| Home Treatment:
|
- Seek emergency medical care immediately.
- DO NOT INDUCE VOMITING!
- Wash from the skin or irrigate the eyes for skin or eye exposure.
- For ingestion, drink water to dilute.
|
| Before Calling Emergency:
|
Determine the following information:- the patient's age, weight, and condition
- the name of the product (ingredients and strengths if known)
- the time it was swallowed
- the amount swallowed
|
| Poison Control, or a local emergency number:
|
| They will instruct you if it is necessary to take the patient to the hospital. See Poison Control centers for telephone numbers and addresses. Bring the tube with you to the emergency room. |
| What to expect at the emergency room:
|
|
Some or all of the following procedures may be performed:
- For swallowed poison
- Placement of a tube down the nose and into the stomach (a nasogastric tube, or an NG tube) to wash out the stomach
- Activated charcoal administration
- Endoscopy -- the placement of a camera down the throat to see the extent of burns to the esophagus and the stomach.
- Give IV fluids
- Admission to the hospital
- Give an antidote
- Treat the symptoms
- For inhaled poisons
- A breathing tube may need to be inserted
- Oxygen
- Admission to the hospital or to the intensive care unit
- Bronchoscopy (inserting a camera down the throat into the airway to evaluate the extent of burns to the airway and lungs)
- For skin exposure
- Irrigation (washing of the skin), perhaps every few hours for several days
- Skin debridement (surgical removal of burned skin)
- Admission or transfer to a hospital that specializes in burn care
|
| Expectations (prognosis):
|
| Recovery and survival depend upon the amount ingested or inhaled, and the time to treatment. Severe, life-threatening damage to the lungs may occur. |
