How do you get antifreeze out of your anus?

Answer 1

First, this is a medical emergency and warrants a call to 911. You're on a clock here and time is critical.

The principle ingredient in antifreeze is ethylene glycol. The problem with this is that it absorbs into the system very quickly. If you need to remove this from a colon, you should have completed this within 1 hour or less of the time the substance was introduced.

Remove and bag patients exposed clothing and mark as biohazard. Irrigate contaminated areas with warm, soapy water (during transport or for at least 15 minutes if the patient is entirely asymptomatic and you are certain insufficient time for absorption has passed). This will transport through the skin, although not as fast as it will into open wounds, mucus membranes or the GI tract (in that order).

Again, if you catch this within a very short time window of introduction (e.g. < 1 hour), colonic lavage with warm water and perhaps a mild soap may help.

Be advised that in oral dosages, hospitals are now skipping gastric lavage as the absorption rate is so fast that lavage is not helpful.

If there's a sign of symptoms (as noted on the container), transport to hospital immediately. Ethylene glycol overdose can be fatal, or cause permanent damage (most frequently to the kidneys).

No studies exist (that I can find in any case) on uptake through the mucus membranes of the colon, so the rate of uptake can only be guessed.