What is the relationship between poisoning and accidental first aid

To put it simply, poisoning itself is one of the most common accidental first aid scenarios. It is a type of situation that accounts for a very high proportion in the accidental first aid category and has a high priority for treatment. The two are subordinate and highly related.

I have been running pre-hospital first aid for almost 8 years. I looked through the call for help account at the station and found that poisoning calls have always been among the top five in pre-hospital first aid needs, accounting for about 12%, second only to traffic accidents, fall injuries, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular emergencies and animal bites. It is not an exaggeration to say that it is a "frequent visitor" to accidental first aid. Last month, a police report was issued. The old couple was cooking hot pot on the charcoal stove at home with the doors and windows closed. Within half an hour after finishing the meal, they both fell dizzy and fell down. The neighbor heard some noise and knocked on the door, but no one answered. He called 120 and we went over for a test. The carboxyhemoglobin concentration exceeded the standard. This is typical. Carbon monoxide poisoning is a completely non-subjective accident. The entire treatment process followed accidental first aid standards. First, they were moved to an open and ventilated area for high-flow oxygen inhalation, and then they were monitored and sent to the hospital for hyperbaric oxygen. Later, both elderly people recovered well without any sequelae.

Nowadays, many people still have misunderstandings about the relationship between the two. One group believes that poisoning is caused by "eating randomly". It is not a serious accident and there is no need to call for emergency treatment. It can be cured by picking your throat to induce vomiting and pouring more water. I once encountered a panicked aunt who came to the emergency department with her three-year-old grandson in her arms. She said that the child accidentally drank half a mouthful of toilet cleaning liquid. She immediately picked his throat to induce vomiting. As a result, the child kept complaining of a sore throat when he came. An endoscopy revealed that the esophagus was burned by the refluxed strong acid. Originally, if he did not induce vomiting and went directly to the hospital for neutralization of weak alkalis and gastric lavage treatment, the damage would be much less, but instead, the problem was aggravated by wrong self-handling. There is another group of people who hold the opposite view. They believe that anyone with the word "poisoning" must go through the first aid process. I have received many requests for help before. They said that they had diarrhea twice after eating some expired bread. They had no symptoms except a little diarrhea. They still asked us to send a car there, but instead squeezed the resources that really needed first aid.

In fact, it is not that complicated to clarify the boundary between the two. You just need to see whether the poisoning incident is sudden, unintentional, or has life-threatening symptoms or is very likely to occur. Poisoning that meets these points must fall into the category of accidental first aid, which is no different from calling for emergency treatment if you accidentally fall and break a bone while going out. And in many cases, poisoning does not occur alone. For example, most of the injured at fire scenes suffer from burns and smoke inhalation poisoning at the same time. If the driver in a traffic accident is drunk, alcohol poisoning and trauma will also be combined. At this time, first aid treatment must also consider both aspects. You cannot just deal with trauma and forget about poisoning, and vice versa.

We ordinary people don’t actually need to dwell on the concepts of the two. If we encounter an uncertain suspected poisoning situation, and the person involved has already experienced abnormal reactions such as dizziness, vomiting, and confusion, just call 120 and explain the situation clearly. The dispatcher will judge whether to send a car and what emergency treatment should be done at the scene first. Don’t fumble by yourself and delay the best disposal time.