Cyanokit
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Epi-do
I see dead people
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We are getting them in the next month or two. I hear they are quite expensive, so they are going to be carried on the buggy (two kits, I believe) by the battalion chief since he goes on all fire runs. The primary reason we will be getting the kits is for smoke inhalation patients. Hopefully I never have to use one......
Pittsburgh Proud
Forum Lieutenant
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Would anyone care to share anything about them with us? What are they? I don't think I have ever heard of them.
Thanks B)
Thanks B)
Ridryder911
EMS Guru
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I had worked with a service that carried them about 20 years ago, I thought it was foolish& waste of money. It was until we we were called to a neighboring towns hospital, that their ER had a patient exposed to cyanide and requested our help. No ED's in the area had such and they had heard we carried them.
I humbly apologized to the Director that requested to carry them.
R/r 911
I humbly apologized to the Director that requested to carry them.
R/r 911
Ridryder911
EMS Guru
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Your right the brand name Cyanokit was not released until about two years ago. We had a cyanide kit, which actually contained more ingredients. As well as long acting Vit B 12 (hydroxocobalamin) it also had amyl nitrate. It was very unusual to have such (especially an EMS in a town of about 8000)
I stand corrected, I have not used the newer form of Cyanokit. I have read about it, and appears to be a lot safer version. The problem is diagnosing true cyanide poisoning. Most symptoms are so vague, they are easily misdiagnosed.
R/r 911
I stand corrected, I have not used the newer form of Cyanokit. I have read about it, and appears to be a lot safer version. The problem is diagnosing true cyanide poisoning. Most symptoms are so vague, they are easily misdiagnosed.
R/r 911
For a straight up cyanide poisoning yes. The more likely time this would be used is when the (unconscious) patient had been removed from a burning building with a large amount of unvented smoke and gasses. Over the last couple of years several studies have been consistently showing that hydrogen cyanide (present in essentially every structure fire) is actually causing more deaths than carbon monoxide, previously thought to be the big killer. Pretty much if you've got someone unresponsive due to smoke inhalation in a structure fire, there's a good bet they've inhaled a large amount of HCN. It's part of how this came out to be; the kit we have now is not exactly...user friendly to say the least, and this is.
Beyond that I don't know a whole lot about it, other than it's safer than what I carry now.