A patient is brought to the emergency department by friends, who say that they were all partying with alcohol and a mix of barbiturates and benzodiazepines
They state that the patient had "a lot to drink and took a handful of pills a couple of hours ago." Upon assessment, the patient is non-responsive and has pinpoint pupils and respirations of 6/minute. After oxygen is administered, the nurse should prepare the patient for which of the following interventions? a. Both gastric lavage and hemodialysis
b. Both naloxone (Narcan) and a cathartic
c. Both activated charcoal and flumazenil (Romazicon)
d. Both a central nervous system stimulant and IV fluids
A
Because over 2 hours have elapsed, enough medication is present in the system to warrant eli-mination by hemodialysis, and the remainder in the stomach may be eliminated by gastric lavage.
Naloxone, a narcotic antagonist, is not effective for barbiturates and benzodiazepines.
Although activated charcoal may assist in absorption of medication in the gut, flumazenil will be effective only for the benzodiazepines.
A central nervous system stimulant is contraindicated, and intravenous fluids do not address the overdose.
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