Medical Questions

[Godwynn]

So I heared today that air in a syringe will kill a person, which is why doctors will squirt out some liquid to make sure there is no air. My question is, how does air in the veins kill someone? How much does it take? What about water in the veins? How much?

Or I just need the medical terminology to look it up on Wikipedia.

 

[Sidhe]

I don't know the precise amount but it's quite a large amount, I've seen nurses let some pretty hefty bubles go into infusions first hand. usually in bags not syringes though.

Essentially though it's enough to make the heart contract on too small a volume of blood, the heart relies on a resistant pressure which should be fulfilled by blood if it presses on too much air it contracts to the point where it colapses and cannot expand to refill itself with blood, at this point your patient is in serious trouble. I believe the medicle term is an embolism. Hope it helped.

 

[Ultima Dragoon]

It could also create a clot. Or an embol- damn, beaten.

 

[Neonanocyborgasm]

So I heared today that air in a syringe will kill a person, which is why doctors will squirt out some liquid to make sure there is no air. My question is, how does air in the veins kill someone? How much does it take? What about water in the veins? How much?

Or I just need the medical terminology to look it up on Wikipedia.

Wikipedia is the only god.

You're talking about air embolism. The air acts as an obstruction and clogs up a pulmonary artery in the above scenario. I've never actually seen it kill anyone, though. The closest I ever saw air embolism do any harm was when a patient got air embolism to his brain, causing a stroke, from which he recovered. The air was never proven, though. It was surmised it got in during surgery.

 

[Truronian]

The real question is why do they do the squirty thing when giving a lethal injection...

 

[El_Machinae]

For the same reason you never look down a gun barrel, even of an antique or whatever ... because you don't want good habits to get sloppy!

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

The real question is why do they do the squirty thing when giving a lethal injection...

for the same reason they sterilize that same syringe, while wearing rubber gloves, and then wipe the area before they stick him/her with it