Activated charcoal LAME

[Fluffpaw38]

i just dont get it really. So you have an altered mental status and soon some other internal injuries (depending on what they took) and now you want to add a possible airway issue into it, plus the mess. Its just like :shock: I mean i understand its going to absorb and slow down the poisens but is it worth giving? or should I just request some ALS?

[ccmedoc]

We came to an agreement that charcoal shall not be given orally, unless with NG tube.

I agree with this...NG tube should be in place. Besides charcoal being MESSY...it has tendency to gag people when they try to drink it. I think an NG is the only way to go..IMHO

[Arkymedic]

I go in for my EMT-B practical testing in Connecticut.

I walk in to the medical station.

I am presented with an overdose of sleeping pills.

I am obviously sapposed to give activated charcoal.

The patient is tired, dizzy, somewhat alert but is ignoring some of the questions i ask/not answering me.

I tell the instructer that i will not give activated charcoal because of his altered mental status.

4 days later i get a letter in the mail, saying i failed the medical station because i did not do correct interventions (give activated charcoal)

I went back 2 weeks later AN PASSED! =] yippy.

So fill me in. i know i should have given activated charcoal but i am correct that you dont give charcoal to someone with an altered mental status/not responding to verbal stimuli?

If i was in the field should i have given charcoal? i think i should have. But AMS means no charcoal.

Per our medical director we have taken activated charcoal and NG tubes off our trucks and out of our protocols and neither is to be performed.