Teenager Dies in India After Eating Toxic Fruit

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/08/world/asia/teenager-dies-in-india-after-eating-toxic-fruit.html

Version 0 of 1.

NEW DELHI — One teenage athlete was dead and three other young women were in critical condition in the southern Indian state of Kerala on Thursday after they consumed highly toxic fruit from what is widely known as a suicide tree.

It was unclear what motivated the four, all young women, but an official in the Alappuzha district, a police official and a relative of the dead teenager said the youths had been fighting with older residents at the government-run athletic center in the district where they lived. They fell ill while having dinner on Wednesday and were rushed to the hospital by other athletes and the warden of their dormitory, said the district official, Balamurali, who goes by one name.

Aparna Ramabhadran, 17, died at the Alappuzha Medical College early Thursday of heart failure, and the three others, also 17, were in critical condition, according to Mr. Balamurali. All were rowers.

“The biggest problem is that there is no real antidote to this poison,” Injeti Srinivas, the director general of the Sports Authority of India, the national body that runs the Special Area Games Center in Alappuzha where the teenagers trained, said at a news conference on Thursday. The fruit came from the Cerbera odollam, a tree that grows in the backwaters of Alappuzha.

“Our priority is to save the lives of the remaining three girls,” he said. “This is most critical.” he said. He called the episode “the most shocking and tragic” in the authority’s history.

Dr. Santosh Raghavan, the hospital’s medical superintendent, said that of the three teenagers who had survived, one had been given a pacemaker because of the poison’s effect on the heart, and that it would be possible to declare them out of danger only after 48 hours.

Thousands of young athletes join training centers operated throughout the country by the Sports Authority of India, many hoping for a path out of poverty. Athletes who compete and perform well for the country often receive government postings under a national quota, along with prize money for victories in national competitions.

Lincy Viju, a first cousin of Ms. Ramabhadran, said her cousin, from a farming village in the district, had always been a talented athlete. She said that Ms. Ramabhadran’s family was poor and was supported by her mother, a community health worker, and that Ms. Ramabhadran had decided three years ago to enroll in the center, which Ms. Viju said took care of schooling its trainees.

“The only reason she joined the center is because they were poor, and there was no other way for her to get a job,” Ms. Viju said.

Suresh Kumar, the police chief of Alappuzha, said he had been told that the teenagers had consumed beer over the weekend and had been “scolded” by their warden and older athletes at the center. A note the young women wrote referred to their having committed “some minor fault” but said that “undue importance was given to their fault by the seniors,” Mr. Kumar said. Ms. Viju said that some of the older athletes at the center had been “mentally harassing” Ms. Ramabhadran.

At the news conference, Mr. Srinivas was grave and emphasized the center’s responsibility to protect the trainees in its charge.

“We have 10,000 children like this,” he said. “They are our wards. And when an incident like this happens in our own premises, it is a matter of serious concern for us.”

The head of the athletic center, M. Ragini, and a district official said that at least two of the teenagers had been awarded medals, including a gold medal for kayaking at the National Games this year.