Sometimes, a doctor uses a gastric lavage for some people as an emergency to save their lives. Some people take a high dose of a particular medicine. For example, some people forget that they have taken their dose of medication and therefore take an additional dose in cases of attempted suicide by eating A large amount of medicine or toxic substances, and in other cases when children are given to take and experiment with a particular drug out of curiosity or drink chemicals such as chlorine (so they must be monitored and careful and not to leave chemicals and drugs at their disposal). In addition to other reasons may resort In which the doctor or the medic to perform gastric lavage for the injured person.
Gastric lavage can be defined as simple: a procedure performed by the doctor to cleanse the stomach of toxic and harmful substances by giving the patient large amounts of water and taking it out by means of a special tube for washing the stomach. This procedure should be done within one to two hours of the toxic substance.
The following are the tools used for gastric lavage:
- Special tube for gastric lavage.
- Special anesthesia for breathing,
- Wide basin.
- Sterile medical forceps.
- About 20 liters of hot water is well sterilized.
- Specific substances and drugs such as calcium and others.
The doctor in charge of the case will put the tube for washing the stomach with the mouth and deliver it to the stomach after the patient is in the appropriate position for this procedure (and he should be familiar and be warned that the ventilator does not reach the lung by mistake). The doctor then gives the patient amounts of water in batches ranging from 500 – 800 millimeters, and then takes out the water and the contents of the stomach, and then take the material extracted from the stomach for analysis.
There are many measures taken by the doctor, including that it can not be done for those who suffer from stomach problems as stomach ulcers or exposed to bleeding in the stomach, and those who have problems breathing and respiratory tract. The doctor can turn the patient into activated carbon as an alternative to this procedure.