A mother has died after eating poisoned rice, which also killed her two children and brother during a New Year’s lunch in Brazil.
Francisca da Silva, 32, was pronounced dead in the early hours of Tuesday at the Dircea Arcoverde state hospital in Parnaíba, a city in the northeastern state of Piauí.
Her death comes a day after her three-year-old daughter, Maria Lauane da Silva, died. Her one-year-old son, Igno da Silva, died last Thursday.
Francisca da Silva’s 18-year-old brother, Manoel da Silva, died in an ambulance while being rushed to a local hospital.
Her four-year-old daughter, Maria Gabrielle da Silva, is under observation and is in critical condition at the Teresina Emergency Hospital in Teresina.
‘At this time of immense pain, we extend our sincere condolences to the patient’s family and reaffirm that HEDA’s multidisciplinary team has worked with total dedication and followed all necessary protocols and measures to ensure the best care during her stay in the department,” the spokesperson said. the hospital said in a statement after Francisca’s death.
Four other family members have been released from hospital, where they were treated after eating the rice, which authorities confirmed was contaminated with terbufos, a toxic substance found in pesticides and agricultural chemicals.
Its sale for residential use is prohibited by Brazilian law.
The tragedy comes months after Da Silva’s two eldest children died after eating poisoned cashew nuts.
Francisca da Silva died in the early hours of Tuesday. The 32-year-old ate poisoned rice during a New Year’s lunch, which also killed her two children, aged 1 and 3, and 18-year-old brother. Her four-year-old daughter is fighting for her life in a hospital
Three-year-old Maria Lauane da Silva died in the early hours of Monday in a hospital in Teresina, Brazil. The child is the fourth person from the same family to die from eating poisoned rice during a New Year’s lunch. Her mother, one-year-old brother and 18-year-old uncle also died
Igno da Silva, 1, died on January 2, a day after he and eight other family members consumed poisoned rice for a New Year’s lunch at his home in Parnaíba, a city in the northeastern Brazilian state of Piauí. His mother, three-year-old sister and 18-year-old uncle also died. His four-year-old sister is still in the hospital
A neighbor, who was arrested, gave a package of nuts to João da Silva, 7, and Ulisses da Silva, 8, on August 23, 2004.
João died five days later and Ulisses spent almost three months in hospital, dying on November 11.
Piauí’s civil police said the two incidents are not related and are investigating how the rice was poisoned.
“It is impossible that it got there without anyone’s intention,” said Abimael Silva, head of the civil police, as quoted by Brazilian news channel G1.
Dr. Antônio Nunes, who oversees the Piauí Institute of Legal Medicine, told the newspaper that there were “visible grains” of terbufos in the collected rice.
Manoel da Silva, 18, died on the afternoon of New Year’s Day, shortly after eating leftover rice contaminated with terbufos, a substance found in pesticides and agricultural chemicals.
Authorities in the northeastern Brazilian state of Piauí analyzed leftover rice the family had as part of their New Year’s Day lunch and found it contained traces of terbufos, a substance found in pesticides and agricultural chemicals
Authorities said the family gathered to celebrate New Year’s Eve on December 31 and ate a meal of rice, beans and meat and showed no side effects before some relatives and a neighbor returned to their homes at dawn.
They gathered at the same home on January 1 and heated the rice and served it with fish donated by a couple who do charity work in the area.
The group became ill shortly after noon before paramedics were called.
Authorities initially believed the family had been poisoned by the fish before toxicology reports showed the victims had traces of the pesticide similar to chumbinho, a rat poison.
Police have not identified any suspects, but have ruled out the involvement of family members.
Francisca da Silva with her one-year-old son Igno and three-year-old daughter Maria Lauane
In the kitchen of the Parnaíba residence, Brazil, where a meal containing contaminated rice was prepared for a New Year’s lunch that led to the deaths of four people
A police officer receives a bag containing the leftovers from the meal that killed four family members and hospitalized five in Parnaíba, Brazil
The family tragedy on New Year’s Day comes as Brazilian authorities were also involved in investigating a poisoned Christmas cake and the death of three family members in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul on December 23.
On Sunday, civil police announced the arrest of Deise dos Anjos, Zeli dos Santos’ daughter-in-law, who helped bake the cake that killed her two sisters Neuza dos Anjos, 65, and Maida da Silva, 53. niece and Neuza’s daughter, Tatiana dos Anjos, 47.
At a news conference Monday, authorities revealed that Deise was motivated by a “family conflict of more than two decades” she had with Zeli, but provided no further details.
They also said the flour used to make the cake contained arsenic, a toxic substance found in pesticides.
Authorities are also investigating whether Deise was involved in the September death of her father-in-law and Zeli’s husband, Paulo Luiz.
Although his death is believed to be of natural causes, authorities have requested that his body be exhumed to determine whether he too had been poisoned.