Updated: 6:45am – Friends of a family hospitalised with suspected food poisoning after eating wild pork hope they will learn the results of their toxicology reports today.
Shibu Kochummen and his wife Subi Babu have been in Waikato Hospital since last Saturday, along with his mother Alexkutty Daniel, who is visiting from India.
Last night, Ms Babu was in a serious condition in the high-dependency unit. Kochummen and his mother were stable.
Family friend Joji Varghese said he last saw the Putaruru-based family yesterday afternoon, and they remained unresponsive.
“If you mean by consciousness do they open their eyes? Then yes. But once the eye is actually open, do they register anything? The answer is no,” he said.
Mr Varghese said doctors were unable to treat them until they determined the exact cause of the infection.
“What the doctors are trying to do is prevent secondary infection from affecting them because their body is so weak to start with,” he said.
“But in terms of primary treatment, we are still awaiting on the toxicology report.
“Once that comes through, doctors will be able to say what treatment to start and timeframes associated with it.”
Mr Varghese, who knows the family through their Hamilton Church, said Mr Kochummen often went out with friends who hunted. He did not hunt himself.
“In the past he’s gone out with friends and they’ve got some game meat and stuff, and gives me a call and says there’s some stuff here.
“We’ve cooked together and had dinner, and this time round it was the same situation,” he said.
Mr Varghese said he was meant to pick up the meat on Saturday when he next saw his friends.
“That night they cooked the meat, they put the children to bed early and it was just the three adults who had the meat, and that’s when the trouble started.”
He said that about 15 minutes after dinner, Mr Kochummen called an ambulance but fainted halfway through the conversation.
He said emergency services found the three adults unconscious and the couple’s two children, aged 1 and 7, asleep in bed.
The public health service had tested food items in the family home, and Mr Varghese said the wild boar was the only food the children had not eaten.
The children are being looked after by members of the family’s church.
Game Animal Council head Don Hammond said people ate wild pork every day and he had never heard of anyone getting seriously ill from eating game meat.
He said he thought there was more to the illness than eating the meat.
“Thousands of people every day in New Zealand eat wild pork that’s been caught in the bush. It’s a major source of protein in many small rural areas, and I’ve never heard of anyone getting sick from meat that’s been looked after properly.”
Mr Hammond said it was not possible to eat enough meat to get secondary poisoning from toxins.
-RNZ
Featured Image: Wild boar may have poisoned Putaruru family Photo: RNZ / YouTube
