TITLE:
Carbon Monoxide Poisoning: The Culture of Indoor Burning
AUTHORS:
John Quinn, Tomas Zeleny, Vladimir Bencko
KEYWORDS:
Carbon Monoxide Poisoning, Indoor Burning, Carboxyhemoglobin
JOURNAL NAME:
Case Reports in Clinical Medicine,
Vol.3 No.8,
August
11,
2014
ABSTRACT: This patient case
report describes a 40-year-old African woman presenting with a classic acute
presentation of carbon monoxide poisoning from an unlikely source responding to
conventional treatment. This case highlights the classic presenting features of
carbon monoxide poisoning and the requirement to maintain a high index of
suspicion and immediate use of rapid empirical treatment in the
undifferentiated patient, sometimes before diagnostics and definitive diagnosis
can be determined. The definitive diagnosis and cause of poisoning are also
discussed to educate the emergency physician to new and foreign cultural habits
and encourage best medical practices within multicultural societies.