British toddler better after swallowing detergent in Cyprus

NICOSIA (Reuters) – A two-year-old British girl who suffered internal burns after drinking a corrosive detergent mixed with orange juice at a luxury hotel is getting better, doctors treating her at a Cyprus hospital said on Wednesday. Annabel Rhodes was removed from a ventilator on Tuesday and was breathing on her own, doctors said.

“She is a lot better. She has made remarkable progress from a respiratory point of view,” said Dr Panicos Yiallouras, one of a team of Cypriot doctors treating the child.

The girl, who was staying with her parents at a hotel in the coastal town of Limassol, drank the corrosive on Saturday, February 2.

Police said a waiter had mistaken the dishwasher detergent for water, because someone else had stored it in a plastic water bottle in the bar area. There have been no arrests.

Local media said the detergent was a nitric acid which was colourless and odorless.

The girl’s father, who tried the drink after she started screaming in agony, suffered mouth burns.

Doctors said it was early to assess whether the child would suffer any lasting health damage.