spanish plant in Navarre, came after a warning from the Ministry of Health. “The product should not be consumed — reads in the recall — due to a suspected presence of mandrake leaves.”

The withdrawal concerns production batch 15986504-7222 45M63 08:29 whose 750g bags have an expiration date of August 2019.

On 30 Sep 2017, an entire family was admitted to the Fatebenefratelli hospital in Milan after eating a pack of frozen spinach bought at the supermarket. A 60-year-old man, a 55-year-old woman, and their children, 18 and 16 years old, ended up at the first aid unit because they showed mental confusion and amnesia of various degrees of severity.

The AST [local health authority] analyses have determined that the clinical picture is compatible with contamination of the original product with mandrake, a grass that can invade fields of edible vegetable crops. The leaves of mandrake, thought to be magical in antiquity, are actually poisonous.

The company issued a clarification in the evening. “There is no information — the statement reads — that permits the attribution of mandrake leaf contamination of our products.” Bonduelle — adds the note — is issuing the recall of some of the product ‘Spinaci Millefoglie Bonduelle’ as a precautionary measure.”

German police arrest suspect in baby-food poisoning threats

Associated Press reports that German authorities said Saturday they are confident that a 53-year-old man arrested a day earlier is behind a blackmail attempt that saw jars of poisoned baby food placed on store shelves in southern Germany.

Prosecutors said investigators found the same poison — ethylene glycol, a compound used in antifreeze — when they arrested the man Friday near the southwestern city of Tuebingen.

Chief prosecutor Alexander Boger told a news conference in Konstanz, on Germany’s southern border, that the man hadn’t confessed but the evidence against him was substantial.

DNA found on the baby food jars and pictures taken with a supermarket surveillance camera also pointed to the suspect, who wasn’t identified due to German privacy rules, prosecutors said.

Authorities and companies received an email this month threatening to poison unspecified food at German retailers inside the country and beyond unless more than 10 million euros ($11.8 million) was paid by Saturday.

The blackmailer alerted authorities that five jars of baby food at shops in Friedrichshafen, near Konstanz, had been tampered with. Officials located the jars and found they contained ethylene glycol but said there’s no evidence that anyone was poisoned.

22 sentenced for selling 5,000 kg poisoned dog meat in China

The Indian Express reports that 22 people were sentenced to up to eight years in prison for making and selling more than 5,000 kilograms of tainted dog sadie.dog.powellmeat in China’s Jiangsu Province.

Prosecutors in Rugao city have investigated 14 cases regarding tainted food, which involved over 5,000 kilograms of poisoned dog meat, 11,000 poisoned birds and 500 kilograms of hazardous chemicals.

Police detained Lao Gan (pseudonym) who purchased 7,000 kilogrammes of poisoned dog meat before tracking down another five people.

They also bought half of the meat and sold it to restaurants in the outskirts of cities in Anhui, Shandong and Jiangsu provinces, state-run Global Times reported.

Local police also caught eight men for killing and selling over 11,000 ‘poisoned birds’, most of which were sold to restaurants in Shanghai, Zhejiang and Guangdong provinces.

The sentences came as China faced criticism both at home and abroad for not banning the annual dog meat festival in Yulin last week where 10,000 dogs were reported to have been slaughtered.