Husband and wife left paralysed after eating home-canned beans
A husband and wife have been left paralysed and fighting for their lives in intensive care for five months after eating home-canned green beans.
The couple, from Germany, ate the preserved vegetables despite their son refusing to do so because of their off-putting smell, according to the Journal of Medical Case Reports where the incident was reported.
The woman, 47, and her husband, 51, had contracted botulism – a potentially fatal and rare form of food poisoning which when caught often leaves the body in a vegetative state.
The woman's symptoms quickly deteriorated after suffering from dizziness and double vision, forcing doctors at Universitätsklinikum Halle in Leipzig to place her on life support after her whole body became paralysed and her lungs failed.
Her husband was admitted to hospital the following day with similar symptoms, but they were less severe as he has eaten less of the green beans than his wife.
However his condition worsened and muscle weakness in all four limbs before being placed on mechanical ventilation.
He would remain on the life support for nearly five months, while his wife endured five-and-a-half months on a support machine.
Blood tests for the woman revealed the presence of botulinum toxin A.
They were able to return home after eight months and 11 months respectively.
The couple's symptoms completely disappeared following their ordeal however the woman was left with a depressive adaptive disorder.
Dad's beach warning after son gets fishing hook embedded in foot
Woman performs tracheotomy with a Stanley knife to save boyfriend
Grandfather describes how he fought off shark by punching it in head
In November 2017, three adults in New Zealand contracted botulism after eating wild boar.
Shibu Kochummen, 35 and his wife Subi Babu, 32, along with Mr Kochummen's 62-year-old mother Alekutty Daniel were all left unconscious after consuming the animal's meat at their Waikato home on November 10.
Yet three weeks later the family woke in hospital and made a full recovery.
