As an emergency doctor, I have encountered countless patients with acute cerebral apoplexy symptoms. When many suspected cerebral apoplexy coma patients are sent to the emergency room, there are often yellow sticky things in their mouths, mixed with saliva and sputum, resulting in obvious noises and anoxia cyanosis between the patients’ throats. After asking the family members, they learned that they had taken Angong Niuhuang Pills and were the first aid drugs prepared at home.
Later, I saw patients with apoplexy, heart attack, vertigo attack, hypertension, drunkenness and other patients one after another. I also took Angong Niuhuang Pills before coming to see a doctor.
Angong Niuhuang Pills have been popular among the people in southern areas such as Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao for a long time. Many families treasure one or two, with prices ranging from 100 yuan to 700 yuan. The highest price is even hyped up to 10,000 yuan. Once in a meeting in Beijing, a colleague anxiously inquired about where Beijing Tongrentang is and wanted to buy Angong Niuhuang Pills, because this is the task that her mother-in-law specially explained that she must complete.
What is puzzling is that in the resplendent and magnificent Tongrentang pharmacy, Angong Niuhuang Pills are sold like supermarket goods. Wait, where is the prescription drug?
Not every stroke is suitable for [Angong]
Angong Niuhuang Pill is called one of the “Three Treasures of Febrile Diseases” in traditional medicine. It is an emergency drug, but it is also designated as a prescription drug. Because its indications are not simple [coma], but require professional diagnosis.
Check the instructions of Angong Niuhuang Pill. Its functions and indications are: clearing away heat and toxic materials, relieving convulsion and inducing resuscitation. It is used for patients with fever, pathogenic qi entering pericardium, febrile convulsion, apoplexy coma, encephalitis, toxic encephalopathy, cerebral hemorrhage and septicemia.
The prominent features of these descriptions are: high fever, convulsion and coma.
From the point of view of its specification, If used for cerebral apoplexy, its indications should be severe cerebral apoplexy with coma patients, if combined with central high fever, it is more symptomatic. It is worth noting that for general cerebral apoplexy but still awake, there are symptoms such as vague speech, limb fatigue, corners of the mouth, etc., there is no indication for Angong Niuhuang Pills.
However, even if the patient suffers from stroke and coma, Angong Niuhuang Pills are not fully applicable. Its instructions clearly state that this product is designed for heat-blocking and mind-fainting, and cannot be used for cold-blocking and mind-fainting.
For the general public, how can we distinguish between heat and cold? Ordinary people have no distinction between cold and heat, but pharmacies sell drugs to them as easily as [supermarket goods]. Is it not to allow them to use drugs indiscriminately?
Abuse of [Angong Niuhuang Pills] has fatal hidden dangers.
At present, manufacturers on the market publicize, It is also irresponsible, making ordinary people misled and taking it under inappropriate dizziness, chest tightness and drunkenness. What’s more, some manufacturers claim that this medicine is used for health care and is taken according to solar terms. It is best taken during solar terms such as stung, Qingming and winter solstice-it can be said that it is a frenzied move. Some even take this medicine to 2-year-old children with poor appetite.
So, can you imagine how many people have used this medicine wrong?
The abuse of Angong Niuhuang Pills has two hidden dangers:
First, the risk of poisoning. Zeng Huifang, director of the Pharmacy Department of the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, pointed out that Angong Niuhuang Pills contain realgar and cinnabar, both of which are toxic drugs, and patients should stop taking drugs after fever or awakening.
Second, the risk of suffocation. Coma patients cannot be fed anything, including water, which is a common understanding in the medical field (both traditional Chinese and Western medicine). Because they lose consciousness, swallow and cough ability after coma, feeding anything may lead to aspiration, resulting in more dangerous airway conditions, and in serious cases, the patient may die.
This is a matter of life and death!
[Angong Niuhuang Pills] can’t be used like this
To sum up, matters needing attention in the use of Angong Niuhuang Pills:
1, cannot be used for awake patients;
2. It cannot be used before the indications are clearly defined dialectically by cold and heat.
3. Patients without nasal feeding tubes cannot be taken orally at home.
I like this famous sentence from Tongrentang: “No one sees it, but heaven knows it intentionally”. It means that under the condition of no one’s supervision, don’t go against your conscience and don’t forget your righteousness when you see benefits, because heaven knows what you do.
Therefore, please also invite Tongrentang to follow the principle of “great country craftsmen, The attitude of “ingenuity handed down from ancient times” is to do more things beneficial to the public in the flow direction and use of Angong Niuhuang Pills. Angong Niuhuang Pills are limited to prescription by Chinese doctors and use in hospitals. Like western medicine injection, patients are basically not allowed to take it back to their homes for use. Because the injection needs venous channels, it must be carried out by doctors and nurses. However, Angong Niuhuang Pills also need nasogastric passages, which can only be performed by doctors and nurses.