Durian is famous for tasting great but smelling awful, and now Malaysian doctors are sharing a salient reminder that the exotic fruit can also be dangerous for patients with impaired renal function.

They are reporting the case of an elderly woman who presented with life-threatening hyperkalaemia after indulging heavily in potassium-rich durian.

The 79-year-old, who had a history of hypertension, dyslipidaemia and diabetes mellitus, presented to the ED with a one-day history of lethargy and palpitations.

The week prior, she’d had intermittent fever and watery diarrhoea more than five times a day, said the doctors from Universiti Malaysia Sabah in Kota Kinabalu.