An Australian exchange student was diagnosed with superwarfarin poisoning, the Taipei Medical University Hospital (TMUH) said yesterday.
The student was in a stable condition and was being treated in a regular ward, it said.
ABC News Australia on Friday reported that Alex Shorey, a 24-year-old exchange student at Tamkang University in Taipei, was fighting for his life after ingesting rat poison.
Photo: Taipei Times file photo
The report cited his aunt Elizabeth Shorey-Kitson as saying that it remained unclear how he ingested the poison, but his family suspected that it was from contaminated street food.
Shorey had been in the hospital since Tuesday last week, it said.
The public broadcaster’s overseas service quoted his brother as saying that when Shorey went to a doctor in Taiwan, “they just essentially thought it was an infection or he had received damage to his arteries. But over the next few days, Alex got worse. He was nauseous and blood started appearing in his urine. My dad thought that’s not normal, and it seemed quite worrying.”
The hospital yesterday issued a statement saying that the student sought treatment for nausea, vomiting, nose bleeding and bloody urine, adding that he also has a coagulation disorder.
A doctor at the hospital initially prescribed vitamin K1 therapy, and tests later confirmed that he had been poisoned with superwarfarin, a vitamin K antagonist used in rat poison, it said.
Shorey developed symptoms indicating an allergic reaction to the treatment and he was transferred to an intensive care unit, the hospital said.
He was on Friday moved back to a general ward after his treatment plan was adjusted, it added.
The hospital said that its doctors had asked the student what he had eaten before the symptoms appeared, and there is no reason to believe that he ingested the poison through street food.
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