The seven-year-old boy, who had been hospitalized at the Coimbra Children’s Hospital since Saturday, died of food poisoning that affected the whole family. The clinical condition of the heart worsened and Andre Martins did not survive: he was pronounced dead on Monday evening.
The mother, 48 years old, remained hospitalized on Tuesday evening in the intensive care unit of the cardiothoracic department of the Hospital and University Center of Coimbra with a “very guarded clinical prognosis.” The family went to the medical center only a day after the first symptoms appeared – weakness and vomiting, when the poisoning was already at an advanced stage.
The central regional health department is racing against time and confirmed in a statement that it was “making every effort to identify the source of the fatal poisoning.” The first suspicions fell on meatballs eaten by four family members, prepared at home from minced meat purchased from a local supermarket, but all scenarios are analyzed as part of an epidemiological investigation by collecting food samples from biological conditions in the family home. Food waste, chemicals used in cleaning products, and tap water from the home were collected.
ABOUT morning Post You know that the family, originally from Coimbra, has a farm in the Montemor o Velho area, and this was also one of the points where samples were collected and sent for analysis to the public health department.
The father, 44, and his eldest son, 12, who were also hospitalized in a Coimbra hospital, are now out of danger and have returned home under medical supervision.
An autopsy of the child will be critical to understanding the cause of the poisoning. Little Andre Martins was a player of the Akademika-OAF club, who was shocked by the tragedy and expressed his condolences. “One of our boys and athletes, just seven years old, left us today in a tragedy that goes far beyond football and leaves us all with a feeling of utter horror,” said a statement sent by the institution.
Author: Carolina Cunha
Source: CM Jornal
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