Medical Treatment

Emergency treatment includes emergency procedures to get the person breathing and stable. These measures will take time-sometimes longer than waiting family and friends expect. The initial contact in a hospital emergency department may be the police, the receptionist/secretary, the social worker, or a nurse. If you accompany a person to the emergency department, give these medical staff as much information as possible that will help in the medical care of the drug user because he or she may not be capable of giving any history at all.

• After the person is stabilized, the doctor can take a medical history, perform a more detailed physical exam, and begin diagnostic testing.

• Despite the best of medical efforts, certain medical complications of cocaine use can lead to sudden death. The person may never regain consciousness and die in the emergency department or the intensive care unit from these complications: high body temperature, massive bleeding into the brain usually due to high blood pressure, heart attack, or seizures.

• The great majority of people who come to the emergency department are alive, awake, and have normal vital signs or vital signs that rapidly become normal. They will usually be sent home in relatively good health after their immediate medical and physical conditions are treated.

• Certain medical conditions will require hospitalization and referral to specialists. Chest pain is a common problem, and people with this condition will be referred to heart specialists. Other less life-threatening conditions may require antibiotics, IV medications, or prescription medications. Abscesses are often drained in the emergency department.
  
  
• Complications with pregnancy will be monitored and referred to specialists.
  
  
• People with mental conditions will be referred to psychiatrists and drug abuse counselors for follow-up counseling after initial health issues are resolved.

• The treatment of body packers and body stuffers is rapid removal of the packets before they leak. If access is relatively easy, such as in the vagina and rectum, the packets are carefully removed manually. If the packets are swallowed and the person has no symptoms and the vital signs are normal, whole bowel irrigation may be done. A tube is placed into the stomach, then a nonabsorbable fluid (typically polyethylene glycol) is put in continuously until the packets are recovered or the fluid from the rectum is clear. Activated charcoal may also be used initially to adsorb any drug that may leak during the process. If the person has any symptoms or shows signs the drug is leaking into the body, treatment is immediate removal by surgery plus control of the blood pressure, heart rate, temperature, and seizures. Retrieval of the packets using a fiberoptic scope (endoscopy) is not recommended.