Dubai: Little D'Souza Siblings Die After Eating Restaurant Food
With input from The National - Daily
Dubai, Jun 14: Two young children have died from suspected food poisoning after eating a takeaway meal from a Dubai restaurant.
A five-year-old boy Nathan D'Souza, his eight-year-old sister Chelsea D'Souza, and their mother became ill after eating a home delivery from a restaurant serving Chinese food in Al Qusais.
Health officials and Dubai Municipality have launched investigations and the restaurant has been closed until the test results are returned.
The two siblings, their French mother and the house maid went to the New Medical Centre Speciality Hospital at 5.30am on Saturday, Jun 13, 2009 suffering from vomiting.
The family members were given an antibiotic used to treat certain bacterial infections.
The father, Patrick D'Souza, an Indian, was in Abu Dhabi when the incident took place.
They were also given fluids to help them rehydrate.
Dr Bavaguthu Raghuram Shetty, the managing director and chief executive of NMC, said "Two children and one adult were brought to the NMC Hospital in Dubai on Friday evening with suspected food poisoning. One of the children, a young boy, was pronounced dead on arrival. A young girl and a woman were than transferred to Dubai Hospital for further treatment.
"The young girl was pronounced dead on Jun 13 morning but the woman is feeling better. All three cases are being linked to suspected food poisoning but we cannot determine the exact cause of the deaths until Dubai health authorities complete their investigation."
“Doctors tried to resuscitate him but it was not successful. The doctors followed all procedures and did everything they could but unfortunately he was already dead.
“We successfully managed the mother and other child and then transferred them to the government hospital”
“It is a very sad situation,” Dr Shetty said. “It is being taken very seriously by the health and food control authorities. The health authority came to us and took the files so they can make the necessary enquiries. This is a very unfortunate thing.”
Dubai Municipality said yesterday that following the incident, the restaurant was ordered to close.
The food control department said the closure was a “precautionary measure” and it would remain shut until laboratory tests had been conducted on the food from the restaurant.
Sources close to the family said yesterday that the couple and relatives were shattered by their loss.
The family gathered at a relative’s home yesterday and mourned their children.
Their deaths follow that of Marwa Faisal, aged four, who died on May 31, 55 minutes after she was admitted to Al Qassimi Hospital in Sharjah suffering from violent vomiting.
Her parents and brother were also admitted to the hospital but later recovered.
Tests showed that Marwa died of food poisoning although initial tests did not show any bacteria, hospital officials said.
More than half of Sharjah’s restaurants failed basic food hygiene inspections over the past year, and almost 500 of them were temporarily closed.
Daily News Papers in UAE reported warnings from doctors last week to minimise eating out during the summer months, especially at smaller eateries where hygiene levels are often of lower standard.
Food poisoning often occurs when food is stored at incorrect temperatures as bacteria grows rapidly during the hot and humid months.