How to detect charcoal in blood sample after intravenous injection of charcoal?

Question

a nurse injected her housband with charcoal. she made a suspention of chracoal in a orange juice and dissolved it in saline and then she injected them intravenouslly. how to detect charcoal in his blood sample?

Answer 1

I think you may have misunderstood the events.

Charcoal and orange juice cannot be injected into the blood stream.  (They certainly won't "dissolve" in saline either, so even if someone tried to infuse the suspension, the solid components would get stuck at the filters in the IV line.)

Most likely, the activated charcoal was given through an NG tube (a tube that does through the nose into the stomach) to adsorb whatever substance (often drugs) that was down there and causing trouble.

If you are concerned an error was made in the care, you can request a copy of the chart so you can go through it with another health professional that you trust.

Good luck.