Day Nine: Potato Poisoning

Early this morning, when I was starting at a copy of the Inpatient Department (IPD) census looking for new patients, I noticed one with a rather odd diagnosis: “potato poisoning.” I read through the chart, fascinated. This kid had apparently rolled in the ER over the weekend with nausea, vomiting, and worsening ability to breathe. He was doing so badly that he was intubated and kept in the ICU for a day. Somewhere along the line, a resident discovered that the kid had eaten some sort of “potato” before getting sick. Now out of critical condition and resting in the IPD, I had hoped to meet the patient face to face to figure out what had happened. When I came to his bed, however, he was nowhere to be seen. I then learned that he had just been discharged and that I had missed him by minutes.

*Sigh* I always miss the interesting cases!

Luckily enough, the attending who was there over the weekend filled me in on the details. Apparently it wasn’t just any ordinary potato that the kid ate. It was something called cassava root. Cassava, which is a starchy plant much like a potato, is a common food choice in Cambodia. In fact, it’s the plant that tapioca starch is made from (a.k.a the ingredient in those funny looking pearls that you get with bubble tea). Apparently, there is a high concentration of cyanide-like compounds in the leaves and the root of the plant that typically becomes inactivated when cooked properly. If eaten raw, what results is a paralytic syndrome that almost always results in respiratory distress if left untreated. The attending believes that the patient ate cassava that was only partially cooked, leading him to become intoxicated.

The Cassava case was a bit of a rarity. But that aside, it seems like intoxications in general are extremely common here at AHC. Just looking around town, it’s easy to see why. Cleaners, pesticides—even gasoline—are bought in bulk and are packaged in water or soda bottles. Here’s a picture of a typical “gas station” for motorbikes:



Looks like some big bottles of refreshing lemonade, huh?

In other news, M, the ID Fellow from the UK , is officially back in town today. I met him for the first time during afternoon rounds, and boy, am I happy he’s here! He seems very willing to take me under his wing, in exchange for some basic data entry for his Fever Study. Unfortunately, it seems he will take off for Thailand after just one week of being here, so we’ll see how much I can learn from him before he leaves.