For example some lighter fluids
In: Biology
Everyone’s mentioning the risk of damaging substances transiting the esophagus twice, which is true. But the other reason they give this instruction is the risk of aspiration into the lungs. All of these instructions assume access to modern medical assistance, BTW.
You’ll also see “don’t give activated charcoal,” for example, but not (always) because it doesn’t work. More like the experts know that “get your ass to a damn hospital” is like 100x better than “just eat a bunch of activated charcoal and expect that to be sufficient.” They don’t want people thinking they should go for plan B when plan A is within reach.
Another one is: if your kid drank the old antifreeze (the formulation that tasted sweet), they’d say “don’t give the kid vodka.” Because they really mean “don’t try to fix this at home – take him to the hospital!” But if there’s a natural disaster that’s blocked your access, hospital too far away, you’re in a country without medical support, zombies surround you, etc, then alcohol is, actually, the right treatment.
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