Drinking paraquat to commit suicide has no cure; I once witnessed the helplessness of watching someone wait to die

Text / Liao Zhenren (a farmer's son from Yunlin)

Seeing everyone arguing lately about the pesticide paraquat, and mentioning that drinking paraquat to commit suicide has no cure, I want to share my own personal experience.

I am a son of Yunlin, and my family also farms. My mother drank the pesticide parathion to commit suicide. Fortunately, we found out early and rushed her to have her stomach pumped, then she was sent to Changhua Christian Hospital for detoxification, and at that time her life was saved.

While looking after my mother in the intensive care unit, I saw a patient being wheeled in next door. His eyes were bright and he looked full of energy. I thought he did not look like there was any problem, so why would he need to enter the intensive care unit? Later, after talking with his family, I learned that he had drunk the pesticide paraquat to commit suicide. On the surface he looked fine, but inside he was badly damaged.

According to his children, at first their father could still talk and expressed great regret, but he also did not know that once paraquat is drunk there is no cure. So over the course of that week he kept deteriorating. At first he was full of energy, and before long, when you looked again, his gaze began to become unfocused. It was basically everyone watching him wait to die. After a week, he passed away (died).

(Note: If paraquat is accidentally swallowed and causes poisoning, besides esophageal burns and liver and kidney damage, the most serious thing is that paraquat produces toxic reactive oxygen free radicals in the lungs, leading to severe pulmonary fibrosis. The process is completely irreversible, and in the end the person dies of respiratory failure and suffocation, usually within one to two weeks after poisoning.)

My mother also drank pesticide to commit suicide. In the countryside, getting pesticides is really very easy. I also do not know what to do.

In the countryside, pesticides are all kept in warehouses and can be taken casually. In fact, my mother had a tendency toward world-weariness because of cancer, so we all told the nearby pesticide shops not to sell pesticides to my mother. But my mother ran to my uncle's warehouse to get pesticide. My mother was illiterate, so she happened to get parathion, and she could still be saved.

But although parathion has an antidote, after she drank the pesticide, her organs were eroded and could not absorb nutrients. Although she ultimately died of cancer, the cause of her worsening condition was that her intestines were eroded and damaged by the pesticide and could not absorb nutrients, and in the end she died of failure. Before she died, she weighed only 19 kilograms, and she died about half a year after drinking the pesticide.

Since childhood I went to the farmland to help and spray pesticides, and I even have a vector mosquito control license. But in the countryside, generally people lack basic knowledge. Everyone seeks speed, and it is impossible to find someone to spray for them. They think they will just spray the nearby weeds or whatever. Many people say you should wear a mask when spraying pesticides, but many people just use a cover in front of the nozzle so the pesticide does not spray out.

Actually, I do not know what to do. In the countryside, getting pesticides is really very easy. They are left casually in warehouses with no controls. If you tell them to lock it up, they will say it is too troublesome and no need to lock it. Everyone can get it.

Suicide cannot solve problems, but it leaves family members with immense grief. Please cherish life.
Give yourself another chance
Suicide prevention consultation reassurance hotline: 0800-788995 (24 hours)
Lifeline counseling hotline: 1995
Zhang Teacher hotline: 1980

Ban on highly toxic pesticide paraquat remains unchanged; Council of Agriculture: the contract-spraying system cannot be promoted; farmers: crops sell better without spraying