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Updated: Jul 10, 2026

Necropsy-based Wild Fish Health Assessment
Published on: September 11, 2018
Raw salmon or red herring: ascending paralysis with suspected seafood poisoning
Naren Gunja1, Robert P Dowsett, Karl Ng
1Emergency Department, Westmead Hospital, Sydney, NSW, Australia. Naren_Gunja@wsahs.nsw.gov.au
Abstract:
A 16-year-old boy presented with rapidly progressive ascending paralysis 1 hour after eating raw salmon. Seafood poisoning was initially considered. Although salmon is not a common cause of toxic seafood poisoning, cases have been reported in the Pacific region. The patient rapidly developed acute left heart and respiratory failure, and investigations revealed a rare tracking intramedullary haematoma of the spinal cord. Structural abnormalities of the central nervous system may present with acute paralysis and spinal shock, mimicking toxicological syndromes.
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