Posted on 06/11/2004 8:06:04 PM PDT by Max Combined
LIMA, Peru - A Peruvian school teacher blinded four of her pupils and left 20 suffering from severe eye irritation after she used a traditional hair shampoo to wash away hair lice, parents of the children and medical staff said Tuesday.
The state school teacher used a mixture of alcohol and seeds from the cherimoya fruit on the children, aged between 4 and 5 years old, Monday to rid a local bout of hair lice in the remote coastal town of Paijan, 355 miles north of Lima.
The mixture had run down into the children's eyes and "has affected four children who cannot see. It has damaged their retinas," an assistant nurse at a hospital in Paijan, who declined to be named, told Reuters.
The children were taken to a hospital in the provincial capital of Trujillo for treatment, the nurse said.
The four are totally blinded, but doctors have yet to determine whether this is permanent.
One parent, Natividad Mendoza, told RPP radio 20 other children had suffered serious eye irritation from the shampoo.
The anti-lice remedy is used along the impoverished coastal towns of northern Peru. Locals boil the cherimoya seeds, add them to alcohol and rub the mixture into children's hair.
Police said no action had been taken against the teacher.
Yeah and if you keep reading the Houston Barnicle you also will go blind,blind raving mad that is.
Russian conscripts would probably mix it with their tobacco and smoke it.
If the French used this would it explode?
California will actively recruit this teacher.
The anti-lice shampoo you buy in an American pharmacy says not to let the stuff get in your eyes. That seems to have been the problem, not the shampoo itself. What a terrible thing to happen.
It appears that our DEA was spraying some leftover PARAQUAT on the cerimoya plants in Peru thinking they were "mary jane" or poppies ??
Eating cherimoya
To eat, cut your cherimoya in half lengthways and either: scoop out succulent spoonfuls; eat like a watermelon, scraping the rind to get every bit of sweet flesh; peel and cut into cubes and add to fruit salads; puree and use as a mousse or pie filling.
They’re absolutely delicious when scoffed icy-cold from the freezer and eaten like ice-cream.
Cherimoya pieces can be dipped in lemon or orange juice to prevent darkening.
Don’t forget to spit out the big black seeds.
"The anti-lice shampoo you buy in an American pharmacy says not to let the stuff get in your eyes."
And you know this how?
Watch it there!
It's all fun and games until you put somebody's eye out!
The nursing assistant needs to go back to school. You can't damage the retina without penetrating the cornea, the various humors. It may have damaged the cornea but without a laser it is not easy to get to the retina.
You would think it would damage their cornea's first. Weird. From what I can gather on a google search it's been used as a herbal medicine for a long time in South America. I couldn't find anything on retinal damage.
My mother-in-law tells stories of kids being deloused and dying in Germany during WWII. Some stuff you just can't mess around with.
"You would think it would damage their cornea's first."
Yes, that is probably what they meant. It is hard to imagine how a topical toxicant could have damaged their retinas. It does not seem to be a systemic toxin.
Ping
When is a Nit Not a Nit?
When it is a nit wit?
"Police said no action had been taken against the teacher."
I think all shampoos in America say this. Ever flip a wad of it your eye during a fast shower? It is no fun, burns like the dickens. Guess it's the PH.
My niece has "gifted" my household with lice 3 times now. (Mom is a lazy lib that once thought picking out the nits would hurt her daughter's self-esteem. She's ex-sister-in-law, thank God.)
When I get the "lice alert" phone call I have no problem with soaping down my family with anti-lice shampoo and spending the next 48 hrs doing laundry.
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