hand sanitizer scare

[GRAMMYTAB]

:bugeyes:I had an incident this week that woke us all up to an intersting fact!! Just wondering if anyone else has ever had this to happen.

A 5th grade student came in around 9:00 with a bad headache (her mom works here at the school and told me to give her some tylenol) so i administered liq. tylenol and sent her to class. Abouth 40 minutes later she came back in and was unable to finish a sentence. I kept asking her what was wrong, her reply was...."I feel like.........." over and over and over....her pupils were normal..all outward signs were normal. I know this child and knew she was either pulling my leg, wanting attention or something was out of whack, so i went and got her mom to come talk to her. She got the same responses. We stood her up, she walked like she was drunk, her speech became slurred...she could not tell me her name......so mom took her to the ER....they did a tox screen and CT of her brain...all came back ok, only showing she had acetamen. in her blood along with 3% ethyl alcohol.

We racked our brains trying to figure out where it came from. Mom took the bottle of tylenonl i had used back to hospital and had it checked.. It came back fine of course. They questioned her to see if someone has "slipped" her something....after an entire day of going over and over what could have or might have happened. They determined that she had used sanitizer on her hands, blew her nose, used more, then she is a nail biter so she chewed on her fingernails.........well, long story short.......the doc in the ER said it was like she had gotten the sanintzer in her system and got drunk!!!

geez.......what a scare for us.........i only worry about our little ones in prek and kg using it and licking it off their hands but not the 5th graders getting alcohol poisoning!!!

what a week this has been.....will be glad when it is over.

HOpe the rumors around our small town are not going around that the school nurse now has "happy hour" in her office at 9 every morning!!

have a good weekend all you nurses,

Tabitha

[morte, LPN, LVN]

Morte, I hadn't heard that. Do you have a source? I am interested because I do use it personally when I do not have access to soap/water or in really gross public bathrooms I use both.

didnt, that is why i worded it that way.....went looking, found out it is antimicrobial, OTHER than 62% or higher of alcohol.....did find this "conversation" but be forwarned someone quotes George Carlin (in all his profane glory) towards the end....http://ask.metafilter.com/43670/Hand-Sanitizers-Friend-or-Foe ....many of the responses have other links...

basically, why does a child need to sanitize their hands to this degree? and in my search antibacterial+hand+sanitizer+resistant found some interesting nonalcohol alternatives....

and if there is some need to have sanitier, perhaps the toilettes would be better? at least the amount of ETOH would be less (i think) not that i would put it past a kid to suck/chew on one

[Spidey's mom, ADN, BSN, RN]

Because they're kids! I've transported kids of all ages (some who should have known better) for ingesting things like Kerosene, Lamp oil, Draino, Cascade, bleach, fertilizer, plant food, algicide (looks like candy), antifreeze.

I'm disturbed by the new air freshener that's being advertized. You know, the one that is sort of colorful and chunky that you can put it any bowl you want. I forget who makes it but the first time I saw it I thought some kid is going to ingest that because it looks just like hard candy!

As for the 10 year old. Something in the back of my mind is making me wonder if she isn't a closet alcoholic.

My youngest son, when he was about 4, broke open a Galileo Thermometer and drank the liquid -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo_thermometer

My daughter opened a box of staples and put a handful in her mouth and chewed them . . ended up in the ER and one staple was swallowed.

steph

[Aneroo, LPN]

Because they're kids! I've transported kids of all ages (some who should have known better) for ingesting things like Kerosene, Lamp oil, Draino, Cascade, bleach, fertilizer, plant food, algicide (looks like candy), antifreeze.

I'm disturbed by the new air freshener that's being advertized. You know, the one that is sort of colorful and chunky that you can put it any bowl you want. I forget who makes it but the first time I saw it I thought some kid is going to ingest that because it looks just like hard candy!

As for the 10 year old. Something in the back of my mind is making me wonder if she isn't a closet alcoholic.

Yikes! There is a new jelly snack food out in the shape of legos. I thought "What genius thought of this? SOme kid is going to the ER for eating their real legos instead of the snacks".

This isn't isolated to the schools. I don't give sanitizer to my high school kids b/c they know it has alcohol in it (they've asked for bottles before). There are psych patients and alcoholics in hospitals drinking the sanitizer (big article on it here at allnurses.com)

[raidermom]

I have heard a similar story. Child was taken to ER and then transfered to another hospital, Was not given anything else. Parent was called b/c child was ill. Questioned other students and found out that child had licked the sanitizer off of her hands b/c it was scented.

We use this in our school and have for several years, without incidence.

[NurseLoveJoy88, ASN, RN]

I still can't believe she got drunk from biting her nails with alcohol on them.

On another note" You're allowed to give tylenol without a doctors order ? What if she has an allergic reaction to the tylenol ( not saying she did) ? Just because a student has a parent at the school I never administer OTC without a docs order.

Please forgive me if I'm wrong : May be your district does have a policy where students can get OTC meds with just a parent note. If that is the case please disgard my post.

[GRAMMYTAB]

Our school has a policy that OTC meds can be given if the parent provides them and if they have signe the Administration of meds form upon enrollment of that child. Otherwise,,no, they don't get anything from the health office.