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#23047 03/10/03 03:30 PM
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 209
S
Scotts Offline OP
Member
OK here I am with another salt water aquarium post. However this is one that I posted. It seemed well received and so I thought I would copy it onto here.

Word of advice

Let me get my soap box...Step onto soap box

Cue the music.....

This is long but please read all of it.

There was a post on the aggressive fish set up about someone who got stung by a lion fish. Now their finger was purple and very sore, they wanted to know what to do. My word of advice for all of you, let me repeat ALL of you is to know where to find the phone number of your local posion control center. This especially goes for those of you with children.

I know, shut up Scott why are you lecturing us. Well let me tell you. 3 years ago I was stung by a black widow spider. I laid on the sucker so it gave me all it had. I will admit that I was not sure what to do so I called 911. They sent an ambulance and paramedics. I was taken to the hospital and must have had a reaction because I was in there for 4 days. Let me tell you the pain was INTENSE. However what did the hospital do? They called the poison control center.

The poison control center is a regional based system that is backed by the Center for Disease Control. They not only deal with accidental overdoses of medications, but animal bites, bug bites and even poisons from plants. After my hospital stay I researched the poison control center and found this information. As the safety guy at work I passed it along to the people at work and now I am passing it along to you.

Sure some of you may be reading this and say, yeah Scott but it is good they took you to the hospital. However if I had called the poison control center they would have told me the symptoms of a black widow spider bite and when they started to occur my wife could have driven me to the hospital. It takes about 2-3 hours for the symptoms to occur and trust me the hopsital did nothing about it during those 2-3 hours.

I implore all of you to find the website of the local poison control center and do some research on them. They are there to help!!!

I know that the poison control center called the hospital to see how I was doing. So they do care.

I firmly belive in learing by your mistakes. I made a mistake and am now passing along my knowledge to you. I do not expect you to memorize the information about the poison control center, just know what they can do for you and to know where to find the phone number if you need it.

I am tired now. I think I will get off my soap box and go take a nap.

Scott

#23048 03/10/03 06:25 PM
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 7,520
P
Member
A cautionary tale indeed, Scott.

I guess we're quite lucky in England in that there really isn't that much in the way of dangerous flora and fauna. As far as I know, we have no indigenous spiders that have a harmful bite, not counting an escapee from someone who keeps exotic variants such as tarantulas.

We have only one poisonous snake, the adder, and in all my 36 years I've only ever come face-to-fang with one such critter (not counting zoos, safely behind glass).

Isn't the Center for Disease Control based in Atlanta?

#23049 03/10/03 10:02 PM
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 49
Member
Hey Scott,
The Brown Recluse spider bit me seven times in the third week of boot camp back in '81. The drill sgt. didn't call poison control. He advised me to "squeeze it boy it's a boil."

#23050 03/10/03 10:10 PM
Joined: Mar 2001
Posts: 333
S
Member
Scott, what do mean you made a mistake? You called 911 and got immediate help. You did the right thing! Most people probably wouldn't do anything until symptoms started showing up and by then, irreversible damage could of occured.


Steve
#23051 03/10/03 11:37 PM
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 209
S
Scotts Offline OP
Member
V,
I had it explained to me that there is a diference between a spider "biting" you and "infussing" you. Sometimes a spider may just bite you without injecting the poison. A way of telling the spider telling you to leave me alone. I laid on this spider so it infused me with everything that it had! I was able to grab the spider and it was kind of funny to see everyone in the emergency ward come in to look at the spider, until it started to hurt. Then I hated that Go#d$%n thing.

S,
The reason that I made a mistake is that often times people get bitten by a spider and have no symptoms. (see above) I do not beleive in calling 911 for everything. I live near Los Angeles and hear about how the emergency rooms are clogged with people who do not have medical insurance. The hospital just had me read a book on the bed, even when the back pain started to set in, a symptom of black wido spider bites, they did not give me very good care.

Paul,
You are right the CDC is based out of Atlanta, however they share their knowledge with the regional poison control centers.

I will answer any and all questions
Scott

#23052 03/11/03 01:57 AM
Joined: Nov 2001
Posts: 328
B
Member
The national Poison Control Center hotline is:
1-800-222-1222 if you have a poisoning emergency.

If you want info to check out while you're surfing, visit http://www.1-800-222-1222.info/poisonHelp.asp

[This message has been edited by BuggabooBren (edited 03-11-2003).]


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