Man dies after sip from popular holiday drink left him with severe brain damage
A man who took a sip of coconut water and then threw it away as it was “rotten” later died from a fungus. The unnamed 69-year-old from Aarhus, in Denmark, only swallowed a “small amount” of the juice using a straw because the “water had a foul taste”, according to medics.
He then opened up the coconut and found it looked “slimy” inside while he told his wife it “looked rotten” before throwing it in the bin. He is understood to have bought the coconut a month beforehand and kept it on his kitchen table rather than in a fridge and it went off.
Then, around three hours after he had drunk the coconut water, he started to have a fever with sweats and was vomiting. Paramedics came to his house and found him disorientated and pale while unable to balance.
He was taken to hospital and an MRI scan showed that he had a severe brain swelling but doctors did not know what was causing it.
He was treated in intensive care for metabolic encephalopathy – a chemical imbalance in the brain but tragically he was declared brain dead after 26 hours in the hospital.
An autopsy showed that he had fungus in his windpipe and analysis of the coconut found the presence of the fungus arthrinium saccharicola.
This fungus produces the toxic compound 3-nitropropionic acid which caused severe brain damage.
There have been cases of the toxin poisoning people in China and Africa for decades were rotten sugarcane was found to be responsible.
The case involving the Danish man was written about by Thomas Birkelund and published in ResearchGate.
He stated: “The symptoms of 3-NPA toxicity in humans are similar to those for bongkrekic acid, as described regarding sugar cane poisoning in humans in China and Africa, including initial gastrointestinal symptoms with vomiting and diarrhoea and progressing encephalopathy leading to coma and death (8,11,12). These symptoms are similar to those of the patient.
“The collaboration between several national and international authorities contributed to resolve this challenging case, providing an understanding of the rapid disease progression and sudden death of the patient.”
The case has led to a warning about keeping coconut water in a fridge and whole coconuts need to be consumed within a few days.
Dr Samuel Choudhury, based in Singapore, told his 326,000 followers on Instagram: “Always store these coconuts in the fridge because they are already partially peeled. Only whole coconuts can be stored at room temperature.”
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