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You can try your hand at Past Puzzlers, too!
The Scenario:
Mark was heading off to New York one weekend to get together with some friends, and see the sites. He drives a 1989 Subaru. On his way into the city he hit quite a bit of traffic. Although he thought he had planned ahead, his gas gauge began to look perilously low. At that point he was buried in traffic, idling away his precious fuel. After an agonizing couple of hours, he made it off the highway and almost immediately ran out of gas. He drifted to the curb, got out and waved down a passing motorist for help.
Mark grabbed a length of hose from the trunk, and an empty coffee can. He asked the other motorist if he could siphon some gas from his tank, to get him to the next gas station. After the other man agreed, Mark inserted one end of the hose into the other guy's gas tank, the other end into his mouth, and sucked hard in order to break the pressure lock and get the gas flowing. He was startled to find that the gas was very close to his mouth and got a huge mouthful most of which he ended up swallowing. He coughed a couple of times, but otherwise didn't feel any immediate after-effects.
Questions:
Answer: Mark has just swallowed a mouthful of gas. What should he do? Should vomiting be induced? Should he be rushed to the hospital? Well, he definitely shouldn't light a cigarette, as one person suggested!
The answer is, it depends. It turns out that small amounts of gasoline in the digestive tract is not such a bad thing. Larger amounts could cause an upset stomach or vomiting. But most times, gasoline just passes through the intestinal tract without any problems.
The real concern, however, is aspiration (i.e., getting gas into the windpipe or lungs). When that happens, quite a severe pneumonia can result. Mark may have aspirated a small amount initially. But the rule is, don't induce vomiting because you don't want to risk aspiration a second time. Leave well enough alone. If anything at all is done, give a glass of water or milk to dilute the gas and reduce potential stomach irritation.
If Mark were to have any problems, he might notice some shortness of breath, wheezing or a cough. Later, he might develop a fever. If six or more hours have passed without any of these symptoms you can be pretty confident he's out of trouble. In the absence of obvious aspiration (coughing or choking at the time of swallowing) or respiratory symptoms, it would not ordinarily be necessary to visit the emergency room. Nonetheless, it would probably be wise to contact your local doctor, emergency room, or poison control center, just to run the situation by them.
Boman says, "Mark should remember to not swallow gas in the future." Sounds like a pretty good idea, Bo.
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