Bookout Poisoning is one of the core disposal categories of accidental first aid, and it also requires the highest timeliness and accuracy among all types of accidental first aid. The disposal level of poisoning first aid is directly the touchstone of the ability of an accidental first aid system in a region.
I have been in the community first-aid station for three years, and I was particularly impressed last summer: a family living in the old family home rushed in with a three-year-old baby in their arms, saying that the baby had accidentally drunk the herbicide in the bottle of iced black tea put by grandpa. When I asked for the bottle of herbicide, the family said that they were too busy carrying the baby, left it at home, and went back to get it in a hurry. Fortunately, the baby drank less, and nothing serious happened in the end.
Many people always think that poisoning is something that only happens in the news, and they are far away from themselves. I have compiled the data of accidental first-aid visits in our station in 2023, and you will understand the universality of this matter at a glance:
| Accident first aid category | Number of visits in 2023 | Proportion of total visits |
|---|---|---|
| traffic accident | 112 | 32% |
| Fall down | 77 | 22% |
| Poisoning (including ingestion of poisons, drug overdose, carbon monoxide poisoning, etc.) | 59 | 17% |
| Burn and scald | 38 | 11% |
| Others (animal bites, foreign body throat, etc.) | 63 | 18% |
You see, the proportion of poisoning visits ranks third, which is higher than the burns, cat and dog bites that many people often encounter. Different from other accidental first-aid scenarios, the fault tolerance rate of poisoning treatment is extremely low. Even if you change the ice compress to hot compress at first, the common fall and sprain will be swollen for a long time at most, which is not life-threatening, but the poisoning is different. Last month, when a patient was diagnosed with carbon monoxide poisoning, the tenant found his roommate lying in the bathroom with an in-line gas water heater on in the morning, and immediately opened the window to move people to the corridor for ventilation. By the time we arrived, people had recovered their slight consciousness. After being hospitalized for three days, he was discharged from the hospital. Before that, there was a similar situation. After the family found out, they just cried and shouted their names, and they didn't even open the door. By the time we arrived, people had been deprived of oxygen for too long, and even if they were rescued, they would fall into lifelong hemiplegia.
At present, there are indeed different views in the industry on whether ordinary people should be treated with poisoning on the spot: some public health experts believe that ordinary people have not received professional training, and if they encounter corrosive poisons such as toilet cleaner and concentrated sulfuric acid by mistake, vomiting will burn the esophagus and airway twice, so it is safer to wait for emergency personnel to be present; However, most of our first responders who run the front line every day feel that it is unnecessary to intervene at all. You don't have to do any complicated operations. At least you can pack the leftovers and poisons of patients, remember the time and approximate amount of eating by mistake, and open the window to ventilate people when they encounter carbon monoxide poisoning. These are all things that do not have any operational risks, but can grab a lot of time for follow-up treatment.
In fact, to put it bluntly, accidental first aid is a big category that covers all sudden unintentional injuries, and poisoning is the most "unbearable" category. Its requirements for the whole chain of first aid are much higher than those of ordinary accidents-from the initial disposal on the spot to the monitoring of signs on the way to the matching of antidotes in the hospital, every step is stuck in time. Instead of struggling with the relationship between the two, it is better to remember two simple common sense of poisoning first aid. When something really happens, it may save the lives of people around you.
