A three-year-old girl died in agony after mistaking a bottle of caustic soda for fruit juice and gulping it down, say police in Brazil.
Elisa da Silva Marques was rushed to hospital in Sao Manuel, Sao Paulo, Brazil, on March 16, after swallowing the toxic liquid at her family home. She spent ten days at Hospital das Clinicas in Botucatu before being pronounced dead on March 26, local media reports.
Her aunt Francieli Marques, said in a caption alongside a picture of her beloved niece on Facebook: "Auntie wants to remember you always like this Elisa, smiling, my princess with golden hair. Auntie wanted you here but God had other plans and preferred you next to Him.
"I will love you eternally my princess. You are a warrior who fought bravely every minute. You have become the most beautiful angel in the sky, I am sure that heaven is partying to receive you my love. I love you forever."
Sao Manuel police are investigating her death.
Caustic soda, otherwise known as sodium hydroxide, is a highly corrosive chemical substance often used to manufacture cleaning products like soaps and detergents. Contact with very high concentrations of sodium hydroxide can cause severe burns to the eyes, skin, digestive system or lungs, resulting in permanent damage or death.
The substance also causes agonising burns if swallowed, while prolonged or repeated skin contact may cause dermatitis. Repeated inhalation of sodium hydroxide vapour can also lead to permanent lung damage.
The substance made headlines in December last year after a nightclub in London's West End was fined for mistaking caustic soda for salt and serving it in tequila shots, Westminster City Council said. Four women were taken to hospital after suffering burning in their mouths. The women took the cleaning substance at Tiger Tiger nightclub in Central London in December 2021.
The council said owner A3D2 admitted to four health and safety breaches and was fined £120,000 for "failing to ensure (customers) were not exposed to the risk of chemical substances". According to the council, a court heard the four women went to the Tiger Tiger bar on Haymarket for shots during a night out.
The barman, who realised he had run out of salt - a key ingredient of tequila shots - made the shots in a dark storage area behind the bar and accidentally used caustic soda which he mistook for salt, the council said.