How much air does it take to kill someone?

Factual Questions
1

Hello,

I take medicene subcutaneously pretty much every night. While doing so, I have to get all of the air out of the syringe so it doesn’t go into my bloodstream and kill me. My question is, how much air is too much?

2

I’m not sure air injected into the muscle can kill. It’s not so much the air that might kill when mainlined, it’s the bubble it creates.

3

To add a little more clarification–the oxygen in your blood is already dissolved within the liquid. If you have air trapped in the syringe that gets injected with the medication, it takes awhile to dissolve into the blood. In the interim, it travels through your body in the form of a bubble.

This can be dangerous in different areas of the body where there’s a possibility of the bubble getting lodged and disrupting the flow of blood.

4

This thread may be of interest.

5

If you’re concerned about it, there’s an easy way to check to see if you’ve accidentally hit a vein:

Insert the syringe as always, but instead of depressing the plunger, lift up on it, maybe 5 units. If you see a lot of blood, you must have hit a vein. If it’s clear, you’re fine, so continue the injection as you normally would.