Although the 60-year-old man ended up in the intensive care unit, where doctors connected him to an artificial liver, he was not able to help. The liver damage from taking the lethal dose of paracetamol was too great.
The 60-year-old was hospitalized with symptoms of severe drug poisoning. Unfortunately, he only came to the ward a few days after taking the lethal dose of paracetamol. According to specialists, this probably determined his fate.
Dr. Józef Bojko, head of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care at the Provincial Hospital in Opole, said that the man had to take at least 10 g of paracetamol in one day – possibly in various preparations. This is as much as 2,5 times more than the acceptable dose, which for an adult human is 4 g, i.e. eight tablets of 500 mg.
The family of the deceased admits that although he did not suffer from any chronic disease, he took painkillers for practically every, even the slightest pain ailment.
It turns out that in Poland it is slowly becoming a standard. Poles take very large amounts of over-the-counter drugs. It has been calculated that on average we buy about 31 packages of such agents per year. In Europe, only three countries are ahead of us in this respect – France, Greece and Italy.
The most dangerous, however, is ignorance and inattention. It happens that during a cold, patients take several different preparations with the same active substance – for example paracetamol. While they theoretically watch over the maximum allowable dose given for each agent, they do not take into account their combined effects. This recklessness can lead to a tragedy.
Based on: http://www.tvn24.pl/