Baby dies after mother accidentally poisons children
A mother has accidentally poisoned her children, killing a baby and putting four children in hospital, after using a chemical she bought overseas to fumigate her apartment.
The Canadian mother told her sister she used the chemical - thought to be pellets of phosphine, which attacks the central nervous system - in an attempt to rid the home of bed bugs after her apartment manager did not respond to her pest control requests.
“She just wanted to kill bugs, and she just put some medicine over there in (the) apartment because she complained to the apartment caretaker and she didn't respond to anything,” sister Shazia Yarkhan told CTV Edmonton.
The chemical was brought back from Pakistan after a holiday and is used as an agricultural pesticide, an Alberta official said.
It was found by emergency services in an unmarked container and is believed to have been brought into the country illegally.
The five children were taken to hospital after they started vomiting soon after.
Four children aged between two and seven years are in a critical condition. The eight-month-old baby died in hospital.
News break – February 25
