News - Man cooks, eats a poisonous pufferfish that was gifted to him with friend, dies 35 days later from its poison

A man who cooked and ate a poisonous pufferfish that was gifted to him fell into a coma and died 35 days later, according to reports, USA Today reported. Magno Sergio Gomes, 46, died in a hospital in Espirito Santos, Brazil, after suffering seizures and being paralyzed by toxins from a pufferfish that are 1,000 times deadlier than cyanide. According to the New York Post, his sister, Myriam Gomes Lopes, spoke with Newsflash about what happened. Gomes cooked the pufferfish and served himself and an unnamed friend, who miraculously survived the deadly meal. Lopes told Newsflash her family doesn't know where the pufferfish, that was gifted to her brother, came from and whether it was caught or farmed. She said her brother didn't have any experience cleaning and preparing pufferfish. He and his friend only gutted the fish, removed its liver, and then boiled it before eating it with lime juice. Lopes said Gomes felt the effects of the toxins less than an hour after eating the fish. According to Lopes, the man also suffered from multiple seizures that "greatly affected" his brain and left him with a small chance of survival. Lopes says her brother was then intubated and put on life support. He died 35 days later on January 27, reports the New York Post. According to National Geographic, pufferfish are still dangerous, even when they don't puff up and look like deadly, spiked balloons. The poison that killed Gomes is called tetrodotoxin. The toxin, which is meant to deter predators from consuming the fish, can be found in almost every single puffer fish, states National Geographic. Twenty species of pufferfish reside in Brazil, and over half can be found in Espirito Santa. Raw pufferfish is considered to be a delicacy in Japan, where it's known as fugu.