A man who cooked and ate one of the most poisonous fish in the world has died after staying in hospital for five weeks.
Magno Sergio Gomes, 46, from Brazil, died after eating a toxic puffer fish, which contains enough poison to kill 30 people.
The man had received the fish as a gift from a friend for Christmas, the New York Post reported, citing the Newsflash service.
"Magno
had never cleaned puffer fish
before," said Myrian Gomes Lopes, the deceased's sister.
A Japanese chef cuts up a puffer fish, known as "fugu" in Japan, to remove the toxic internal organs, in Tokyo in June 2015.Getty Images
The event occurred in the municipality of Aracruz, in the state of Espirito Santo, in Brazil.
There are 20 species of puffer fish living in Brazil, and a dozen of them in the Holy Spirit, the New York Post reported.
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After cooking the fish, Magno shared it with his friend.
An hour after eating it, they both had to go to the hospital.
"Magno began to feel that
his mouth was falling asleep
," said the sister, quoted by the weekly.
For tetrodotoxin, the poison in the species of puffer fish that Magno prepared, which is considered 1,000 times more potent than cyanide, there is no antidote.
The poison originates in the fish's liver and gonads, according to the United States Centers for Disease Control (CDC).
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If ingested in large quantities, it interrupts communication between nerves and muscles and causes paralysis.
Magno died on January 27, after spending
35 days in intensive care
.
His friend survived, but suffered neurological damage, the New York Post reported.
"Doctors told our family that he had died from poisoning, which had quickly gone to his head. Three days after being admitted,
he had several seizures, which greatly affected his brain
and left him with little chance of recovery," he said. a relative quoted by the New York Post.
Pufferfish is considered a delicacy in Japan, where only licensed cooks can prepare it, the New York Post article concluded.