What are the relationship between poisoning and accidental first aid

The core conclusion is actually very clear. Poisoning itself is one of the most common types of accidental emergencies. Poisoning first aid is a core component of the accidental first aid system. All poisoning treatment methods are essentially the application of the general principles of accidental first aid in specific scenarios. There is no need to make a deliberate distinction between the two.

I have been a community first aid volunteer for almost five years, and I have encountered at least a dozen poisoning-related accidents. Last summer, I was particularly impressed. When Aunt Zhang in the community was cleaning up the storage room, she took a sip of paraquat diluted liquid that her family put in a mineral water bottle as ice mineral water. Her family had participated in our first aid science class before, and the first reaction was We should have followed the principle of emergency first aid to "stop the progression of the injury first" and gave her warm salt water to induce vomiting. She vomited three or four times before remembering to call 120 and send her to the hospital. Later, the emergency doctor specifically told us that the vomiting done in these ten minutes had at least reduced her poison absorption by half. If she had waited for the ambulance and done nothing, the consequences would have been disastrous.

In fact, there have been small-scale discussions in the industry before. Some doctors in the field of clinical toxicology believe that poisoning first aid should be a separate system. After all, compared with accidents such as car accidents and burns and other mechanical/physical injuries, poisoning must consider special issues such as poison type, antagonist adaptation, and absorption and metabolism pathways. It is difficult for ordinary first aid volunteers to figure it out. It is best to be trained and assessed separately. But most of us first responders working on the front line don’t think so. When we actually arrive at the emergency scene, how can we have time to ask “Is this poisoning or an ordinary accident?” No matter what situation you encounter, the first reaction must be to check whether the person is breathing and heartbeating. If the person has stopped, perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation first. This is a common prerequisite for all accidental first aid, and poisoning is no exception.

It’s also interesting to say that several of the key actions we often talk about in poisoning first aid can actually correspond to the general logic of accidental first aid: inducing vomiting immediately after being splashed by hot oil is the same as running cold water immediately after being splashed with hot oil. It is to separate the cause of injury from the body as soon as possible; when sending to the hospital, remember to bring the packaging and residue of the accidentally eaten poison, which is similar to the idea of preserving the fragments of the injurious object as much as possible at the scene of a car accident to help doctors quickly judge the severity of the injury. The essence is to leave enough effective information for subsequent professional treatment.

When I was training new volunteers, people always asked me if I had to memorize the disposal methods of dozens of common poisons alone. I asked them to first engrave in their minds the nine words of accidental first aid: "First save life, then reduce injuries, and then send to the hospital quickly." Even if you don’t know what kind of poison it is, as long as you follow this principle, move the person to a safe place first, induce vomiting if you can cooperate with it, and call 120 if you don’t know what to do and listen to the operator’s instructions, it will definitely be much more effective than standing there and reading the poison handling manual.

To put it bluntly, first aid itself is a practical technology derived to deal with various emergencies. Poisoning is just one of the high-frequency scenarios. There is no need to separate the two to find a relationship. If you are really in trouble, don't panic. Follow the simplest principles and help, which is better than anything else.