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Saving a Drug Poisoning Victim: A Kinetics Simulation

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Jodye I. Selco

Department of Chemistry, University of Redlands, Redlands, CA 92373-0999

Janet Beery

Department of Mathematics, University of Redlands, Redlands, CA 92373-0999

J. Chem. Educ., 2002, 79 (5), p 578

DOI: 10.1021/ed079p578

Publication Date (Web): May 1, 2002

Section:

History, Education, and Documentation

Abstract

In this project, students, posing as hospital emergency room physicians, must save the life of a child who has accidentally overdosed on the asthma medication, theophylline. The progress of the drug through the child's body can be modeled as a chemical kinetics problem involving first-order consecutive reactions. Students begin by setting up a system of linear first-order differential equations describing the medication's absorption into and elimination from the child's bloodstream using half-lives obtained from the Physician's Desk Reference. By using a computer to solve the differential equations numerically, students discover that the child will almost certainly die if they, as physicians, do not intervene. The students then determine by how much they need to increase the drug's elimination rate in order to save the child. This dictates the appropriate medical action. Students discover that they need to use the more drastic treatment of extracorporeal filtering of the blood through charcoal, rather than simply administering oral doses of charcoal. We've found that this project appeals to a broad range of students; many students are interested in careers in the health professions and all are intrigued by the child's grave situation.

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