Elderly couple dies just hours after frying and eating poisonous pufferfish for lunch
JOHOR, MALAYSIA: A couple in their 80s died after frying and eating poisonous pufferfish for lunch in Malaysia. According to authorities in the southern state of Johor, Ng Chuan Sing and his wife Lim Siew Guan unintentionally bought at least two poisonous pufferfish online on March 25.
Guan, 83, began to experience "breathing difficulties and shivers" on the same day that she had cooked the pufferfish while her husband also showed similar symptoms an hour after eating the meal. Guan was pronounced dead after both were rushed to intensive care.
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Daughter demands justice
Guan's husband, Sing, was in a coma for eight days before he died on Saturday morning, April 8, after his condition deteriorated. Ng Ai Lee, the couple's daughter, demanded accountability for her parents' death as she held a press conference outside their home on Sunday before their funeral.
"Those responsible for their deaths should be held accountable under the law and I hope the authorities will speed up investigations," she said, according to Daily Mail. "I also hope the Malaysian government will beef up enforcement and help to raise public awareness on pufferfish poisoning to prevent such incidents from happening again."
Selling pufferfish is illegal in Malaysia
Malaysian laws prohibit vendors from selling poisonous food such as pufferfish meat. The offense carries a heavy fine and up to two years of imprisonment. Lee also revealed how her father asked about his wife before he breathed his last. "My father woke up from an eight-day coma," she said. "The first person he asked for was my mother. We told him she is resting at home. We did not tell him the truth because we were worried that he could not take it but we had a feeling that he knew my mother had died. He cried."
She added that her father seemed to have recovered and was even transferred to a normal ward on Thursday. But after he asked about his wife's welfare, he died, reportedly from a pulmonary embolism.
Pufferfish, also known as 'fugu' in Japan, is still considered a delicacy and is consumed at high-end restaurants in Tokyo despite the severe risks. Fugu chefs reportedly undergo extensive training for up to three years before they are permitted to prepare the pufferfish for food. Some parts of the fish, which include organs, skin, blood and bones, contain a deadly poison called tetrodotoxin, which can cause horrific symptoms before death.