A 2-year-old boy died after his nanny force-fed him porridge laced with an excessive amount of salt in northwestern Russia. The toddler fell sick and later died due to salt poisoning.
The incident took place in Kholmogor village in Russia’s Arkhangelsk Oblast region in June 2018. Deinesh was charged with murder and sentenced to 14 years in prison this week.
Pomorie reported that the nanny was employed by the child’s family, because his mother was working. For a month the nanny and her family abused and beat the child before Deinesh fed him the fatal dose of salt.
The toddler was taken to the regional hospital where he died.
Vadim Kuchin, Senior Prosecutor of the Criminal and Judicial Department of the Prosecutor’s Office of the Arkhangelsk Region said the deliberate, violent use of salt in poisoning the child was considered murder.
“Even an adult is not able to eat such an amount of salt willingly. The victim was forced to eat it and the accused fed him deliberately. We treated the case as murder and the court agreed with us,” Kuchin said.
The mother in her twenties searched online to check what quantity of salt could be fatal for a child in Truro Crown in the United Kingdom.
“The defendant’s search history showed that she carried out a search on her phone the day before about what the appropriate amount of salt for an 18-month child is, but said she did so because her lips were white and she had nephews whose lips went white when they had too much salt," Prosecuting barrister Peter Coombe told the jury, according to the Telegraph.
“However this was not something she mentioned on the night she went to hospital or the day before when she went to her GP,” he said.
The child, in this case, made a full recovery and doctors called it a miracle.
“Medical experts say that between 21 and 24 grams were administered and this had to be done by force-feeding in a drink or runny food,” said Dr. Malcolm Coulthard, a medical expert.
“There is no question of the child being able to consume such a quantity of salt and the only person in a position to do so that day was the defendant,” Coulthard told the media.
“Children never voluntarily eat or ingest such dangerous levels of salt because of the taste and extreme nausea it would cause,” he said.
Risks of Salt Poisoning
Salt is present everywhere and is essential for our body’s functioning. However, it can also be dangerous and in some cases fatal, according to the University of Utah.In medical terms, salt poisoning is called Hypernatremia. High level of sodium (that salt contains) in the blood can draw out water from the body’s cells and the condition can worsen to increased heart rate, muscle spasms, or seizures. It can even cause coma in extreme cases.
“There are dangerous salt ingestion practices demonstrated on the Internet that some people will follow, and they don’t understand the risk.”
The university said children can be innocent victims if they ingest substances with high salt content.
“We have had calls where children have eaten homemade play dough,” said Pace. “That has enough salt in it to cause problems if enough is eaten.”
Parents should seek immediate help if a child accidentally consumes a large amount of salt, according to the university.
“Do not search the internet for answers. Call the poison control center at 1-800-222-1222 immediately,” said Pace.
“We have toxicology experts available 24 hours a day to help you assess the situation and take appropriate actions.”
