A three-year-old child bit off a thermometer and swallowed mercury. You would never guess the correct way to deal with it!

A three-year-old kid in Zhumadian bit a thermometer and swallowed mercury, which shocked the parents and doctors. Mr. Li from Zhumadian was cooking in the kitchen, while his three-year-old son Mingming (pseudonym) was playing alone in the living room. When Mr. Li came out of the kitchen, he found that the child had found a thermometer from somewhere and bit it in his mouth. The thermometer had been bitten. The scary thing was that he looked around on the floor and sofa, but did not see a drop of mercury. Knowing that the mercury in the thermometer is highly toxic, Mr. Li was terrified at the time and quickly took the broken thermometer out of the child's mouth, but did not see any mercury flowing out. After inducing vomiting, the child vomited some mercury. After that, the family rushed the child to the local hospital. After examination, the child still had mercury residue in his body, so he was transferred to Henan Children's Hospital. In the Department of Gastroenterology, after simple treatment, the mercury in the child's body was basically cleared. During the follow-up examination of the child, the CT scan showed that there was still mercury residue in the child's abdomen. The appendix is ​​a blind tube, and once the mercury enters, it is basically a dead end, making it difficult to remove. After discussing with the parents, Zhang Xianwei, director of the Second Department of General Surgery, ligated and removed the child's appendix to prevent the mercury from flowing out to other parts of the body. With the successful completion of the operation, the last remaining mercury in Mingming's body was cleaned up, and the child's parents finally felt relieved.

Ingested mercury is relatively not that scary. It is uncommon for mercury to enter the appendix, but if left unchecked, it can cause secondary damage such as perforation. Zhang Xianwei said: In fact, there is no need to worry too much. Children swallowing mercury in a thermometer by mistake is not as scary as most people imagine.

Mercury is a metal that usually exists in liquid form at normal temperature and pressure. Since the absorption rate of liquid mercury in the human digestive tract is very low, even if it is accidentally ingested, poisoning generally does not occur. Therefore, when a child bites the thermometer to pieces, the doctor is more concerned about the glass that the child has swallowed than the mercury in the stomach. In addition, mercury will be excreted from the body on its own. If it is found to be swallowed by mistake, parents can first use methods such as stimulating the throat to help vomiting, and drink some milk to protect the gastric mucosa from damage by mercury and broken glass. If it cannot be relieved, seek medical treatment in time, and check liver and kidney function regularly.

Inhaled mercury is even more terrifying. A search revealed more than 2 million pieces of information on children's mercury poisoning, most of which were caused by mercury in thermometers, and most of them were caused by inhalation of mercury volatilization.

When the thermometer is broken, mercury is released from the closed environment, and as it evaporates, it changes form and becomes highly toxic. Mercury vapor inhaled into the human body can easily penetrate our body's cell membranes, diffuse into blood cells, and be oxidized into divalent mercury ions, thus causing heavy metal poisoning in the human body. Since mercury can evaporate at room temperature, if a mercury thermometer is broken and not cleaned up quickly and correctly, it will cause the indoor mercury vapor concentration to explode in a short period of time. Excessive inhalation by the human body will cause symptoms of acute mercury poisoning such as headaches, abdominal pain, vomiting, and even organ damage. In fact, in the past two years, we have treated several cases of children swallowing mercury from thermometers. We recommend that families with the conditions use electronic thermometers to avoid such incidents from hurting the baby again. Zhang Xianwei reminded.

What should you do if your thermometer is broken? Due to the usage habits of many people, mercury thermometers have become a common temperature measurement device in almost every household. Some families often use both electronic and mercury thermometers. Because it is a glass product, it may be broken if your hands slip during use, you swing it too hard, you forget to put it away after use, or it is crushed or dropped. After the thermometer is broken, in order to avoid unnecessary danger, parents can follow the steps below to deal with it.

1. Take the child out of the room immediately. If the child swallows something by mistake, remove the glass first, then feed the child egg white water or milk, eat high-fiber vegetables, and then send the child to the hospital.

2. Turn on the fan or air conditioner to cool the room, slow down the evaporation of mercury, and keep the windows open for ventilation for at least 24 hours.

3. Wear rubber gloves when cleaning and avoid direct skin contact with mercury when searching.

4. Use a piece of cardboard with a smooth edge to gently scrape the mercury beads on the ground surface into the bottle. The tiny mercury beads can be gathered together and then put into the bottle. Then cover it with water and tighten the lid.

5. If mercury beads fall on carpets or other fabrics, take them to a well-ventilated place outside to air them. In addition, we would like to remind everyone not to rush to pick up a broom, mop or vacuum cleaner. This will not only fail to clean up quickly, but the mercury beads will be broken into smaller particles, which will only accelerate evaporation and expand the area of ​​pollution. In addition to electronic thermometers, many families, especially those with elderly people, may trust glass thermometers more. If you really need to buy one, you can choose an alcohol thermometer to minimize possible dangers.