What happens when you drink Albuterol???

When I used to take Ventolin treatments, every once in a while I would splash the medicine into my mouth and stress that ingesting it would cause more serious side effects.

To be honest, there have been few times as an RT that I have accidentally squirted a few drops of Ventolin into my mouth as I twisted off the plastic top, or squirted it into the medicine cup.

This is not something you do on purpose, it simply happens.

Am I alone here?

However I never died, nor did I ever suffer any consequences from doing this, so I simply figured it was safe, like eating grass.

The last time I worked I was called to the ER to do a treatment on a patient who was really cool but mentally challenged.

As I was giving his treatment, his mom told me that she set him up with a mask treatment a few days earlier and left the room. When she came back, she realized the treatment was off his face.

"What did you do with this," she said.

"I drank it."

"YOU DRANK IT!"

"Yep."

She called poison control. They said that he would be fine, that the medicine would be broken down in the stomach and not even absorbed by the body.

I just thought I would share this information in case you were curious