Poisoning from toy beads

doi:10.1136/bmj.39458.455532.3A

BMJ 2008;336:110 (19 January), doi:10.1136/bmj.39458.455532.3A

Letters

${gamma}$ -Hydroxybutyrate poisoning

Poisoning from toy beads

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

We report a case of ${gamma}$ -hydroxybutyrate poisoning in a child fromingestion of toy beads.

A 7 year old girl presented to our emergency department withan acute life threatening hypoxic event after swallowing Bindeeztoy beads given to her as a Christmas present. Paramedics foundher with a reduced level of consciousness, and she had a respiratoryarrest requiring bag and mask ventilation. On arrival at hospital,she had critical bradycardia requiring cardiopulmonary resuscitation.Initial concerns were that she may have choked on the beads.However, after intubation, fibreoptic endoscopy to the carinadid not visualise any beads. She did not require high ventilatorypressures and had good chest movement bilaterally. The childwas retrieved by the local paediatric intensive care team, whoextubated her less than 24 hours later. She was then able totell us that, thinking they were sweets, she had eaten approximately80 beads, and . . . [Full text of this article]