Nuts believed to have caused death of baby girl

AN 18-month-old baby girl has died from a cardiac arrest due to possible lung complications brought on by ingesting nuts.

Makarios hospital’s paediatric cardiologist, Dr Panayiotis Zarvos, told the Cyprus Mail yesterday that Constantina Avraam from Liopetri was admitted to Makarios hospital last Friday suffering from breathing difficulties.

Zarvos said the child had ingested nuts 20 days before her admittance, but that she was believed to have coughed them all up. However, several days later she started to develop respiratory problems. Fearing this was somehow related to the nut incident, her parents took her to Makarios hospital, where doctors confirmed nuts were lodged in her lungs. Zavros said this obstruction had then led to a subsequent lung infection.

Nevertheless, although the child’s cause of death was cardiac arrest, Zarvos was unable to say what had caused it. “She was not in serious condition (health wise) and we generally did not expect this. We have to wait for the hystopathology results,” he said. However, it was possible her death was linked to the nuts found obstructing her respiratory system, he added.

State pathologist Sophoclis Sophocleous, who carried out the child’s autopsy, also confirmed he found puss in Constantina’s lungs, which suggests an infection of some sort. Meanwhile he had taken samples for hystopathology analyses, which are expected back within a few days.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.