A boy aged one from Balti town went into a coma after poisoning himself with drugs. Ala Condrea, of the Balti Municipal Hospital, has told IPN that the child took the pills when the parents were quarrelling. Left without supervision, the boy found the pills and swallowed six types of them, including very dangerous at his age.

The doctor said the couple does not get on well and often quarrels and even fights. Meanwhile, the child is left without supervision. This time, the boy went to the balcony and found a purse with drugs there. The parents didn’t realize what happened when the child swallowed the pills. They reacted only when the boy went sick.

The child had been in a coma for two days. He is now in an averagely grave state. The drugs weren’t fully absorbed into the blood. “Negative consequences are not excluded. Some of those pills have a harmful effect on the nervous system,” said Ala Condrea. According to her, it is very important to keep the children under permanent supervision and to make the medicines inaccessible to them.

About 300 children were admitted to the Mother and Child Center with drug poisoning last year. According to a study made within the Moldovan-Swiss REPEMOL project “Regionalization of the pediatric emergency and intensive care services in Moldova”, only 24.5% of the persons looking after children realize the risk posed by noxious substances, including drugs.