Dr. Liam Pomerleau from Otago University National Poisons Centre explains botulism. The family was heavily tested for botulism. Footage from Three / Newshub
The first round of tests to discover what caused a family to become comatose after eating a wild boar curry have come back negative for botulism.
Discharge notes of Shibu Kochummen have been posted on YouTube by TV Wild show.
They state the initial testing from a Queensland laboratoryhas returned negative for botulism.
Family friend Joji Varghese told TV Wild the family were now awaiting the results of further tests to find out what left Kochummen, his wife Subi Babu and mother Alekutty Daniel fighting for their lives in Waikato Hospital.
He also revealed for the first time the alarming toll it took on his friends, saying they had to be tied to their hospital beds to control their bodies that thrashed wildly for days on end while they were unconscious from a mystery poisoning.
They were also left unable to close their bulging, bloodshot eyes despite being in a vegetative unresponsive state.
Varghese said it was shocking to see his friends tied down but it was for their own safety, especially 62-year-old Daniel who was prone violent spasms.
"Her legs would actually flip 180 degrees on the bed - just go backwards - and there was a huge possibility of her hurting herself against the side of the bed."
He said the violent thrashing lasted a week before they entered an almost child-like state smiling and laughing at nothing. Eventually they started to recognise people and communicate normally.
Varghese said many friends of the stricken family now held growing doubts botulism was the cause of sudden illness.
An antitoxin was given within 12 hours of them being admitted to hospital.
Varghese said the trio - all suffering from a fast-acting paralysis progressively taking over their bodies from the head down - stopped suffering from the debilitating symptom almost immediately. It was unusual for a person with botulism to respond so quickly to an antitoxin.
"If it is a typical case of botulism we were told the antitoxin would take longer to work but in this case the progressive paralysis stopped within about half an hour or so of the antitoxin being administered, which was the big question mark."
From then on no more antitoxin was administered.
But then the family deteriorated and began suffering from involuntarily spasms which also cast doubt on the suspected botulism diagnosis.
More investigations were underway with scientists recreating exact conditions and testing for multiple strains. But Varghese has been told it may be a medical mystery.
"One of the statements the doctor said is we might never know what caused this. We might just have to live with that. "
"That is not good enough especially when we know there are poisons being dropped that are controversial. If they a cannot confirm botulism then they should at least be able to say what it is," he told TV Wild.
"Let them go through all the battery of tests and let them all come back negative and then we will accept the statement that we might have to live with not knowing but not before those tests are done."
The hospital discharge notes of Shubi Kochummen who was struck down by suspected botulism in November. Photo / YouTube
He revealed the family had also been tested for mercury, arsenic and lead poisoning but not 1080 as doctors believed they would have needed to consume a cereal bowl full for it to have such a violent effect.
Waikato Hospital staff had also been in touch with the Centre for Disease Control in the US.
Varghese said the game meat was still the focus of the illness.
