A 2-year-old British girl was rushed to a hospital when she began vomiting a “bright pink” fluid after swallowing toilet cleaner — but was declared well enough to be discharged a week before she died, according to an inquest.
Arietta-Grace Barnett cried, “Ow, Mummy, help me!” after ingesting the toxic substance while playing with her 4-year-old sister at their home in the village of Sarisbury on June 28, 2019, the Sun reported.
The toddler’s mom rushed her to Southampton General Hospital, which discharged her on July 2 with potential gastroenteritis — but she was readmitted July 9 when she vomited blood and had a nosebleed, according to the outlet.
She died later that day after suffering cardiac arrest.
Arietta-Grace is believed to have swallowed a Toilet Duck capsule upstairs while her mom was downstairs, according to coroner Rosamund Rhodes-Kemp, the BBC reported.
She said it was unclear why the substance the girl threw up was pink when the capsule she was suspected to have swallowed was a blue-green color.
The coroner said the mother, Lucy Cook, had pink hair at the time of the incident but had told doctors she had no hair dye on the premises.
“We couldn’t make sense of why the vomit was bright pink,” Dr. Nicola Trevelyan, a pediatrician at the hospital, said at the inquest, adding that “products that look like sweets will attract children to play with them.”
The doctor said that although Arietta-Grace continued to have difficulty consuming fluids and food at the hospital, she later stopped vomiting and appeared to improve.