Two migrants saved at Agrigento hospital after inhaling fuel fumes during crossing

Last Updated: June 10, 2024

Agrigento, auto perde il controllo e «vola» in un terreno sotto la strada: quattro feriti

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Two of the young migrants who landed in Lampedusa in the past few hours were urgently transferred by helicopter to the hospital in Agrigento because they were heavily intoxicated with benzene, from the fuel fumes they had inhaled for a long time during the crossing of the Mediterranean.

The healthcare workers at San Giovanni di Dio saved them thanks to an antidote provided by the hospital pharmacy’s poison control service and promptly administered to the two patients. The service operates in close coordination with the poison control center in Pavia. Arrived on the island of Pelagie in serious condition, the two young people were immediately rescued and transferred to Agrigento.

“Thanks to the supply and administration of the antidote we have, the so-called methylene blue – says the director of the hospital pharmacy at San Giovanni di Dio, Giuseppe Bellavia – the two patients escaped certain death, given the conditions they were in. The patients responded immediately to the treatment – added the director of the Intensive Care and Resuscitation unit at the hospital in Agrigento Gerlando Fiorica – they are definitely doing better and we are confident that we can transfer them to the General Medicine ward as early as tomorrow”.