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A man who cooked and ate a poisonous pufferfish that was gifted to him fell into a coma and died 35 days later, according to reports.
Magno Sergio Gomes, 46, died in a hospital in Espirito Santos, Brazil, after suffering seizures and being paralyzed by toxins from a pufferfish that are 1,000 times deadlier than cyanide. According to the New York Post, his sister, Myriam Gomes Lopes, spoke with Newsflash about what happened.
Gomes cooked the pufferfish and served himself and an unnamed friend, who miraculously survived the deadly meal.
Lopes told Newsflash her family doesn’t know where the pufferfish, that was gifted to her brother, came from and whether it was caught or farmed.
She said her brother didn’t have any experience cleaning and preparing pufferfish. He and his friend only gutted the fish, removed its liver, and then boiled it before eating it with lime juice.
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Effects of eating pufferfish led to man’s death
Lopes said Gomes felt the effects of the toxins less than an hour after eating the fish.
«Magno started to feel numb in his mouth,” said Lopes.
Gomes drove himself to the hospital, where the toxins began to take over, and the numbness spread through his body before he went into cardiac arrest for 8 minutes.
According to Lopes, the man also suffered from multiple seizures that «greatly affected» his brain and left him with a small chance of survival.
Lopes says her brother was then intubated and put on life support. He died 35 days later on Jan. 27, reports the New York Post.
“The doctors told our family that he died from poisoning, which had quickly traveled to his head,” said Lopes.
His friend, while still alive, is also experiencing adverse effects from the poison.
“He’s not walking very well,” said Lopes. “He was neurologically impacted, but he is recovering.”
Pufferfish: Why the fish is deadly and toxic
According to National Geographic, pufferfish are still dangerous, even when they don’t puff up and look like deadly, spiked balloons.
The poison that killed Gomes is called tetrodotoxin. The toxin, which is meant to deter predators from consuming the fish, can be found in almost every single puffer fish, states National Geographic.
«To humans, tetrodotoxin is deadly, up to 1,200 times more poisonous than cyanide,» writes the publication. «There is enough toxin in one pufferfish to kill 30 adult humans, and there is no known antidote.»
Twenty species of pufferfish reside in Brazil, and over half can be found in Espirito Santa.
At this time, the specific species of pufferfish that Gomes ate is unknown.
Despite the deadly poison, pufferfish is considered to be a delicacy
Raw pufferfish is considered to be a delicacy in Japan, where it’s known as fugu.
Reports vary, but according to Hidden Japan, chefs undergo over three years of training.
However, Yutaka Sasaki, a fugu specialist with 45 years of experience in the art, says that serving fugu requires a much longer apprenticeship.
«If you want to cook real fugu, you need to serve, at least, a 10-year apprenticeship,» Sasaki told Great Big Story.
Science Direct reports that Japan sees around 50 deaths related to pufferfish poisoning yearly.
Most are contributed to inexperienced chefs who prepare the dish themselves like Gomes.
