That sounds really quick for an infection to go systemic (and hence the fever reaction). If there was something particularly nasty on the glass, perhaps... but it doesn't fit with my (admittedly limited) experience.
I agree, unless there's something nasty on the glass, a couple hours isn't likely to show systemic symptoms, or barely even cause infection. (Want nasty, OP? Cat bite.)
First step would likely be a tox screen (which would catch alcohol, but I don't believe they test for GHB), followed by monitoring for other symptoms (seizures, vomiting), possibly IV fluids but only if necessary, and then debridement of the wounds once he's relatively stable. Or sober. But you haven't mentioned the size of the glass shards, either. If he's got a honking piece of glass through his hand, they'll take care of that pretty quickly; if it's a bunch of smallish pieces, they'll probably wait.
Well, I was thinking the glass shards would be relatively small, probably no more than about half an inch wide at the biggest, and embedded in the skin rather than slicing through the entire hand. So then I suppose they might wait until after the tox screen to take care of those?
(also, this is something I should've included in my post come to think of it, but do you happen to know how long all this would take roughly?)
re: treatment for the glass - I had a situation where I had a lot of broken glass in minor wounds - the doctors at the hospital cleaned the wounds carefully and picked out as much of the glass as they could with tweezers. But for days/weeks later, little bits of glass worked their way out of the wounds. I still have a bit in my arm, actually - it was deep (and small) enough they didn't find it and dull enough it didn't work its way out on its own. re: infection - I agree with tylik - the wound site itself might be obviously infected, especially if there was nasty stuff on the floor. The cuts would be red, hot, and in serious infection you'd get the streaking, but it'd take a while to go systemic from wound contamination.
I had the same thing happen about thirteen years ago when I accidentally stepped on a pencil that was lying on a wooden floor, just right to send the point straight up into my foot and break off there. This was at night, but my mom took me to our regular doctor's office early in the morning rather than the hospital.
They gave me a shot of Novocaine in my foot (it didn't work too well, I was embarrassing my mom by cursing a lot and they had to do another... still didn't work too well) and got a quarter inch of the lead out. They might have had to repeat it again another day for more bits, according to my mom, but I only remember the one removal. For a while afterward bits of wood would "float" to the surface of my foot, and I would pull them out myself. Like the above poster I still have a bit of lead in there to this day...
I knew somebody who fell and broke his fall on a wine glass. The nurse at casualty (ER) had to pull apart the wounds gently to check for any stray pieces of glass.
I don't know anything about further treatment than that, but I thought it'd be a useful/painful detail for you to use.
Wounds from glass shards don't usually become infected all that fast unless there was something profoundly nasty on the glass. The nurse would take a look, the doctor would take a look and they would set to work with a sterile spray of salt water and a pair of tweezers and pick all the glass out. They would draw blood for labs. They would give him a shot for tetanes and a strong dose of Amoxicillin, Cipro or Keflex there in the ER. They might give him some pain medication if the shards are really deep. If the cuts are broad and deep they would give him a local anesthetic with a needle into the skin near the wounds and set a few stitches. He would be awake through all of this. They would give him a prescription for the antibiotic to be filled at his local pharmacy and probably one for the pain. Probably Tylenol with Codeine III, not more than twelve tabs, one every three to four hours as needed for incisional pain. The antibiotic would probably be twice a day for ten days. He would be instructed to follow up with his own
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Thank you very much for going into this amount of detail, all this is going to be very helpful!
I have another character who is completely sober taking him to the hospital and waiting for the duration of his stay, so he would able to inform the doctors what the situation is and sign him out afterwards.
I hope you don't mind me asking a couple more questions (if you do, feel free to ignore!) Firstly: would they give him pain medication, given that he's already, as you put it 'dopey and narced-out'? Secondly: where would all of this take place? (as in, would they put him in a room, etc) And will the character who brought him in be allowed to wait with him, or would it just be a case of taking him away until everything's done?
Ahaha sorry that looks like way more than a couple of questions... I'll stop now :P
They would give him Narcan to counteract the narcotic and he wouldn't be given an prescription for pain medication to take at home. He'd be out of luck with that as they would have no way of ascertaining the truth of the situation no matter what they were told. According to the story they are told they would assume he was a user or they would buy the doping story and encourage charges being pressed and might even call over a stray cop, should one happen to be there in the ER, to come over and talk to them
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I guess I've just been lucky! I've only been to hospital a couple of times as a kid, and I can't remember much about it.
Well, there would be no charges pressed as the drug-er is at this point, for all intents and purposes, dead. It's complicated :P
Anyway, thank you very much for your help. I'm now in the process of completely re-writing all the hospital scenes to accommodate all the new, accurate information :)
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Redness, swelling, maybe evening streaking, yes.
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GHB is metabolized quickly, relatively, and there are rarely traces of it left for testing (eg, by forensics teams). Read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamma-Hydroxybutyric_acid
First step would likely be a tox screen (which would catch alcohol, but I don't believe they test for GHB), followed by monitoring for other symptoms (seizures, vomiting), possibly IV fluids but only if necessary, and then debridement of the wounds once he's relatively stable. Or sober. But you haven't mentioned the size of the glass shards, either. If he's got a honking piece of glass through his hand, they'll take care of that pretty quickly; if it's a bunch of smallish pieces, they'll probably wait.
(edited for i spel gud.)
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(also, this is something I should've included in my post come to think of it, but do you happen to know how long all this would take roughly?)
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re: infection - I agree with tylik - the wound site itself might be obviously infected, especially if there was nasty stuff on the floor. The cuts would be red, hot, and in serious infection you'd get the streaking, but it'd take a while to go systemic from wound contamination.
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This very useful, thank you! It hadn't occurred to me that the glass might remain in the wounds until much later.
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They gave me a shot of Novocaine in my foot (it didn't work too well, I was embarrassing my mom by cursing a lot and they had to do another... still didn't work too well) and got a quarter inch of the lead out. They might have had to repeat it again another day for more bits, according to my mom, but I only remember the one removal. For a while afterward bits of wood would "float" to the surface of my foot, and I would pull them out myself. Like the above poster I still have a bit of lead in there to this day...
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I don't know anything about further treatment than that, but I thought it'd be a useful/painful detail for you to use.
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Love the icon, btw :P
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I have another character who is completely sober taking him to the hospital and waiting for the duration of his stay, so he would able to inform the doctors what the situation is and sign him out afterwards.
I hope you don't mind me asking a couple more questions (if you do, feel free to ignore!) Firstly: would they give him pain medication, given that he's already, as you put it 'dopey and narced-out'? Secondly: where would all of this take place? (as in, would they put him in a room, etc) And will the character who brought him in be allowed to wait with him, or would it just be a case of taking him away until everything's done?
Ahaha sorry that looks like way more than a couple of questions... I'll stop now :P
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Well, there would be no charges pressed as the drug-er is at this point, for all intents and purposes, dead. It's complicated :P
Anyway, thank you very much for your help. I'm now in the process of completely re-writing all the hospital scenes to accommodate all the new, accurate information :)
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