Fire and ice: diagnosis of carbon monoxide poisoning in a remote environment
Following an explosion on board a British Navy submarine operating under the Polar ice cap, a 33-year-old sailor fought a fire without protective breathing apparatus. He was found confused, with soot about his nares. A suspected diagnosis of carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning was rapidly confirmed on si...
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fthighwire:oai:open-archive.highwire.org:emermed:25/4/235 2023-05-15T16:38:16+02:00 Fire and ice: diagnosis of carbon monoxide poisoning in a remote environment Crawford, D M Hampson, N B 2008-04-01 00:00:00.0 text/html http://emj.bmj.com/cgi/content/short/25/4/235 https://doi.org/10.1136/emj.2007.051516 en eng BMJ Publishing Group Ltd http://emj.bmj.com/cgi/content/short/25/4/235 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/emj.2007.051516 Copyright (C) 2008, British Association for Accident and Emergency Medicine Emergency casebooks TEXT 2008 fthighwire https://doi.org/10.1136/emj.2007.051516 2013-05-27T19:22:37Z Following an explosion on board a British Navy submarine operating under the Polar ice cap, a 33-year-old sailor fought a fire without protective breathing apparatus. He was found confused, with soot about his nares. A suspected diagnosis of carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning was rapidly confirmed on site using a new non-invasive pulse CO-oximeter. Initial carboxyhaemoglobin (COHb) level was 28%. He was treated with high-flow oxygen and evacuated to a medical facility with hyperbaric oxygen treatment capability. Fifteen other crew members potentially exposed to smoke in the enclosed space were screened in less than 10 min and had normal COHb levels of 1–2%. This is the first case demonstrating the utility of pulse CO oximetry for diagnosing CO poisoning in remote environments. The information obtained allowed immediate delivery of appropriate on-site treatment and directed subsequent triage. The device was also shown to be effective for the rapid screening of numerous individuals. Not only does it have the potential to provide information that would otherwise be unobtainable in such a situation, but it could play an important role in mass casualty screening. Text Ice cap Polar Ice Cap HighWire Press (Stanford University) Nares ENVELOPE(158.167,158.167,-81.450,-81.450) Emergency Medicine Journal 25 4 235 236 |
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Open Polar |
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HighWire Press (Stanford University) |
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fthighwire |
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English |
topic |
Emergency casebooks |
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Emergency casebooks Crawford, D M Hampson, N B Fire and ice: diagnosis of carbon monoxide poisoning in a remote environment |
topic_facet |
Emergency casebooks |
description |
Following an explosion on board a British Navy submarine operating under the Polar ice cap, a 33-year-old sailor fought a fire without protective breathing apparatus. He was found confused, with soot about his nares. A suspected diagnosis of carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning was rapidly confirmed on site using a new non-invasive pulse CO-oximeter. Initial carboxyhaemoglobin (COHb) level was 28%. He was treated with high-flow oxygen and evacuated to a medical facility with hyperbaric oxygen treatment capability. Fifteen other crew members potentially exposed to smoke in the enclosed space were screened in less than 10 min and had normal COHb levels of 1–2%. This is the first case demonstrating the utility of pulse CO oximetry for diagnosing CO poisoning in remote environments. The information obtained allowed immediate delivery of appropriate on-site treatment and directed subsequent triage. The device was also shown to be effective for the rapid screening of numerous individuals. Not only does it have the potential to provide information that would otherwise be unobtainable in such a situation, but it could play an important role in mass casualty screening. |
format |
Text |
author |
Crawford, D M Hampson, N B |
author_facet |
Crawford, D M Hampson, N B |
author_sort |
Crawford, D M |
title |
Fire and ice: diagnosis of carbon monoxide poisoning in a remote environment |
title_short |
Fire and ice: diagnosis of carbon monoxide poisoning in a remote environment |
title_full |
Fire and ice: diagnosis of carbon monoxide poisoning in a remote environment |
title_fullStr |
Fire and ice: diagnosis of carbon monoxide poisoning in a remote environment |
title_full_unstemmed |
Fire and ice: diagnosis of carbon monoxide poisoning in a remote environment |
title_sort |
fire and ice: diagnosis of carbon monoxide poisoning in a remote environment |
publisher |
BMJ Publishing Group Ltd |
publishDate |
2008 |
url |
http://emj.bmj.com/cgi/content/short/25/4/235 https://doi.org/10.1136/emj.2007.051516 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(158.167,158.167,-81.450,-81.450) |
geographic |
Nares |
geographic_facet |
Nares |
genre |
Ice cap Polar Ice Cap |
genre_facet |
Ice cap Polar Ice Cap |
op_relation |
http://emj.bmj.com/cgi/content/short/25/4/235 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/emj.2007.051516 |
op_rights |
Copyright (C) 2008, British Association for Accident and Emergency Medicine |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1136/emj.2007.051516 |
container_title |
Emergency Medicine Journal |
container_volume |
25 |
container_issue |
4 |
container_start_page |
235 |
op_container_end_page |
236 |
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1766028545937637376 |