Toddler Almost Dies on Cruise After Eating Poisonous Necklace
A Crab’s Eye necklace. (Photo: Etsy)
A toddler almost died on a Caribbean cruise after being poisoned by swallowing a seed in a souvenir necklace owned by her grandmother.
Samantha Gandy of Monroe, Louisiana was sailing with her 2-year-old daughter Audrey on the Carnival Dream. On Wednesday morning, the toddler was running a high fever and was drooling. According to the Associated Press, the ship’s doctor initially thought the girl had a virus, then later said that she might have ingested a bead made from a plant called Crab’s Eye, or abrin. The Crab’s Eye seed is more toxic than ricin.
When the ship arrived on Thursday in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Audrey was rushed to the hospital.
“Well we found out a seed she ate is so poisonous that one seed can kill an adult,” Gandy wrote on Facebook. “But luckily only a small hole was made in it so she should be ok but it was too close for comfort.”
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The Carnival Dream. (Photo: Wikimedia)
According to Gandy, her daughter was “seriously inches close to death.”
A vendor had given the Crab’s Eye necklace to Audrey’s grandmother when a previous cruise that she was on was docked in Montego Bay, Jamaica.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that ingesting even a small amount of Crab’s Eye can cause burning pain, bleeding in the stomach and intestines, multi-system organ failure, collapse of the blood vessels, shock, and death.
Crab’s Eye is also known as Jequirity, Rosary Pea, John Crow Bead, Precatory bean, Indian Licorice, Akar Saga, Giddee Giddee ,or Jumbie Bead.
This summer in Cornwall, England, thousands of bracelets made from the same material were recalled, after it was discovered that the seeds were highly toxic.
“We took a couple days off of work and it ended up being the scariest time of my life,” Gandy wrote on Facebook.
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