A toddler in India has died after she drank breast milk that had been poisoned by a snake’s venom.
A 3-year-old girl in the Uttar Pradesh state of India died on Thursday after her mother breastfed her after having unknowingly been bitten by a poisonous snake, according to police inspector Vijay Sing, the Daily Mail reports. The 35-year-old mother also died as a result of the snake bite.
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According to police, the woman had unknowingly been bitten by the snake while she was asleep and had already breastfed her daughter. Soon after, they both fell ill and the family spotted the snake in another room. Both the mother and child died before they could reach the hospital.
The deaths have been ruled as accidental and a post-mortem is set to be carried out.
India is home to around 300 species of snakes, 60 of which are considered to be highly venomous, including the Indian cobra, krait, Russell’s viper, and saw-scaled viper. Of the 100,000 snakebite deaths registered every year, India accounts for roughly 46,000 of them.
This is not the first time that a child has been poisoned, or nearly poisoned, by drinking breast milk.
In May, 19-year-old Sarai Rodriguez-Miranda of Indiana admitted to poisoning breast milk meant for her 11-week-old niece. Rodriguez-Miranda claimed that she had poisoned her niece’s bottle with a “lethal dose of acetaminophen,” which she took for anxiety and depression, in January 2017. She stated that she had attempted to poison her niece because she was upset that her mother had allowed her brother, his fiancée, and their daughter to live in the house with them.
Rodriguez-Miranda had reportedly exchanged text messages with her boyfriend discussing poisoning the infant. Her mother discovered the text messages and had the breast milk tested, a toxicology report finding that one of the tainted bottles had the equivalent of nine Excedrin tablets, which would be enough to kill an adult.
Rodriguez-Miranda was arrested in Michigan by U.S. Marshal after fleeing the state and transported back to Indiana. She was charged in September.
In May, the 19-year-old pleaded guilty to attempted murder, with the possibility of up to 25 years in prison. Later that month, she was given the 25-year sentence.
