A six-year-old Hong Kong girl experienced hallucinations after her parents applied two motion-sickness patches that contained chemicals unsuitable for young children to the back of her ears.
To avoid motion sickness during a school picnic, the girl was given two patches containing scopolamine by her parents last March, Metro Daily reported Tuesday, citing the Hong Kong Poison Information Centre. The girl felt unwell and was in a hallucinatory state for eight hours. She told her parent that she could see lots of butterflies.
She was sent to hospital and returned home in a normal state after the patches had been removed.
Scopolamine, a common ingredient in motion sickness patches for adults, can penetrate the skin of children under 12 and affect their central nervous system, said Dr. Chan Chi-keung, an associate consultant at the poison centre.
The centre handled 4,126 poisoning cases last year, 96 more than in 2015. Thirty-six of the victims died, Sing Tao Daily reported. Half of the 134 critical cases were caused by intake of drugs.