What are the issues related to poisoning and accidental first aid

Essentially, poisoning is a typical subcategory of sudden accidents. The two are a nested relationship between special scenarios and general treatment logic. Many people think that poisoning first aid is a completely independent system. In fact, there are many cognitive biases hidden in the actual implementation, which can even delay rescue.

When I was following a mission at a district or county first aid station, I encountered a police officer who committed suicide by drinking paraquat. His family members rushed to force him to drink half a bottle of soapy water to induce vomiting before we arrived. As a result, the patient fell into a semi-conscious state. The liquid that was poured in choked the air intake tube and caused aspiration pneumonia. Inflammation, the already difficult situation is made even worse - to put it bluntly, the family members put the stereotype of "poisoning requires vomiting" before the basic principle of emergency first aid of "confirming consciousness first and ensuring smooth airway". This is a trap that was stepped on without clear understanding of the relationship between the two.

Nowadays, the popular science side of the industry has been arguing about whether poisoning first aid should be separated from general accident first aid for special dissemination. Most of those who support the separation are researchers in the field of public health. They feel that the treatment of different poisonings is too different. The response methods for food-borne poisoning, gas poisoning, and chemical contact poisoning are completely inconsistent. It is too abstract to explain general logic to ordinary people. It is better to directly give scenario-based formulas to make them easier to remember. However, most first-line emergency personnel do not support this, because they are afraid that ordinary people will struggle with "what happened to me" in advance. What kind of poisoning is it?" Instead, he forgot to evacuate the dangerous environment immediately, call 120, and observe vital signs. Last month, a young man came to the emergency department. He vomited and had diarrhea after eating expired cans at home. His first reaction was not to find his mobile phone and call 120. He squatted on the Internet and searched for "bacterial food poisoning first aid procedures." He waited until he was dehydrated and couldn't stand before calling his neighbor.

To put it bluntly, general accident first aid is like the basic operations of fastening the seat belt and pressing the brakes when driving. First aid for poisoning is just a coping skill in special scenarios such as rain, snow, and uphill roads. You can't think about changing to snow tires when going through snow, and even forget to step on the brakes, right? Another link that is easily overlooked is the risk of secondary accidents in poisoning incidents. This is where many people fail to connect the two: For example, if someone is poisoned by gas and falls into a closed bathroom, if he does not understand the principle of "assessing environmental risks first" in accident first aid, he opens the door and rushes in to turn on the lights. If a spark ignites the leaked gas, it will explode. If he cannot save the person, he will put himself in it. This kind of case is really encountered in the heating season in winter.

In fact, for ordinary people, there is really no need to overthink the relationship between the two. No matter what type of poisoning you encounter, you should follow the logic of ordinary accident handling: first ensure your own safety, then move the injured to a safe place, check consciousness and breathing, call 120 immediately, and leave the rest of the professional operations to the medical staff, and basically nothing will go wrong.