Used auto injectors, what's a good way to safety them?

[WolfmanHarris]

When teaching make sure to differentiate between dual dose and single dose auto-injectors. You don't want participants to get in the habit of immediately making safe the auto-injector in a way that may make the second dose unusable. When I teach first aid classes I have the old style epipen injectors, the new safe sharp ones and the twinject for familiarization (all trainers obviously). In Ontario Sabrina's law allows the lay rescuer to administer someone's epi-pen to them provided it is their epi-pen and they are concious. When I teach I instruct them on both doses but strongly encourage them to have the patient self-administer when possible, especially the second dose (which if you're not familiar with twinject is syringe). At one point twinject was offering free trainers via their website.

 

[mycrofft]

The ARC class doe not address twin dose auto injectors.
Pop bottles...too narrow. ANd I bet the thn water bottles wold not be strong enough to stop a needle. Maybe Gator Aid or such heavier bottle.

They still give out 2-PAM Cl and atropine injectors eh? Wow...just take it easy on the physostigmine tabs!

 

[NYMedic828]

The ARC class doe not address twin dose auto injectors.
Pop bottles...too narrow. ANd I bet the thn water bottles wold not be strong enough to stop a needle. Maybe Gator Aid or such heavier bottle.

They still give out 2-PAM Cl and atropine injectors eh? Wow...just take it easy on the physostigmine tabs!

Every NYC ambulance has 30 atropine and 30 2-pam injectors on board.

 

[DPM]

The ARC class doe not address twin dose auto injectors.
Pop bottles...too narrow. ANd I bet the thn water bottles wold not be strong enough to stop a needle. Maybe Gator Aid or such heavier bottle.

They still give out 2-PAM Cl and atropine injectors eh? Wow...just take it easy on the physostigmine tabs!

Those tabs went out in the 90's mate

In the UK we had single autojets containing Atropine, Avisafone (spell?) and Pralidoxime. Never used one of those, but I've used a few of the Morphine ones.
Stabbing the needle into the juicy rubber bit on a boot and then snapping it off worked ok...

(Excuse spelling. I'm doing my best but I'm 'slightly altered')

 

[Lozenger19]

I have 2 of the new style "jext" Epi pens. The needle automatically retracts after administration, so when you "pull it out" of the patients leg no needle is visible. You know the dose has been administrated because the pen "clicks" on admin and you can hear the needle retracting

 

[WolfmanHarris]

The ARC class doe not address twin dose auto injectors.

Neither does CRC, but I would be remiss in not covering the most common types of auto-injectors and their particular safety concerns. I'm sure ARC is a lot like CRC and doesn't like instructors going off book and I do try to avoid it, but sometimes reality has moved past the latest edition in a way that needs to be addressed, even at the lay provider level.

 

[wildrivermedic]

In the wilderness part of my training, I was taught that a great place for used auto-injectors is inside an empty water bottle -- specifically the thick plastic "nalgene" type -- more specifically the patient's water bottle instead of yours since they will probably get a helicopter ride and you still have to walk out. Now almost everyone (around here anyway) has stainless steel water bottles... works fine, I'm sure, but not see-through. Always reminds me of the time I drank a wasp from my soda can when I teach this.

 

[mycrofft]

Yeah, drop it in needle-first.