Family Mistakenly Eats Poisonous Pufferfish, Hospitalized

A family from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, is suffering from pufferfish poisoning after unwittingly cooking up the fish for dinner. The 11-member family had been given the fish by a friend who had gone fishing. The London Evening Standard reports that within seconds after their first bites, the family began to vomit and lost feeling in their arms, legs and faces.

The Souza family thought that they were in for a delicious meal when they received the fish. They fried it up and invited their extended family members over for dinner. The majority of the family are currently in the hospital receiving care. Cristiane Souza and Maria do Carmo, the mother and grandmother respectively, had not yet taken a bite of the fish as they wait for their family to try it first.

A puffer fish’s toxin is 1,200 times more lethal than cyanide. The fish is considered a rare delicacy in Japan, though it takes chefs two years of careful and rigorous training to received a license to cook it. One drop of the puffer fish poison can kill a person within a 24-hour period.

H/T London Evening Standard