Steps for Helping People with Cyanide Poisoning

Contents:

• Medical Video: Cyanide Poisoning
  
• First aid for victims who breathe or drink cyanide poisons
  
• First aid for victims exposed to cyanide poisons on the skin
  
• First aid for victims exposed to cyanide poison in the eyes
  
• Treatment done at the hospital for victims of cyanide poisoning
  
• Can cyanide poisoning be treated at home?
  
• So, how to prevent cyanide poisoning?
  

Medical Video: Cyanide Poisoning

The story of the case of "cyanide coffee" is still warmly reported by various media. CCTV that shows how quickly the victim of convulsions after drinking cyanide coffee has also been played in court about this case. Actually, cyanide poisoning is a condition that can still be helped, provided it is done immediately, and the poison dose is not too high.

If there is someone closest to you cyanide poisoning, hurry to take it to the hospital so that the victim can get further treatment. Meanwhile, you can give first aid to the victim.

Depending on how the victim is exposed to cyanide, here are ways to give first aid to people who are cyanide poisoning:

First aid for victims who breathe or drink cyanide poisons

• Hurry and bring the victim to breathe clean air.
• If the victim is in a place full of cyanide gas which will also be dangerous, stay where you are. Wait until the room is free of poison gas or wait for the help of the expert team to come.
• If the victim has difficulty breathing or even stops breathing, do cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) according to the age of the victim: if the victim is still a child, then do CPR for children, if the victim is an adult, do CPR for adults.
• Don't do mouth-to-mouth resuscitation (an attempt to resuscitate the victim by making mouth-to-mouth ventilation)

First aid for victims exposed to cyanide poisons on the skin

Do not let you hold the victim's skin with cyanide, because you are very vulnerable to being contaminated with cyanide poison. All you can do is contact the medical team as soon as possible. Only an expert medical team with special protective clothing may relate to direct contact with the victim.

First aid for victims exposed to cyanide poison in the eyes

• Remove the glasses or contact lenses worn by the victim
• Immediately pour clean water into the victim's eyes for 10 minutes
• Place victim contact lenses in a special emergency plastic to be disposed of by medical team personnel. Do not dispose of these contact lenses directly in the trash because they can contaminate other people.
• The glasses used by the victim can be used again after the glasses are washed with soap and water.

Treatment done at the hospital for victims of cyanide poisoning

Treatment at the hospital depends on how severe the victim is exposed to cyanide poison. Here are some of them:

1. If the patient is truly in a state of unconsciousness, the treatment to be carried out aims to save the victim's life. Various types of health measures may be carried out by doctors to control the victim's condition intensively.
2. If the victim's situation is not too severe, then the victim will be studied intensively. Usually, the victim's clothes will be replaced because the cyanide poison attached to the victim's clothes may even poison the medical team or even exacerbate the poisoning of the victim himself.
3. The medical team may pump the victim's stomach if the doctor estimates that the victim's body will digest the cyanide. How, the tube will be placed in the mouth and stomach of the victim, then followed by "washing" the victim's stomach to remove cyanide from the body.
4. Cyanide Antidote Kit (CAK) or Hydroxocobalamin (Cyanokit) can be used if the victim is exposed to cyanide poison quite severely. Although not 100% successful, but CAK and Cyanokit can prevent cyanide poisons from poisoning the victims even worse.
5. If the victim is also exposed to poison carbon monoxide, then hyperbaric oxygen therapy will be used. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is done by placing the patient in a room, and the patient will breathe large amounts of oxygen.
6. If the doctor diagnoses that the risk of cyanide in the patient's body is not too dangerous, the patient will be controlled for several hours. If the victim looks fine, then he is allowed to go home with special conditions to immediately return to the doctor if there are signs of cyanide poisoning reappeared.
7. If the victim is exposed to cyanide severely, has another illness, has signs of a health problem that has not been diagnosed, or is too weak to go home, he will be hospitalized for treatment and further observation.
8. Usually, the victim will be recommended to go to a neurologist or neuropsychiatrist (a specialist in the mind, brain, and nerves) to control whether there are problems in the brain and nervous system of the victim.

Can cyanide poisoning be treated at home?

You should know that cyanide poisoning cannot be handled by yourself at home. You have to go to the hospital to get further treatment. All you can do is give first aid while waiting for the medical team to come pick up or on the way when taking the victim to the hospital

So, how to prevent cyanide poisoning?

• Apply childproofing (a safe home environment for children) is very important, especially if the house is full of small children. This is even more important if there are people who work in industries that use cyanide to apply.
• Strict safety rules must be applied to avoid exposure to cyanide poisons. Workers must put all chemicals in a designated place.
• Standard fire prevention must be recommended in the home, such as installing cigarette smoke detectors, avoiding the use of halogen lamps, and not smoking in bed.
• If you see signs of suicide or someone's desire to poison others, hurry for help and persuade the person to go to the expert to get further treatment.