Free Materials for Illinois Poison Prevention Month

This year’s slogan says it all:  “If you shouldn’t have taken it, eaten it, touched it or let it bite you, call the experts who can help…1.800.222.1222.” Read more »

A Day In the Life of a Poison Center

We hope you enjoyed our day in the life of the Poison Center blog-a-thon yesterday.  Those 282 cases represent just a single day here at IPC; that translates to over 100,000 people that we help each year in Illinois.  Hopefully after reading these sample cases, you’ve learned that the IPC can help with just about any substance out there, and that there is no reason to feel embarrassed or ashamed to call, because we really have heard it all!  To view the cases again, click on any/all the following hourly posts: Read more »

11pm-11:59pm (14 calls)

1. A 38 year old woman got out of the shower and did not have her glasses on.  She reached for her aerosol spray deodorant but instead used Scrubbing Bubbles.
2. A 23 year old female was brought to the ER after confessing to her mother that she had ingested several handfuls of over the counter sleeping pills and alcohol. Read more »

10pm-11pm (17 calls)

1. A 2 year old ingested an unknown amount of moisturizing body butter.
2. A 69 year old male inadvertently swallowed a Spiriva capsule instead of using it in his powder inhaler. Read more »

9pm-10pm (19 calls)

1. 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.
2. A 5 year old ingested up to 10 of his own Singulair tablets. Read more »

8pm-9pm (20 calls)

1. An ER called requesting treatment advice regarding a 26 year old intoxicated male who was bit by his pet rattlesnake on the neck.  He was showing off the snake to his friends at a party and had placed it around his neck. Read more »

7pm-8pm (19 calls)

1. A child ingested several mouthfuls of bathwater that had Mr Bubbles® in it.
2. A 4 year old inadvertently brushed his teeth with Bengay® muscle rub instead of toothpaste. Read more »

6pm-7pm (18 calls)

1. Caller took a beer out of the minbar in a hotel and quickly realized after one swig that it was urine.  Someone had drunk the beer, then filled it with urine and put it back to avoid being charged.
2. A 1 year old ingested a mouthful of Desitin® diaper cream. Read more »

5pm-6pm (16 calls)

1. A 4 year old child ingested some granules from a silica gel packet.
2. After playing basketball, an 18 year old male took two large swigs from a Gatorade® bottle that he found in his friend’s Jeep.  Turns out it was windshield wiper fluid the friend had transferred to the smaller bottle to make it more portable. Read more »

4pm-5pm (15 calls)

1. A mother called because her 18 year old son was dared to drink a bottle of hot sauce.  He developed significant vomiting and diarrhea.
2. A 1 year old licked his father’s deodorant stick.
3. A 37 year old male inadvertently took two of his daughter’s Depakote tablets, thinking they were Tylenol. Read more »

3pm-4pm (14 calls)

1. A caller was trying to unclog a stubborn drain and poured drain cleaner and bleach into the sink at the same time.   He immediately began having nose and eye burning and coughing.  (bleach and an acid drain cleaner mixed together create chlorine gas which is a very strong respiratory irritant). Read more »

2pm-3pm (15 calls)

1. A 2 year old ingested a mouthful of hand sanitizer.
2. A 3 year old child ingested a swallow of calamine lotion.
3. A 2 year old got into grandmother’s pill box and may have ingested up to one each of lisinopril, prednisone and atorvastatin. Read more »

1pm-2pm (15 calls)

1. A 9 month old child ingested up to a mouthful of Balmex® diaper cream.
2. A 2 year old child ingested a swig of rubbing alcohol. Read more »

12pm-1pm (15 calls)

1. A 2 year old girl was playing in mom’s dresser and squirted perfume into her eyes.
2. An adult female patient presented to the emergency room with severely blistered hands.  The patient recently purchased some ‘all natural’ household cleaner, and she assumed since all the ingredients were all-natural it would be safe to use to disinfect her hands.  The product’s ingredients, while perfectly natural, were caustic and caused chemical burns. Read more »

11am-12pm (15 calls)

1. A 1 year old child scraped some soap off a bar of soap with her teeth.
2. An elderly man called because a drain opener splashed into his eyes when he poured it into a clogged drain.
3. A 3 year old child was playing with nail polish, and put it on her lips like lipstick. Read more »

10am-11am (13 calls)

1. An ER called for assistance with an adult male who was pulled unconscious from a tank he had been cleaning at his worksite.
2. A 3 year old child has eaten several granules in a silica gel packet. Read more »

9am-10am (10 calls)

1. A 3 year old child ingested an entire roll of Rolaids.®
2. An 18 month old child was found sucking on the wick of a oil-based plug-in air freshener. Read more »

8am-9am (6 calls)

1. A 14 month old child took a bite out of his mother’s deodorant stick.  Mom was able to remove most of the material from his mouth but he swallowed some.
2. A 2 year old child ingested an unknown amount of gummy vitamins. Read more »

7am-8am (6 calls)

1. An 11 month old child was playing with the tube of Desitin® diaper cream while his father changed his diaper.  He bit into the tube and ingested a mouthful of the cream.
2. A mom called because she accidentally gave her 2 month old her other child’s heart medication. Read more »

Midnight-7am (35 calls)

Midnight to 7am

1. A 3 year old woke up in the middle of the night and went to play in a closet while his parents were asleep.  He tipped mango scented laundry soap up to mouth , ingested some and spilled it on his face.
2. A 20 year old woman was depressed and took a handful of ibuprofen.
3. An emergency room called requesting advice Read more »

Wow, I Bet You Hear Lot of Interesting Stuff! What Kind of Calls Do You Get?

I get asked this a lot when people find out I work for the Illinois Poison Center.  There is an intense fascination with the sorts of things that are called into a poison center.  These questions come in conversation, e-mail and the internet.  As an example, our very first Twitter response was “What is the craziest call you have ever gotten?” Read more »

Recollections of the 1982 Chicago Tylenol®-Cyanide Poisonings

By Anthony M Burda Rph, DABAT  aka the Man, the Myth, the Legend

Everyone has a tendency to remember where they were and what they were doing on the day something very significant happened in the world, for example, the day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, the Challenger shuttle went down, or the terrorist attack of 9/11/01.  For those of us in the toxicology world, one incident that stands out is the Tylenol®-cyanide deaths which rattled Chicago and the entire nation back in September 1982. Read more »