When Ng Chuan Sing, an 84-year-old man from Johor Bahru, fell ill after consuming pufferfish, his daughter, Ng Ai Lee, thought he was on the road to recovery when he was transferred from the intensive care unit (ICU) to a normal ward.
However, Ng passed away on Saturday(8 April) due to a pulmonary embolism, a blockage in the lung’s blood vessels caused by a blood clot, The Star reports.
Ng’s passing was all the more tragic given that his wife, Lim Siew Guan, had died less than two weeks prior after consuming the same poisonous fish.
Bought pufferfish from an online seller
The elderly couple had received the pufferfish from an online seller and had cooked and eaten it for lunch without realizing the danger it posed.
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The incident has left their daughter, Ng, calling for justice to be served against those responsible for her parents’ deaths.
Asked about his wife when he woke up
According to Ms Ng, when her father woke up from a coma approximately eight days after eating the pufferfish, he asked about his wife.
Ms Ng shared that she didn’t want to upset him further, so she told him that she was at home.
However, he began to tear up.”
The night before he passed away, he once again asked for his wife. This led Ms Ng to believe that he likely knew the tragic news of her passing.
Daughter calls for justice
While the fishmonger who sold the pufferfish to her parents has yet to apologize, Ng also told the English daily that he hopes that the government will strengthen enforcement of the Malaysian Fisheries Development Authority Act 1972 and the Food Act 1983 to prevent further tragedies.
According to Johor Health and Unity Committee chairman Ling Tian Soon, the pufferfish that Ng’s parents had consumed was traced back to a fisherman in Mersing who sold it to a distributor in Batu Pahat to be processed.
The authorities are investigating how the online seller was able to acquire and sell the poisonous fish to unsuspecting customers.
Ng is not alone in her calls for justice. The incident has sparked public outrage, with many Malaysians expressing their condolences to the family and calling for stricter enforcement of regulations to prevent similar incidents from happening in the future.
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