Years pass, fashions change, but certain principles remain valid even in a world that evolves by the minute. Among these there is also the mantra repeated by grandmothers from all over Italy: “Watch what you eat“.
He probably should have remembered that too Kim Taithe woman residing in New Zealand which ended up with a good chunk of paralyzed body to have ingested mussels collected after an afternoon spent at the beach. An episode that went around the world in a few minutes and that reminds each of us how important it is to know what we put in our mouths and give to our bodies every day, often with that dose of lightness that exposes us to seriousness Health risksThis is all the more true in a sector – that of gastronomy and the food chain – which in recent years has been particularly influenced by new and ever more extravagant trends.
She’s paralyzed after eating clams on the beach: scary moments
The anecdote in question comes from the coast of Little Wahitourist resort in the municipality Maketu. We are in the northern part of the wonderful north islandThe area is also known as: completely immersed in the Pacific Ocean Bay of Abundance and the name gives a good idea of the great promiscuity of flora and fauna that characterizes this maritime context. Indeed, a few kilometers away you come across the mouth of the Kaituna Rivera real crossroads for billions of animal and plant species that reach the sea driven by underwater currents.
And that seems to have been the cause of Kim Taia’s serious illness: according to the reports of the doctors who visited her in the nearest hospital, the woman seems to have eaten something contaminated mussels from the so-called crippling poison from musselsa powerful one water-soluble sea poison synthesized from microscopic algae known as dinoflagellates.
She eats mussels on the beach and remains paralyzed: the causes and the scientific explanation
The venom is known academically by the lesser-known name STX or saxitoxin and is one of those responsible for clam syndrome (or PSP, acronym for “Paraalityc Shellfish Poisoning”), a disease associated with food poisoning which millions of people around the world have come to know.
Once introduced into our body, the saxitoxin it is broken down and releases all its components. The effects are potentially devastating: their ingestion causes varying symptoms ranging from slight tingling and numbness of the lips up to one respiratory paralysis in all respects with a poor prognosis. It should be emphasized that in serious cases it can also be deadly.
So it can be said that the New Zealander was happy that she managed to warn her son from the onset of the first symptoms, although she began to stop breathing and speak with great difficulty. Rescuers intervened immediately, transporting her to the emergency room and allowing health workers to intervene immediately. He told the local press about those horrific moments: “My head went numb and I got dizzy. I could not speak clear and I wondered what was going on. Then I started lose sensitivity on hands and arms, I was breathing heavily. I thought I was going to die”.