Warning of sea water drug poisoning

Sea water drug poisoning

Before that, at 6:25 pm on May 1, 2022, patient K, born in 1984, living in Ho Chi Minh City was taken to Cho Ray Hospital in a state of lethargy and struggling. The patient’s family said that around 6pm-23pm on April 30, 2022, the patient and 2 friends (male) drank beer, alcohol and used a stimulant called “seawater drug” mixed with alcohol to to drink. After that, the patient was lethargic, struggling, and excited, so his family took him to a local hospital.

At the local hospital, the patient admitted to the hospital was lethargic, agitated, had a wound in his right eyebrow (due to falling and hitting the floor during stimulation)… was diagnosed and monitored for alcohol-induced psychosis, wound head.

The patient was then transferred to Cho Ray hospital. At Cho Ray Hospital, the patient was urgently transferred to the Department of Tropical Diseases and treated with intensive care. In addition to intense excitability, the patient also had very high cardiac and muscle enzyme elevations (a sign of muscle breakdown).

This indicates that the patient has severe damage to the cardiac and striated muscles. As a result of this severe muscle destruction, the patient had severe kidney failure and the treatment team had to undergo dialysis to save the patient’s life.

Emergency patient at Cho Ray Hospital.

According to Dr. Nguyen Thi Thuy Ngan, in the medical literature, there are symptoms of muscle destruction in patients using this sea water drug. However, this is a rare symptom and is more often associated with withdrawal syndrome “sea water drug” than in the case of poisoning with this drug.

Assessing possible serious consequences for the patient, the treatment team applied an urgent treatment regimen within 24 hours from the time of exposure to the poison and for 5 consecutive days after that, the patient received intensive treatment. The patient was discharged from the hospital after 11 days of treatment, the results of the follow-up examination after 1 week also showed that the patient was stable.

The patient’s family also said that out of the two friends who drank with the patient, one of them, after riding a motorbike, stopped on the way to lie down on the car and died of unknown cause. The other person, who is a stimulant supplier, also felt headache and fatigue. After being hospitalized for 1 day, his condition stabilized and was discharged.

Why is the drug “sea water” so scary?

According to Dr. Nguyen Thi Thuy Ngan, sea water drug is a liquid drug, colorless, odorless, slightly salty taste. However, there are other preparations available in powder form or in the form of tablets and capsules.

This substance was first introduced in the late 19th century by a Russian chemist. In the early years of the 60s – 70s of the twentieth century, people used this substance in the field of anesthesia because of its nerve block effect, but had to stop using it because the drug had side effects causing respiratory arrest.

Therefore, this substance was then only recommended in some European countries, the United States for patients with withdrawal symptoms such as alcohol or other opiate withdrawal or in the treatment of sleeping disorders and especially recommended. For medical use under the supervision of a physician.

This substance is medically known as Gama Hydroxybutyrate (GHP for short). Therefore, in the world of “players” often call the slang name “Vitamin G”.

Warning of sea water drug poisoning.

With the “silent” consequences that can lead to death, Dr. Dr. Nguyen Thi Thuy Ngan gives the following recommendations:

Many people when using this substance think that this substance is safe, after drinking it only creates a feeling of euphoria and is not affected later.

These are completely misconceptions. Because after drinking is often stimulated, excited, not feeling the dangers, it is easy to cause daily-life accidents or traffic accidents when using motorbikes, cars …

In fact, there have been cases where the use of this drug has resulted in euphoria, climbing and falling, or severe burns.

And at doses exceeding the threshold, users can fall asleep, sleep deeply, there have been cases where it was recorded that the patient was “forgotten”, thinking that after taking the drug, only sleeping but actually the patient was in a coma. very deep and respiratory arrest, which can be fatal in these cases.

This can also explain the case that 1 in 3 of the patient’s friends collapsed in the car when he got home for no apparent reason.

With a high risk of abuse and harm to users, “sea water drugs” (or GHB) are classified by the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA US) as a category. I of the group of drugs that require close control (Schedule I).

K.Chi