In the morning of Feb. 23, a baby girl who had fallen into a coma was rushed to the emergency room of the Affiliated Children’s Hospital of Soochow University. She was brought in by her grandmother and responsible parent, a middle-aged woman surnamed Huang.
Doctors were surprised to discover that the cause of the coma was heroin consumption and reported the case to the police, according to the Yangtse Evening Post.
Police at the Hudong Police Station of Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, investigated the matter and found that Ms. Huang had fed her granddaughter poppy seed oil in an attempt to relieve her illness.
Bo Zhenjiang, the doctor on duty, recalled that the infant was unconscious and in a deep coma. Staff sent the baby to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
Two days before being sent to the hospital, the baby girl caught a cold and coughed heavily. Not wanting to brave the infamous Chinese hospital queues or spend money on expensive medicine, Ms. Huang applied a “special formula” that was well-known locally. The “medicine” is made by stewing the oil out of poppy seeds.
Following the incident, Ms. Huang reportedly cried tears of regret; luckily, her granddaughter made a full recovery with the ICU and could go home by Feb. 28.
