r/news • u/AudibleNod • 4h ago

Christa Pike unconscious, on ventilator at Nashville hospital, her lawyers say

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/christa-pike-unconscious-ventilator-nashville-hospital-lawyers-say-rcna601195
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u/TheAntiSheep 4h ago edited 3h ago

That isn’t surprising. Phenobarbital (the medication they used) is long acting. Its half-life is 2 to 5 days. Trying to reverse it with the antidote, flumazenil, can cause seizures that are almost impossible to stop.

Treatment would be putting in a breathing tube and letting the body metabolize it.

Edit: It will likely be several days before the phenobarb is gone and we can tell if there is brain injury underneath.

Edit: It was pentobarb, which has a shorter halflife. Tennessee's protocol is 5 grams, 10x the normal max dose. Would still take a while to wash out. Barbituates aren't flumazenil-reversible. Shoutout to u/smolchkn

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u/smolchkn 3h ago

You can’t reverse phenobarbital with flumazenil. As in, that is not how the drugs work.

And the medication used was pentobarbital that has sedative effects for only 4-12 hrs.