FOOD POISONING

Greymouth Evening Star, 23 September 1944, Page 4

FOOD POISONING

ANOTHER VICTIM DIES.

CHRISTCHURCH, September 22. Mrs. Nelly Joyce Gee, 24 Sheldon Street, one of the eight persons admitted to the Christchurch Hospital on Wednesday suffering from arsenical poisoning, and who has since been on the seriously ill list, died about 8 o’clock this evening. She is the second to die—Mrs. Gladys Pearl Hopping, a widow, 57 Clarendon Terrace, died soon after her admission to hospital on Wednesday. Three of the others are no longer on the seriouslyill list; but the condition of the other three is still regarded as serious. All were taken to hospital for treatment after eating food in wnich arsenic had been used by mistake instead of ground rice by Mrs. Terence O’Connor, 85 Radley Street, Woolston. Those who have been removed from the seriously ill list are:—Mrs. F. Robb, 7 Chichester Street; Miss Joyce White, aged 21, 27 Clarendon Terrace; and Mr. O’Connor, 85 Radley Street. The condition of the other patients is as follows:— Mrs. Violet May Virtue, 76 Hadley Street: progressing satisfactorily, but condition still serious. Judith Virtue, aged four: slightly better but condition still serious. Audrey Gee, aged 10: condition slightly better, but still serious. The analysis of other food prepared by Mrs. O’Connor has not yet been completed. A preliminary analysis of the biscuits believed to have caused the poisoning shows that each may have contained from eight to 10 grains of arsenic. It is considered by toxicologists that two grains of arsenic constitute a fatal dose.