First Aid and Treatment Of Poisoning

Have you ever left your open drink in public to receive a call? When you came back to drink it, you began to feel funny until the situation starts feeling serious and eventually became very serious? Or have you eaten something before and felt like you have been poisoned? Have you ever wondered the type of pain you would pass through if someone poisoned your food and you ate it? Do you even think you know what to do when you feel you have been poisoned? Are you wondering if you will die on the spot if your eyes, skin, or lungs come in contact with poisons? Do you know any tips about how you can handle poison cases? If your answer to any of these questions is no, then this article is here to help you understand the basics of these questions. In this article, you will learn how to handle poisoning cases without even being a medical practitioner. No doubt, you will know when and how to administer first aid treatment to a victim of poisoning. Follow me through this article to better understand the concept and basics of poisoning.

Types of Poisons

As it is, there are various kinds of poisoning, and they include poisons that can be;

• Inhaled
• Swallowed
• Injected
• Sting or bites
• Also, some other ones include;
• Exposure to harmful radiation
• Absorption through the skin
• Through the eyes

Some other kinds of poisons come in the form of food and drugs. For foods, some types of mushrooms, contaminated water, and foods that are not well-handled poise as health risks to human health leading to poisoning. Drug abuse or over-dependence can lead to poisoning, as well. Excessive intake of some vegetables like garlic can also lead to poisoning. Some other poisoning could also be the intentional mixing of poison in edibles for someone to eat as a result of either jealousy, hatred, anger, and so on. It is not a new thing in our world anymore that people poison one another to achieve their evil intentions.

Causes of Poisoning

Preservatives, processing, and contamination of foods:

Poisons come in many forms, but today, the most prevalent one people do not know much about is the one meat sellers apply to their meats to chase flies from their tables. It has been discovered that some meat sellers in open markets, who sell without freezers, use harmful chemicals to chase flies from their tables. The act of chasing flies off their table is not the problem. The problem here is the tremendous almost-irreversible havoc it causes when it gets into the human body. Have you ever wondered about a woman who went to the market, bought foodstuffs, cooked them for herself and her family, and died after eating it? This shows that the majority of the chemicals used to preserve foods are also poisonous to health. Chemicals used in chasing beans weevils are not left out of these evil acts.

Other causes include;

• Household products like insect repellant, fumigation chemicals, and so on.
• Cleaning products like detergents
• Metals like lead
• Over-the-counter prescribed drugs
• Illegal drugs
• Carbon monoxide
• Fumes from machines
• Poisonous mushrooms
• Venom from snakes or scorpions, and many more.

After discussing the kinds of poisoning that exist with their causes, it is important to also discuss poisoning symptoms.

Symptoms

Some poisons work immediately, while some are latent and take time before their symptoms begin to manifest. The symptoms of poisoning include;

• Irritation in the stomach walls
• Vomiting
• Severe pain and cramps
• Fever
• Bloody stools or vomit
• High oral temperature
• Severe dehydration
• Blurry vision
• Weakness and fatigue
• Headache
• Paralysis
• Skin numbness
• Dark-colored urine
• Sunken cheeks or eyes
• Sudden leanness
• Rashes
• Dilated or enlarged pupils
• Foaming in the mouth
• Confusion
• Seizures
• Sores in the mouth
• Weird breathing rate
• Irregular heartbeats
• Loss of appetite
• Chills
• Coma

When you drink or eat certain things and begin to feel any of these symptoms, there is a 70% chance that you have been poisoned through any of the means identified above. Also, when some things touch your skin or eyes, or probably you inhaled some that have tampered with the natural atmosphere, and you feel any of these symptoms, it also means your organs that were exposed to these harmful chemicals, be it liquid or solid, have been hurt, which means you have been poisoned. This is when you have to begin to take steps to save your life. Either by rushing down to the hospital without panicking, if there is anyone close by, or administering first aid treatment if hospitals are not close by.

First Aid and treatment

• Under no circumstance should you treat poisoning at home all by yourself. Whatever treatment you are administering at home would require you to visit the hospital afterward. Any treatment process you read of here would only help reduce the harm or effect of the poison. It is imperative to visit the hospital after first aid. After poisoning, every moment counts.
• If the victim swallowed the poison, remove the remnant from their mouth. If the poison is a form of household cleaning agents, read the label to get instructions on handling cases of accidental swallowing. Do not also try to induce vomiting. After administering first aid, when going to the hospital, take the poison’s container, the victim swallowed for the Doctor to see.
• If the poisoning happened through the skin, take off the contaminated cloths with a glove and wash or rinse the skin with rushing water.
• If it is the eyes that come in contact with the poison, flush the eyes with water, and do not apply any eye drop.
• In cases of inhaled poison, get the victim to fresh air as soon as possible, avoid fumes, and the harmful gas yourself while trying to save the victim so that you will not become a victim too. You can rescue the person, in this case, using a breathing apparatus.
• If the symptoms include vomiting, turn the victim’s head to the side to prevent the victim from choking.
• For bites and stings, do not use tourniquets, do not try sucking out the poison. Just calm the victim down to prevent a rush of blood to the heart as a result of panicking, then rush the person to the hospital.
• Do not try to neutralize poison by applying more chemicals, which can worsen the victim’s condition.

In cases of severe effects of poisoning, do the following;

• Check if the victim is still conscious.
• Make sure the victim’s airways are not blocked by the tongue or foam.
• Check if they are breathing.
• Clean the mouth and clear the throat of any blockage
• Give mouth-to-mouth respiration if the victim is unconscious and if the victim had any other form of poisoning aside swallowing.
• After that, check if the heart is beating.
• If yes, and the victim is still not breathing, continue with the mouth-to-mouth respiration.
• If the heart happens not to be beating, give a heart massage.
• If the heart begins to beat again, rush the victim to the hospital for further treatment.

Administration of first aid depends on the following;

• Condition of the victim
• Age of the victim
• Weight of the victim
• When the victim had the poisoning
• Type of poison
• Degree of the poison taken.
• Prior first aid administration

Prevention

• Wear protective clothing whenever you are around harmful chemicals
• Keep all household substances and chemicals away from the reach of children.
• Do not mix chemicals as their outcomes can be dangerous.
• Get rid of expired drugs.
• Do not overuse drugs or eat fruit, vegetable, or herbs excessively. Eat food in appropriate proportions.
• Do not stay long in areas where there are fumes.
• Fumigate your area and stay away for days to get rid of snakes and scorpions.

In Conclusion,

Poisoning comes in different ways; it could be intentional, from friends who turned enemies, it could be natural in foods like mushrooms, it could be excessive use of drugs. These poisons could also be inhaled, swallowed, absorbed through the skin, eyes, and possibly stings and bites. Administering first aid treatment is really important in the general treatment process, as it helps slow down the poison’s effects. However, giving first aid treatment is not enough; you also need professional medical attention for the perfect antidote. To avoid ugly cases such as these, avoiding or preventing them would go a long way in helping you avert such incidences.