Many children mistakenly drink oil to burn incense in critical condition, doctors warn that first aid actions will make children worse

Children are in critical condition because of their parents’ wrong actions

According to information from the National Children’s Hospital, recently, the hospital has received many children with serious signs after taking the wrong oil to burn incense at home. When the incident happened, because the family did not immediately take the child to a medical facility, but arbitrarily caused the child to vomit improperly, making the child’s condition even worse…

Specifically, the hospital received, treated and treated 5 children who drank incense oil, leading to life-threatening respiratory failure. Typically, the case of a child with PD (17 months, in Quang Ninh) was hospitalized on April 28. According to PD’s mother, during the holidays, the family went to the house of relatives in Thai Binh to play. When there was no adult around, the child drank an oil bottle to light the altar lamp on the ground.

Immediately after that, the family gave him a lot of water to drink and hooked his throat to make him vomit and then took him to the hospital for emergency and treatment. However, due to the worsening condition, the child was transferred to the National Children’s Hospital for treatment.

A 17-month-old child is being examined by a doctor after ingesting incense oil. Photo: Central Children’s Hospital

The second case is a baby VA (20 months old in Bac Giang) who was hospitalized in early May in a state of cyanosis, respiratory failure, and had to breathe oxygen because he drank the wrong oil to burn incense.

According to the family, the incident took place when the child climbed up to the 2nd floor to play and saw a bottle of C2 on the window next to the altar. After drinking, the child shouted, then the family discovered it was oil for the lamp. Due to being subjective, seeing that the child did not show any symptoms, the family did not take the baby to a medical facility. After a few hours, seeing that the child vomited a lot, accompanied by a cough, the family took the child to the doctor in a state of fatigue.

With the case of a child with VA in Bac Giang, fortunately, the family did not manually pluck the throat to induce vomiting or give the baby liquid to dilute the oil. After taking oxygen and taking antibiotics for 7 days, so far, the baby has returned to breathing normally, but eating and drinking is still poor, the lung condition is still damaged.

Doctors said that basically cases like this child will be able to make a full recovery. Some cases of oil choking have serious complications that may affect their health later on, and need to be continued by a doctor.

Baby VA’s mother is still extremely worried after her daughter was mistakenly drank oil for lighting. Photo: Central Children’s Hospital.

Absolutely do not poke your throat to cause vomiting

BSCK II Le Thanh Chuong – Head of the Department of Respiratory Resuscitation – Respiratory Center, National Children’s Hospital, said that many families, when they discovered that their children had taken the wrong oil for lighting, took the action of pulling their throats to make the children vomit, hoping to make them vomit. Expect the amount of chemical to be released. However, this is a wrong action that makes the disease worse.

According to Dr. Chuong, the most serious complication and the highest risk of death of mistakenly drinking oil for lighting is respiratory failure. The treatment of accidental ingestion of lighting oil is not the same as that of other liquids. In particular, parents absolutely must not hook the throat to induce vomiting when the airway is not protected.

“Lighting oil is a volatile hydrocarbon, with low surface tension, so it is easy to spill into the airways when swallowed, especially when causing vomiting. When entering the airways, the oil will spread very quickly in the lungs, causing mucosal necrosis, atelectasis and pneumonia.

Gastric lavage only in children who drink large quantities of burning oil and must be carried out in a medical facility after the child’s airways have been protected from oil ingress, for example, intubation must be performed before washing. Dr. Chuong shared.

The wrong initial handling can easily cause lung damage to the child. Photo: Central Children’s Hospital.

What to do to prevent and handle when children drink the wrong oil for lighting?

According to Doctor Chuong, drinking the wrong oil causes choking on the lungs, pneumonia is an accident that often comes from the carelessness of adults in the family, due to the habit of lighting kerosene lamps at altars and storing oil for lamps in temples. Drinking utensils such as water bottles, cups, bowls… make it easy for children to drink by mistake.

The consequences of this are also very unpredictable, can cause digestive poisoning in children, disrupt many organ functions in the body, but especially serious is the situation of aspiration of oil into the lungs, causing necrosis and atelectasis. , infection leads to life-threatening respiratory failure and can leave serious long-term sequelae.

Doctor Chuong recommends that when a child drinks the wrong oil, the family should not give water, drink milk and poke the child’s throat to vomit, but must immediately go to the nearest medical facility for examination, consultation and emergency treatment. and appropriate treatment.

The most important thing to avoid accidental ingestion of oil is that, families with children, especially children under 6 years old, should not store oil in the house; if it is necessary to reserve, do not store oil in bottles or easily confused items such as drinking water bottles, cups, bowls; Oil should be kept in a place out of reach of children: high, in a locked cabinet…