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Journalism of Courage
“Rush to the doctor!” This is the expert advice of PGI doctors, who studied over 22 cases of snakebite in children at the Paediatric Emergency department from January 2006 till June this year.
For the experts, the main cause of concern — apart from the rising instances of snakebites — is the time lapse between the envenomation (process by which venom is injected into the body) and treatment at hospital.
“The response time is very high here. The average time taken to bring a child to the PGI Emergency after he/she was bitten has been found to be 8.5 hours. In fact, one child, who died due to multiple organ failure after being stung by wasps, was brought to hospital after over 24 hours had elapsed,” said Dr K R Jat.
Jat is a co-author of the study titled ‘Profile of Envenomation in Children’ that was presented at the Annual Conference of Asia Pacific Association of Medical Toxicology on Monday.
The median age of the children brought to the Paediatric ICU was eight, with the boy-to-girl ratio at 21:10. The instances of snakebites numbered 19, scorpion stings two and multiple wasp stings in one case.
A majority of the children developed complications later, noted the doctors.
Nearly half developed complications related to snake envenomation, 13.7 per cent developed IV Hemolysis, 13.6 per cent suffered acute renal failure, 9.1 per cent developed aspiration pneumonia and 4.5 per cent suffered acute liver failure. Cardiovascular and neurological complications were common for the children with scorpion envenomation.
Home truths: poisons are closer then we thought
A study conducted by the PGI reveals that a large number of poisoning cases reported at the PGI over the last three years involved the intake of substances available at home.
Updated till June 2008, the study carried out by the Department of Internal Medicine has found that 285 of the 999 patients who reported in the emergency had consumed domestic substances, and as many as 607 patients had consumed pesticides — broadly divided into aluminum phosphate and organophosphates.
While 78 per cent of the patients had consumed the agents with the alleged intent to commit suicide, only 22 per cent of the patients admitted to accidental intake of substances.
Of the 285 persons who consumed substances available at home, 36 per cent consumed drugs, with sedatives being common, followed by anti-depressants and anti-epileptics. Corrosives like toilet cleaners and rhodanticides were the other common substances consumed at home by patients. Professor Surjit Singh of the Internal Medicine Department said, “Apart from insecticides and corrosives being used in urban areas, we have also seen some cases of heroin overdose which has landed patients in the emergency. The problem is that many substances are easily available at home and people can misuse these.”
The study also finds that 90 per cent of the patients were discharged after first aid while morbidity was highest in patients who consumed corrosives and copper sulphate.
