Wellness & Prevention

When to call the poison hotline

It only takes a few seconds for a toddler to pry open a bottle of bleach or for a neighbor to mistakenly take three days worth of heart medication.

As a responding party in these situations, what do you do? Do you call 911? Rush to the emergency room? Administer first aid? Or wait and see what happens?

Fortunately you do not need to make that decision alone.

The Illinois Poison Center (IPC) hotline (1-800-222-1222) was developed just for these scary occasions. This resource provides a reassuring voice, sound medical advice and directions to the nearest emergency department if treatment is necessary.

You may feel intimidated or even silly calling on a stranger for help. But overcoming these feelings could save you time, worry and even a life. 

Knowing when to call

Often, even if people are familiar with the Illinois Poison Center, they may not know the proper situation to call the hotline.

Dr. Bruce McNulty, an emergency medicine physician at Swedish Covenant Hospital, advises his patients to “error on the side of caution” in any emergency. However, if you are in question about whether a trip to the emergency room is necessary, make use of available resources that can help determine the gravity of the situation.

“If your child took a whole bottle of pills, come to the Emergency Department right away,” McNulty said. “But in cases that are not so clear — like if your parent mixed up their medications or your child has an allergic reaction — those are the times to call the Poison Center hotline.”

The IPC shares this viewpoint, emphasizing that “no issue is too small” in their state-wide ad campaigns. They encourage people to call as soon as they think, or even suspect, a poisoning has occurred. They should not wait for symptoms to appear, since minutes can matter.

In fact, IPC broadly defines poison as “any substance that is harmful to your body when ingested, inhaled, injected, or absorbed through the skin,” to encourage people to call when they are in doubt.

In cases where background information on the IPC, common poisons and prevention advice is needed, the IPC recommends checking out their blog.

What to do in the event of a poisoning

1. Remain calm
2. Call 911 if you have a poison emergency and the victim has collapsed or is not breathing. If the victim is awake and alert, dial (800) 222-1222 (The Illinois Poison Center hotline).

Try to have this information ready: 
-- the victim’s age and weight
-- the container or bottle of the poison if available
-- the time of the poison exposure
-- the address where the poisoning occurred

3. Stay on the phone and follow the instructions from the emergency operator or poison control center.

Saving lives; saving resources

The IPC’s team of trained toxicologists, physicians and volunteers are on-hand 24 hours a day to field calls from the public, as well as medical professionals, to determine the seriousness of each situation and what needs to be done to help each person involved.

In 2010, the IPC responded to nearly 100,000 poison-related calls from the general public in 102 counties in Illinois. These calls involved medication overdoses, adverse reactions to medications, alcohol or drug misuse, household products, herbal products, chemical spills and other poisonings.

Ninety percent of these calls were handled over the phone with first-aid instructions, eliminating the need for an emergency room visit. This aspect of the hotline alone saved patients an estimated $60 million in unnecessary health care costs and hospital admissions, according to the IPC.

Dr. McNulty added that by preventing unnecessary hospital visits, the hotline also saves medical professionals in the emergency department hours of time.
 
“We treat every patient that comes in the door, but sometimes unnecessary emergency visits force us to split our time between those patients, and ones who are in serious need,” he said. “We encourage people to advocate for themselves and use the resources that are available to them to make better treatment decisions.”

McNulty views the relationship between Swedish Covenant Hospital and the IPC as a partnership and credits the hotline for much of the hospital’s success in treating poison-related patient cases.

“The [Illinois] Poison Center offers expert toxicologists and the most advanced knowledge of substances that can be poisonous, as well as the technology to advise the public and medical professional how to properly diagnose and treat each situation,” McNulty said. “Everyone should have their number on their fridge at home.”

Medicinal poisons

Poisoning is an issue we may not take the time to think about, until we are faced with a crisis. This mentality can leave us unprepared — but perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised.  According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), poisoning is consistently the second leading cause of injury-related death in the United States every year. 

Ninety percent of all poison-related deaths involve intentional and unintentional overdoses with prescription or over-the-counter medications, according to the National Center for Health Statistics.

All age groups and demographics in every state are represented in these statistics, indicating that medication poisoning is a very real danger on a national scale. But it’s also a local issue.

In 2008, of the 100,000 calls to the IPC, more than 2,000 came from homes in northwest Chicago. The majority of these calls involved medications and other drugs.

Prevention Tips for familiesAlthough poisonings happen, many advances in treatment, toxicology technology and prevention measures have been made to help decrease negative effects.

Calling the IPC is often your best bet for getting a quick, informed plan of action.

It may only take seconds for a poisoning to occur, but if you call the IPC hotline, the seconds you save can make all the difference.

Nearly half of all poisoning cases in the United States every year involve children under age 6. Fortunately The IPC has developed easy preventative measures families can take to make their home safer for young children:
 
1. Use child resistant caps, but remember they are only child resistant, not child proof (pill boxes are not child resistant)
2. Never call medicine candy or make a game out of taking it. This could encourage a child to look for more later.
3. Keep medications, chemicals and other household products out of sight and out of reach of children. Ideally, they should be locked up.
4. Pay close attention to the product when it is in use, as this is the most likely time for an exposure to occur.
5. Check with the IPC before administering any at-home first-aid for a poisoning situation. Treatments like administering syrup of ipecac or activated charcoal are no longer recommended by the IPC or the American Academy of Pediatrics for use in homes.

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