A child aged three from Balti was taken to the hospital in a serious condition after he swallowed rat poison.  The parents called an ambulance only in several hours, when they saw that the child felt worse and worse. Contacted by IPN, the head of the emergency admissions division of the Balti Municipal Hospital Ala Condrea said that if the parents hadn’t taken action, the child could have died.

The sack with rat poison was forgotten on the backseat of the family’s car and the child, who remained unsupervised for a period, managed to swallow a part of it. Ala Condrea said the parents acted irrationally, not only when leaving the poison within the child’s reach, but also after the incident, when they tried to cure him themselves and didn’t call an ambulance immediately. As a result, the child’s state worsened and he was rushed to the hospital in a serious state. “We were afraid that this substance could cause hemorrhage,” said the doctor. At the hospital, the child undertook lavage and perfusion.

Ala Condrea calls on the parents to hide all the toxic substances from children and not to resort to self-medication, but to consult a doctor until the ambulance arrives. All the colored and pleasantly smelling substances are dangerous for children and should not be kept within children’s reach as they look attractive to them.

The children of an early age must be immediately taken to the hospital. In other cases, the parents can consult the specialist of the TOXAPEL service on 022.555.220. This service provides telephonic assistance to parents and medical personnel, teaching them how to give first aid in case of child poisoning.

More information about how to protect the child is available on www.parinti.md and can be also found out by following the information campaigns centering on the prevention of accidents involving children carried out within the REPEMOL (Regionalization of Pediatric Emergency and Intensive Care Service in Moldova) Project that is financed by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation and implemented by the Foundation of the Center for Health Policies and Services.