A four-year-old girl from Balti was admitted to the Municipal Hospital after taking several swallows of bleach. She sustained burns of the mouth and is unable to eat.
The parents were returning home by their car after visiting the grandparents, who gave them a bottle of bleach. The bottle was left on the back seat of the car, where the girl sat. On the road, the child opened the bottle and drank from it. She was immediately rushed to the hospital, the head of the Emergency Admissions Section of the Balti Municipal Hospital Ala Condrea has told IPN.
“The child felt un unpleasant smell and a stinging pain and spit the substance out. The substance reached only the larynx and the girl sustained injuries of the mucous membrane and the tongue. If the girl had swallowed the substance, the consequences would have been serious,” said the doctor.
The head of the Pediatric Surgery Section of the Mother and Child Center Eva Gudumac said that such cases are frequent. Children who swallow toxic substances are weekly brought to the hospital. “The parents must be cautious and put such toxic substances as the detergents and bleach in places that are inaccessible to children so as to avoid tragic cases. Even if the children survive, they suffer physically and psychologically and become more agitated and nervous,” she stated.
According to the Ministry of Health, the poisonings, together with traumas, are the main cause of death among children aged between 1 and 5 in Moldova. Doctors recommend the parents to hide all the chemical substances from children who are very curious and can swallow all kinds of substances.
