8pm-9pm (20 calls)
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.
7pm-8pm (19 calls)
A child ingested several mouthfuls of bathwater that had Mr Bubbles® in it. A 4 year old inadvertently brushed his teeth with Bengay® muscle rub instead of toothpaste.
6pm-7pm (18 calls)
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. A 1 year old ingested a mouthful of Desitin® diaper cream.
5pm-6pm (16 calls)
A 4 year old child ingested some granules from a silica gel packet. 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 … more
4pm-5pm (15 calls)
A mother called because her 18 year old son was dared to drink a bottle of hot sauce. He developed significant vomiting and diarrhea. A 1 year old licked his father’s deodorant stick. A 37 year old male inadvertently took two of his daughter’s Depakote tablets, thinking they were Tylenol.
3pm-4pm (14 calls)
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).
2pm-3pm (15 calls)
A 2 year old ingested a mouthful of hand sanitizer. A 3 year old child ingested a swallow of calamine lotion. A 2 year old got into grandmother’s pill box and may have ingested up to one each of lisinopril, prednisone and atorvastatin.
1pm-2pm (15 calls)
A 9 month old child ingested up to a mouthful of Balmex® diaper cream. A 2 year old child ingested a swig of rubbing alcohol.
12pm-1pm (15 calls)
A 2 year old girl was playing in mom’s dresser and squirted perfume into her eyes. 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 … more
11am-12pm (15 calls)
A 1 year old child scraped some soap off a bar of soap with her teeth. An elderly man called because a drain opener splashed into his eyes when he poured it into a clogged drain. A 3 year old child was playing with nail polish, and put it on her lips like lipstick.
10am-11am (13 calls)
An ER called for assistance with an adult male who was pulled unconscious from a tank he had been cleaning at his worksite. A 3 year old child has eaten several granules in a silica gel packet.
9am-10am (10 calls)
A 3 year old child ingested an entire roll of Rolaids.® An 18 month old child was found sucking on the wick of a oil-based plug-in air freshener.
8am-9am (6 calls)
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. A 2 year old child ingested an unknown amount of gummy vitamins.
7am-8am (6 calls)
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. A mom called because she accidentally gave her 2 month old her other child’s heart medication.
Midnight-7am (35 calls)
Midnight to 7am 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. A 20 year old woman was depressed and took a … 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 … 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 … more
You might say the Illinois Poison Center is the antidote to unnecessary health care costs
A Poison Center means different things to different people For a parent, it is a place to call for treatment advice if their child eats, drinks, rubs onto their skin or breathes a potentially harmful substance For a doctor or nurse, it is the place to call for treatment recommendations for potentially poisoned patients in … more
A Spoonful of Trouble
Do you still use a kitchen spoon to measure out medication instead of a dosing cup or dropper? If so, you are putting yourself or your kids at risk. A recent study showed that using a kitchen spoon to measure medication results in an overdose 12% of the time and an under-dose 8% of the … more
Poisoning is a Matter of Dose
In 2006, I nearly killed my kidneys because I ignored the rule “poisoning in only a matter of dose”. With regards to poisoning, the potentially harmful dose of a medication can be acute meaning too much all at once, or chronic referring too much over an extended period of time. Paracelsus, a 16th century physician … more
Top 5 Things You Didn’t Think Could be Poisonous to Children
Half of the calls received by the IPC involve kids under the age of 6. Young children are naturally curious and explore their environments by touching and putting things into their mouths. They learn by imitation, their taste buds are immature and they do not understand cause and effect. Plus they are just small, so … more