Coldrif poisoning: Four-year-old succumbs after 128 days of treatment

Harsh fell ill on September 26 in Tikabarri village of Amla tehsil in Madhya Pradesh’s Betul district after being prescribed Coldrif cough syrup.

3 min readMumbaiUpdated: Feb 4, 2026 09:38 PM IST

With Harsh’s death, the toll from the Coldrif cough syrup poisoning case has risen to 25. (Credit: Newsonair, enhanced with AI)

Harsh Yaduwanshi (4), one of the last surviving victims of the Coldrif cough syrup poisoning case undergoing treatment in Nagpur, died on Sunday, at AIIMS Nagpur. A post-mortem was conducted on Monday, hospital officials told The Indian Express.

Harsh fell ill on September 26 in Tikabarri village of Amla tehsil in Madhya Pradesh’s Betul district after being prescribed Coldrif cough syrup by paediatrician Dr Praveen Soni for symptoms of cough and cold, his mother Radha had said when The Indian Express visited AIIMS in November.

Since then, Radha had been staying at AIIMS Nagpur, often alone clinging to hope as she waited for her son to recover, as she watched another child from the state in the same hospital gradually improve. AIIMS discharged another Coldrif poisoning victim after full recovery in December 2025.

Also Read | In Madhya Pradesh town with 11 cough syrup deaths, a refrain: ‘No facility, had to go to Nagpur’

At the time Harsh fell ill, his father Gokul was lodged in Multai jail over a family dispute. He was initially granted a two-day bail to visit his son for an hour. Later, he secured long-term bail and joined Radha at the hospital in November 2025.

Harsh turned four while he remained in a coma. When The Indian Express visited AIIMS in November, a senior hospital official had said the child’s condition was critical, with severe impairment of brain function being the primary concern.

Also Read | ‘I talk to him daily, hoping for a miracle’: a mother’s desperate struggle to save her son from Coldrif poisoning

An AIIMS official said that Harsh passed away around 8.30 pm on Sunday. “When he was admitted to AIIMS from a local hospital, he was suffering from kidney failure and brain damage. While his kidney function gradually improved, the brain damage persisted,” the official said. Harsh had been receiving treatment at AIIMS Nagpur since October 7.

In January, after more than three months at the hospital, Radha briefly returned to her village to care for her younger son, who had fallen ill while staying with his grandparents.

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With Harsh’s death, the toll from the Coldrif cough syrup poisoning case has risen to 25.

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