The Illinois Poison Control Center posted stories of the 282 calls they took in one day. The calls range from requests for information to emergency room consultations. Here is a small sample:
This post drew interest from a local TV station, which then did a report on the poison center's funding problems. Incidentally, the nationwide number for poison control is 1-800-222-1222. Link -via Metafilter
# An adult female called worried because she took 2 Aleve® for her headache and then noticed that the pills expired 5 years ago.
# An adult woman called because a battery leaked out of her personal massager and she was concerned about battery acid burns.
# An emergency room called regarding a 29 year old male patient who had chewed and swallowed a fentanyl transdermal patch in an attempt to get high. He was found unresponsive by his mother and brought in via ambulance.
# An adult male called concerned about his friend who drank a very large amount of alcohol over the course of the previous evening after losing his job. His friend had vomited numerous times and had very garbled speech but is awake.
# An adult female called after she accidentally took 2 of her melatonin tablets.
# A 20 year old college student drank 2 Red Bulls® and took 6-7 Ritalin® tablets that belonged to a friend to help her stay awake and concentrate to study for a big exam. She stated she was having palpitations, vomiting and tremors.
This post drew interest from a local TV station, which then did a report on the poison center's funding problems. Incidentally, the nationwide number for poison control is 1-800-222-1222. Link -via Metafilter
FTR, I wasn't sniffing the glue.
some of them, you can't help but giggle or roll your eyes.
like the one where the mother was frantic because her child ate two gummy vitamins instead of one. glad she was upset instead of indifferent, but a lot of them seem to be people lacking decent sense...
Oh what I would give to hear the recording of THAT call!
"A woman called because she had reached into her bathroom cabinet in the dark for a tube of personal lubricant and accidentally used toothpaste instead."
was a charred rat corpse in the oven'
Oh yum. I so wouldn't think to call the poison control centre for that though...
"Caller has one squirt bottle with bleach/water to disinfect her kitchen, and another with just water that she uses to spray the dog. She was going to spray the dog, but had mixed up the two bottles. She wanted to make sure she didn’t spray her dog with bleach, so she had squirted some in her mouth to check. It was the bleach."
He used to come home every day to tell me about the ridiculous calls he always got.
Dern, wish I could think of some of them, but it was such a long time ago.
That made me burst out laughing.
Reply "Get a clue mam. A bag of M&Ms has a greater risk of overdose. God help your child if it ever has a real problem."