Every time I see “In case of overdose contact the poison control center immediately” I begin to wonder “What do they do exactly?”, I mean certainly they don’t send out their own paramedics. I assume poison control center evaluates the situation over the phone and instructs you if you should call the paramedics or not. I suppose they can also instruct the paramedics over the phone as to how to give first aid in case of that specific overdose.
However, it feels like any hospital should have chemical data sheets on file for almost any known chemical. Does the poison control center have more information than presented in the data sheet? Do they have medical professionals that can utilize that information better?
The Poison control center has a much larger database of chemicals, sometimes gonig down to specific brands of products. A hospital is only required to have material safety data sheets for chemicals used in the hospital itself, and the master list is usually in the lab, not the ER. The ER will only have a list of the chemicals in its department.
In addition, lots of ERs rarely see ingenstions of poisons, other than overdoses of common drugs or drug combinations, so they don’t always know what to do if little Timmy swalloed a cup of bleach. Do they induce vomiting with ipecak, give activated charcoal, a glass of water and/or milk? The Poison control operators will know off the tops of their heads what to do for common poisons, like bleach, ammonia, common medications, etc… And even for uncommon ones they have that large database that I can only assume it accessed easily via computer terminal.
I called them once. They have quick first aid advice (vitamin overdose on three toddlers simultaneously). I wonder also if they don’t coordinate distribution of antedotes. My guess is that not every hospital carries every antidote and maybe there’s a central storehouse that would zoom the correct stuff to the correct location.
It’s not so much a matter of antidotes as it is being able to advise as to how to treat a case of ingestion/inhalation of some specific gas, liquid, or solid.
I have an acquaintance that works poison control in Fresno County and he is (was) a licensed pharmacist, although he has since taken over his parent’s farm since finishing school. I’m not sure if that is a requirement but it makes me feel like the person on the other end of the line may know what they’re talking about.
I’m an emergency doctor. The Poison Control is a very valuable service.
In Canada, Poison Control Centres are usually located in the largest regional children’s hospital (kids ingest the most stuff). They are staffed by both doctors and pharmacists who are experts in toxicology. They have full databases of toxicology data that are far more complete than MSDS (data sheets) and WHMIS guidelines. These toxicology databases can be very expensive for individual hospitals to purchase; most hospitals don’t have toxicologists on staff though a handful of emergency doctors specialize in this.
We see lots of ingestions even in our small hospital – fairly common things include bleach, batteries, toys, tylenol, benzos, antidepressants, alcohol, street drugs, jimsonweed, coins, nails, teeth, impacted meat, rat poison, paint… not to mention the fact our area has lots of heavy industry and people occasional ingest weird and wonderful gases. I notify the PCC for legal reasons in most ingestions, they offer more specific expertise than ERs have for non run-of-the-mill ingestions.
I assuem it’s the person’s own teeth. But then again, anything is possible…
My mom is an OR nurse and has told me of surgeries where lots of various foreign objects are removed from intestines and stomachs (I guess just vomiting and getting at them through the mouth wasn’t an option.) She said many times it’s a mentally ill/handicapped person and, similarto a baby or toddler, just instictively puts things in their mouth and swallows them.
I’m weirded out that out of that list you picked the two things one is most likely to swallow. Batteries are small and everywhere and baby teeth fall out right in your mouth.
but, impacted meat? jimsonweed? paint? that stuff doesn’t even taste good… why would you eat it?
With small children, the disgustingness of it isn’t much of a deterrent. They tend to rely on their sense of taste for everything when they’re little. Check it out with your mouth, and by then it’s too late.
They tend to have a fairly short list of the things most commonly ingested (some of which are pretty weird) as well as a much larger database of everything else, and of course quite a lot experience answering phone calls on the subject. Basically if you ring you will be told one of three things based on the cricumstances.
a) not to worry
b) to get yourself down to casualty
c) an ambulance is on the way
If the situation is a real emergency they will also give first aid advice until the emergency services are on the scene. The situation is complicated slightly by the fact that the manufacturers of pretty much every product in existence will put a note on the label to contact a doctor in the event of an accident/ ingestion/ whatever/ to cover themselves even if there is no real hazard.
One of my courses involved a series of lectures at the main toxicology centre for that part of the country and the doctor in charge made sure we were shown the emergency help line desk. The doctors were responsible for testing the desk and took fiendish delight in coming up with challenging hypotheticals.
There are specific treatments for many forms of poisoning (some of which could probably be termed antidotes) but in most cases the most important thing is to try and reduce the absorbtion of the substance into the body and then treat the patient supportively, adressing the symptoms of the poisoning until it has cleared from their system.
Just to stress what Dr_Paprika said, they have much better databases than the usual MSDS sheets which are pretty much useless under any circumstances, much less an emergency.
Eating paint chips is very common for babies and toddlers, and even pregnant women suffering from pica. Why? Who knows. The pregnant woman may have a mineral deficiency. Babies and toddlers just like to put things in their mouths.
A slightly older child gave the three little ones the whole bottle. This happened at a friend’s house. Small children can be harmed fairly easily by vitamins (which I found out that day). We had to do Ipecac. Let me tell you…you haven’t had fun until you’ve got three puking toddlers in a one-bathroom house. They all sat there with their puke bags…it was a sight to behold.
Vitamins can be paticularly dnagerous to young kids if they contain iron, iron toxicity is pretty nasty, and it’s very easy for littlies to overdose on it.
