I got a call from the ambulance personell the other day. A patient was found unconcious in his home among liquor and tablets from the bathroom cabinet. Turned out he had taken a handfull of Zopiclone (narcoleptic), Dispril (Asprin) and Ibux (Ibuprofen) and swallowed it down with half a liter of Jaegermeister (just like Unicum, just slightly tastier…).
When he got to the hospital he was concious and crying. Clearly depressed and the amount of stuff he took was not even close to ending it all. The blood alcohol level was 0.7 and he had no clear side-effects from the drugs he had taken…an hour later he was sleeping like a baby (clearly the Zopiclones kicked in).
Treatment? A couple of cups of coal mixture. He swallowed them down like a Scandinavian student at the Iguana street party!
His entire mouth was pitch black and he gave me a big smile after downing the third cup…wish you could have seen it. Priceless!
Anyway, here’s the coal mixture he drank. Mmmm….
He ended up being admitted to the Department of Psychiatry, which made him happy. Clearly wanting to fight his depression. It all ended well.
Update: I was asked why we give the patients coal. In case of intoxication the coal has the ability to bind a large rangel of substances, preventing them from being absorbed in the gastrointestinal tract. Most common side-effect is constipation and a very rare side-effect is electrolyte imbalance in cases where the patient had heavy diarrhea. Coal is common procedure in intoxication.
