Every year, excessive alcohol consumption leads to more than 7 percent of ER visits. It can be one of the most difficult emergencies to assess, largely because the sufferer is unable to accurately explain how they feel and what they’re experiencing.
Alcohol poisoning, also known as an alcohol overdose, causes 178,307 deaths a year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Before you can help someone who may be experiencing alcohol poisoning, you need to know what you’re looking for.
Symptoms of Alcohol Poisoning
- Vomiting
- Confusion
- Slowness to respond
- Failure to stay awake
- Slowed breathing
- Difficulty to rouse from sleep
- Clammy skin
If you have alcohol poisoning, you will likely not display every one of these symptoms but will usually show a combination of the above.
Many Factors Exacerbate Alcohol Poisoning
You might metabolize alcohol more slowly while taking certain medications. Several types of antibiotics can adversely affect you as you drink. Antidepressants and anti-anxiety medications, such as benzodiazepines, are suppressants that can depress the central nervous system, leading to an exaggerated response to alcohol response. Other factors like dehydration, underlying medical conditions such as diabetes, and consuming large amounts of alcohol quickly can all worsen alcohol’s toxic effects on the body.
Every Person Is Different
If alcohol poisoning is suspected, pay attention to the symptoms instead of the amount of alcohol that has been consumed. Everybody is different and has their own level of alcohol tolerance. One person might be entirely functional after consuming excessive amounts of booze. In other cases, small amounts of alcohol can cause alcohol poisoning, especially in young people who are just starting to experiment with drinking and don’t know their limits.
If you’re with someone who appears to show signs of alcohol poisoning, you should position them so that they are lying down on their side. This keeps them from swallowing and choking on their vomit if they throw up.
Why Hospital Treatment Is Crucial
Alcohol poisoning, if untreated, can cause death. Too much alcohol consumed too quickly can suppress the respiratory drive so much that you can stop breathing. Also, if you are unconscious, you cannot protect your airway from vomit that could lead to aspirating vomit into your lungs. Pneumonia may result, as well as the ongoing need for a ventilator. Alcohol dilates your blood vessels, lowering your body temperature. In cold climates, if you pass out in the cold, you could become severely hypothermic, leading to organ impairment and risk of death.
What Will Happen at the ER
Treating alcohol poisoning is a process of ruling out other conditions. Bleeding in your brain, electrolyte abnormalities, diabetic ketoacidosis, seizures, carbon monoxide poisoning and many other diseases can all have symptoms similar to alcohol poisoning. In the ER, doctors may order a CT scan and bloodwork to determine if there are other causes of your symptoms.
Your ER doctor will not pump your stomach to treat alcohol poisoning. By the time someone with alcohol poisoning makes it to the hospital, the alcohol is already in the bloodstream. Hospital staff provide supportive care. The medical team will likely start IV fluids to hydrate and help the liver metabolize the alcohol. If necessary, they will intubate if you are too altered to protect your airway or if airway if breathing function has reduced too greatly.
The ER Is a Safe Space
Going to the emergency room is nothing to be embarrassed about. Nobody judges you. If you are under 21 and someone brings you to the hospital for alcohol poisoning, you will not be arrested, nor will parents be called (unless you are younger than 18).
The nurse and doctors are focused on your health, not law enforcement. In fact, if for any reason police happen to be present when someone who has been brought in who is underage or has taken illegal substances, the hospital staff will not share the blood-alcohol level or other private medical information with the police, even if asked.
The goal of ER staff is to ensure your safety and well-being, and for that reason, it’s best to share as much information as possible about which substances and what quantities were consumed. It’s even more crucial for your friends or family to make sure that if you are in this potentially dangerous condition, you are immediately taken the ER to be properly looked after.
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