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Help with poisoning with mushrooms
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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Poisoning with mushrooms is a very common phenomenon, especially during the season of their harvesting and harvesting. One of the reasons is the use of deliberately inedible or improperly prepared mushrooms. Any mushroom picker, and every person, not indifferent to eating mushroom dishes, you need to know how to help with poisoning with mushrooms, because under certain conditions it can save someone's life.
Getting into the digestive system, the "wrong" fungus begins to release toxic substances that enter the circulatory system and spread to all organs and systems, damaging and disrupting their functions.
First of all, the inner shells of the digestive organs begin to suffer, which leads to an upset of the digestive process. Further toxins spread inside the body, affecting the urinary system, liver, central nervous system and heart.
The first signs of intoxication appear for up to six hours to three days after the dish was eaten. The initial symptoms can not be missed - it can be pain in the abdomen, bouts of nausea, vomiting, liquid copious stool. Acute renal and hepatic insufficiency develops. With the defeat of the nervous system, there is a retardation, a violation of consciousness, hallucinogenic disorders.
What should be first aid for poisoning with poisonous mushrooms?
First aid for poisoning with mushrooms
In a pale toadstool there are toxic alkaloids in large quantities, and they can not be destroyed either during thermal treatment (even prolonged) or during drying. Toxic substances in a very short time penetrate from the digestive system into the bloodstream and accumulate in the liver. The latent period of toadstool poisoning can vary from 6 to 24 hours. Then there is vomiting, pain and pain in the abdomen, diarrhea (possibly with blood). Relatively fast develops collapse, hallucinations and coma. When intoxication toadstool, it is necessary immediately to do a gastric lavage, then give a salt purgative preparation inside (Glauberova, bitter, Karlovy Vary salt) and immediately call an ambulance. Upon the arrival of the doctor, the patient will be treated with atropine, lipoic acid. In a hospital it is possible to conduct hemodialysis, hemosorption, as well as detoxification therapy with saline solution.
- When poisoning with fly agaric the specific toxins muscarine and muscaridine enter the bloodstream. These substances can break down when boiling mushrooms, but some of them still remain, exerting a neurotoxic effect on the body. If signs of intoxication are found (usually they come already 1-6 hours after the consumption of the fungus), it is necessary to urgently seek emergency help, rinse the affected stomach and intestines, drink plenty of fluids.
- When you use other conditionally edible fungi, symptoms of poisoning can occur after improper cooking, insufficient heat treatment. What to do in this situation?
- Rinse the stomach, offering the victim to drink 1-1.5 liters of water (at one sitting), you can with the addition of milk. After this, pressing your fingers or a spoon on the root of the tongue, you must call for vomiting. Thus, it should be repeated 3 to 5 times.
- Put the patient horizontally, attach bottles with warm water to the extremities, or warmers.
- Before the arrival of doctors it is necessary to constantly give the victim warm drinks (water, milk, tea).
If there is no possibility to call an ambulance, you should take the patient to the nearest medical institution on your own and immediately.
The rules of pre-medical care for poisoning with mushrooms
- Assistance to the victim should be provided promptly and without delay.
- "Emergency care" is called in all circumstances.
- It is important to remove the remaining food from the digestive system as soon as possible (not only from the stomach, but also from the intestine). To do this, the stomach is washed (you can just cause multiple vomiting, several times rinsing the stomach cavity with liquid), and provoke copious defecation by taking a laxative or putting an enema (if there is an abundant liquid stool, then this step can be skipped).
- After a qualitative gastric lavage, it is recommended to give the victim a large number of sorbent preparations (for example, activated carbon of at least 20-30 tablets at a time, washed down with plenty of water).
- The next step in pre-hospital care is to reduce the concentration of toxic substances that have already entered the circulatory system. For this, the patient should always drink warm liquids before the arrival of physicians - this can be water (preferably alkaline mineral water) or black tea.
After all the procedures performed, the delivery of the victim to the medical institution continues to be mandatory.
In order not to encounter poisoning, observe the safety rules:
- do not collect unfamiliar or suspicious mushrooms;
- Do not buy mushrooms in natural markets from strangers (this applies not only to fresh, but also dried and canned mushrooms);
- Do not consume food with swollen lids or traces of fermentation, as well as with a suspicious smell or color;
- cook mushrooms according to all rules, pre-soaking and boiling them.
Help with poisoning with mushrooms may not be needed if during the preparation of the mushroom dish to perform a simple and affordable test: throw a peeled and cut in half a white onion into the pot with cooking mushrooms. If there is a poisonous mushroom in the dish, the onion turns blue. Take care of yourself!