Tonight, a couple from Orange Walk continues to mourn the death of their 1 and a half year-old baby girl who choked on a pill after she ingested it.
The unfortunate incident happened on Sunday night just before 9:00. Edmundo Cabanas was at his house on Palmar Road with his wife and daughter, Melitsa Cabanas. He told police that he placed half of a pill, known as neo melubrina - which is fever medication - on the kitchen table. A short while after, the child grabbed the pill, put it in her mouth, and swallowed it. Shortly after, the baby started to tremble, and that's when her parents rushed her to the Northern Regional Hospital. She didn't make it to the hospital in time, and she was pronounced dead on arrival.
The family is no doubt going through a very rough time, but this incident once again underscores the importance of safety with medication. Today, we spoke with the Vice President of the Pharmacists Association, and she explained the nature of the pill the child swallowed, as well as a few tips about handling medication:
Marisol Melhado - Vice President, Pharmacists Association of Belize
"It's very sad to know that this has happened in my home town in the Village of San Jose Palmar. Neo-melubrina is one of the medications that has been banned in the US from the 1970s and for causing agranulocytosis which is just a condition whereby the bone marrow can't produce that much white blood cells and the white blood cells is to fight infections and so forth. But this medication is widely used in Latin America and Europe as well. So we being in the midst of Latin America, we do see the influx of this medication. So it's not something that is not used, but it's something that pharmacists would now the side effects and so forth that we could counsel the patients when taking the medication or when prescribe right. One of the rarer side effects of it is anaphylactic shock. Now I don't know and I am not the authority to say that this has been the case. But it's sad to know that something like this happened to a child and I am so sorry for the family, but safety tips that people can follow as simple; medications, any medications, aspirin, vitamins - do not leave it on the kitchen table. Don't put it on the counter tops, put it somewhere locked. It doesn't mean that you put it up, because they will climb and catch it. Don't tell them that its taste like candy because the children will always love candy so they will go for it. If the medication is in a tablet form and the child has to take it, ask the pharmacist or the doctor, can you crush it or can you prepare it in a liquid form - just for the child taking it appropriately that it can't be lodge in the throat or anything and cause other problems like aspiration or anything that."
Melhado also stressed that adults should take time to ask questions to their doctors and pharmacists about the side-effects of the medications they're expected to take.
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