Saturday, July 14, 2007

most expensive fish in the world?

i'm not a connoisseur of fine fish, but i would think one would pay an exorbitant price for an exotic fish dish at a downtown restaurant in paris or tokyo, like the way beluga from the baltic could be considered staple for the rich & famous, by virtue of its price.

but i now beg to differ.

this 5 year old girl accidentally swallowed an ikan kembong bone the other day & came to hospital to have it removed. she had a general anaesthetic which effectively put her to sleep while her throat was examined.

there, lodged at the side of the throat, was the cause of her discomfort. everything was completed in less than 5 mins.
if this little bone, measuring about 1cm in length, is generously estimated to weigh about half a gram & matched with the hospital bill of.....

....RM1572.88, then by simple maths, the cost of eating this particular common & previously cheap fish, which will probably never find its way into the menu of the world's top chefs, would come up to a whopping RM3,145,760 per kg or USD415,666 per pound!!! even so, i doubt if Anthony Bourdain would be in a hurry to have his fish meal here.

for the record, the world's most expensive fish (read here), a bluefin tuna, costs a mere USD391 per pound, while the most expensive chocolate (read here) is sold by Knipschildt at USD2600 per pound. for burger aficianados, The Star recently reported (read here) that the matsusaka beef burger is sold at a Bangkok hotel for USD184 each. even gold in the open market is only USD666 per oz or USD10,656 per pound.

i think if i really want a simple, convenient, boneless, & therefore safer, fish meal, i'd go for that filet-o-fish at the neighbourhood fastfood joint. after all, you also get a super-sized potato side-dish & drink, all for a princely sum of RM8.00.

**this is meant as a cautionary reminder to all fish lovers, this medic included, to exercise due care while savouring our favourite dish**

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

General Anaesthesia for a FISHBONE?! Oh great, now I'm really scared to eat fish...
You only do that for children right? *please say yes, please say yes*
But then again, I'd much rather be unconscious than wide awake.
I'm sticking to fillets from now on.

doc said...

anastasia,

for this child, the bone was lodged quite superficially in the throat, but she would not open her mouth for any examination, hence the GA was necessary.

however, for most adults, invariably the elderly & toothless, the bone is usually located further down the throat or in the upper oesophagus. the procedure then will definitely require GA & will easily take 20mins for a comprehensive examination & subsequent removal of the offending bone.

Jonzz said...

Cool way of looking at it. Gotta compliment you.

You even went as far as the math and analysis (ROFL!).

doc said...

jonzz,

i think this post would have served its objective if i don't get to see another fishbone-in-the-throat again.

do remind your elders about this potential danger.

TZ said...

I have not eaten such an expensive fish ... how's the taste? :-p

Anyway, my colleague tasted this expensive fish before. Because of her and the company that i work for is so focus on safety... the moment that my colleague incident reported out. All the cafeteria in the company have to stop selling fishes with bone :->

Anyway, pity the 5 yrs old girl... is she okay now?

LX said...

I am more scared off with the bill. And I am always the type who would opt for fish fillet or fish and chips fastfood meals.

doc said...

hi tz,

the kembung at the market is not expensive - only Rm 5-6 per kg & it tastes heavenly when fried with sambal belacan.

your company imposed a good policy on the cafetaria, but that won't stop your colleagues from having fish outside of the work place.

it's more important that we realise the potential danger & take the necessary precaution.

the 5yr old girl was discharged well the next day & the bone was given to the mother as evidence.

doc said...

lynnx,

i agree - the cost of the fish, esp at a restaurant, can make the dish difficult to swallow, but only if you are footing the bill.

Las montaƱas said...

can someone please go clone some boneless fish?!!

eve said...

Hmmm..rm 505..is that the doctor's charges or the hosp charges?..haha..joking..So what do you do if an adult got a fish bone stucked but you can't see it?..Many of those that i referred to hosp , was sent home without any medication and intervention..though they still complain of the same thing a few days after the incident..

just me said...

Kids have been known to choke on fishballs too.

doc said...

las M,

come to think of it, where's the fun in eating fish without picking the bones from the flesh? it would be like eating crabs without the shells.

makes you think how come seals fed with fish at animal shows don't seemed to have this problem? or, why pythons that swallow small animals don't choke on the bones?

doc said...

hi eve,

here's a trick i learned when i was doing locum at 24hr clinics. use a laryngoscope blade to depress the tongue as you ask the patient to open the mouth. the light source from the blade will illuminate the oropharynx & you will be able to see right down to the tonsillar pillars, where many a fishbone are lodged, like in this 5yr-old.

if you can't see it, then refer to ENT. in the OT, sometimes the bone can't be seen, even right down to the oesophagus. this means the bone most probably is in the stomach. it's often left alone but the patient still feel a pain in the throat because of the initial puncture wound.

the worst-case scenario is the bone that has gone through the tissues & the patient comes after a few days with an peri/retropharyngeal abscess. that would be a nightmare for the ENT/general surgeon & anaesthetist, but i digress....

thanks for the comment. i can only reveal about the RM505 in private.

doc said...

just me,

kids can choke on anything, so it's vital that parents & other adults know what to do when this happens - refer to resuscitation for children (http://www.resus.org.uk/pages/pbls.pdf) & adults (http://www.resus.org.uk/pages/bls.pdf)

anyone can learn to save lives!

Anonymous said...

it is for this reason i seldom eat fish lots of small bones..they r very uncomfortable if lodged

Alex Tang said...

hi doc,

nice post. I wonder why the early Christians uses the symbol of a fish. Did the bones stick in the Roman throat too?

doc said...

beng,

i agree, but then, even fish with larger bones pose the same danger.

doc said...

hi alex,

i think the clue to your 1st query is in Matt 4:19 - "come, follow me, & I will make you fishers of men."

i'm sure there must be many bones that remained lodged in Roman throats - there's no record of the existence of ENT surgeons then!