Toxic Plant Consumption Kills Two Children in Tangier, Morocco

Accustomed to picking palm hearts on construction sites in their neighborhood in Hay El Marss, four children consumed the Carlina gummifera (gum thistle), a poisonous plant, by ignorance, reports 2m.ma. Two children, a brother and sister, died on Monday, September 28. The other two, luckier, were saved just in time by the medical staff of the Mohammed V Regional Hospital in Tangier where they were all admitted.

According to Mehdi Hassani, general director of this hospital center, the two deceased children could not be saved despite the efforts of the medical staff. One of the victims died on Monday, the day of his admission, before his sister died 24 hours later. For the father of the two deceased children, they had no idea what they were consuming.

One of the two surviving children testified by saying that he had felt nothing after consuming the plant. He began to feel severe abdominal pain followed by vomiting late at night. For now, the health condition of these two other children is stable.