Seizures, low blood sugar and poisoning

A man drops in a supermarket aisle and starts to jerk. A colleague with diabetes goes pale and muddled at her desk. A toddler is found beside an open bottle of tablets. In each, someone nearby wants to put something in the person's mouth: a spoon between the teeth, a glass of juice, a finger down the throat. The spoon and the finger are never right. The juice can be exactly right or the most dangerous thing in the room, and the difference comes down to one question: is the person fully awake and able to swallow?

Each also has a call decision that surprises people. Plenty of seizures need no ambulance, and in the UK a suspected poisoning goes to 999 or A&E even when the person seems well.

The US guidance is again the AHA and American Red Cross's 2024 first aid guideline, which grades each recommendation.¹ On the UK side, RCUK's 2025 first aid guideline has a section on low blood sugar but none on seizures or swallowed poisons, so for those the UK advice here comes from the NHS, Epilepsy Action and St John Ambulance, and the lesson names whose page it is.²⁶⁹¹⁰

Seizures

The AHA/Red Cross guideline describes a seizure as uncontrolled electrical discharges of the brain's nerve cells, from epilepsy but also from infection, injury, poisoning, lack of oxygen, low blood sugar and, in children, fever.¹ The kind a bystander notices is the tonic-clonic seizure. Epilepsy Action describes two phases: the person goes stiff and falls, sometimes with a cry; then the limbs jerk quickly and rhythmically, and there may be a blue or grey tinge around the mouth.⁹ Most last 1 to 3 minutes, it says, and the AHA's text says seizures usually stop by themselves within 1 to 2.⁹¹ Afterwards most people are tired and confused for several minutes, which the AHA's text calls the postictal period.¹

Lesson 2's warning comes first: RCUK 2025 says a brief burst of seizure-like movement can be how cardiac arrest begins, and that you assess breathing once it stops.³

During the seizure

• Protect them. Help them to the ground if they are falling and clear the area around them (AHA/Red Cross 2024, COR 1, LOE C-EO).¹ Cushion the head and loosen anything tight at the neck (the NHS; St John; the CDC).⁶¹⁰¹³ The NHS's seizure page says only move them if they are in danger, such as near a road or a hot cooker. For someone in a wheelchair, it says put the brakes on, leave any seatbelt on, support and cushion the head, and don't try to move them.⁶
• Time it, from start to finish (the NHS; Epilepsy Action).⁶⁹ The time decides the call.
• Stay with them (AHA/Red Cross 2024, COR 1, LOE C-EO).¹
• Don't hold them down. "The person having the seizure should not be restrained." (AHA/Red Cross 2024, COR 3: Harm, LOE C-EO). Its reason: restraint won't stop the seizure and may injure the person or you.¹ The Epilepsy Foundation adds that someone restrained while confused may respond aggressively without meaning to.¹⁴
• Nothing in the mouth, and the NHS says "including your fingers".⁶ "Nothing should be put in the mouth and no food, liquids, or oral medicines should be given to a person who is experiencing a seizure or who has decreased responsiveness after a seizure." (AHA/Red Cross 2024, COR 3: Harm, LOE C-EO).¹

The same danger covers the time after the seizure. The AHA's text says most people are then sleepy, incoherent and unable to swallow normally, so food, drink or pills can be breathed into the lungs, which it calls aspiration.¹ Nothing to eat or drink until they've fully recovered (the NHS; Epilepsy Action).⁶⁹

Which side, and when

The seizure pages read here all use the side position, but differ on when.

• In the US: during the seizure. The guideline's injury recommendation, written for a person having a seizure, includes "placing the person on their side in the recovery position" (AHA/Red Cross 2024, COR 1, LOE C-EO). The CDC says turn them gently onto one side, mouth pointing to the ground. The reasons given: to reduce the risk of aspiration if the person vomits (the AHA), and to keep the airway clear (the CDC).¹¹³
• In the UK: after it. The NHS: "turn them on to their side after their convulsions stop". Epilepsy Action and St John: once the jerking stops, the recovery position, St John after opening the airway and checking breathing. Epilepsy Action's reason is to help their breathing. None of the UK pages read says why it waits.⁶⁹¹⁰

Neither is wrong, and none of the pages read here says to pin a jerking person onto their side. Follow the country you're in. Once the seizure is over, the two meet: on the side, watched.

When the jerking stops

This is lesson 2's check, and St John's seizure page gives it in order: "When any jerky movements have stopped, open their airway and check their breathing."¹⁰ Open it with lesson 7's head tilt. Don't start breaths or compressions while they are still jerking: RCUK's check comes once the movement stops, the Epilepsy Foundation says breathing can look as if it has stopped during a convulsion, and it and the CDC say breathing usually comes back on its own afterwards.³¹⁴¹³ Breathing that is quiet and regular at an ordinary pace is normal: the recovery position, stay, and keep watching, as lesson 7 taught, with the call below if they don't respond. If they don't respond to you and their breathing is absent, gasping, slow, laboured or noisy, it is not normal: onto the back, the call on speaker, and CPR (lesson 2).³

Epilepsy Action, describing the recovery for people who have these seizures, says breathing afterwards may sound heavy and laboured, with a deep snoring sound.⁹ Trouble or difficulty breathing after the seizure is also on its call list and the NHS's, and St John calls 999 if the person is not breathing normally.⁹⁶¹⁰ RCUK counts slow, laboured breathing as a sign of cardiac arrest, says the call handler will help if you are uncertain, and "If there is any doubt, assume cardiac arrest and start CPR."³ So this course does not ask you to tell a noisy recovery from the start of an arrest. Tell the call handler what you hear, and if the person doesn't respond and the doubt stays, start CPR. Lesson 3 gave you RCUK's word that the risk of harm from CPR to someone not in arrest is low.³

When to call

Most seizures need no ambulance. The CDC says so, and the NHS says people with epilepsy don't always need an ambulance or hospital for a seizure, and usually have a care plan agreed with their doctors.¹³⁶

Two things follow. You often need their usual: 4 minutes is on the NHS list for someone whose seizures last 2, not for someone whose seizures last 5. Epilepsy Action and the CDC both say to look for an identity card or medical bracelet.⁹¹³ And with a stranger and no card, you can't know it isn't their first, and St John's rule for a seizure of unknown cause makes it a call.¹⁰

One rule comes before any seizure list. If they don't respond to you at all once the jerking stops, lesson 2's order applies: in the UK, RCUK 2025 says call 999 for any unresponsive person, and in the US a person you can't wake is still a 911 call (lesson 7).³ St John's list waits 10 minutes; this course follows RCUK, which does not.¹⁰ The seizure lists are for a person who is coming round.

The care plan is theirs. The NHS says that if you know what to do and have been trained, you can follow it, which may include giving an emergency medicine; the Epilepsy Foundation says the same of rescue medicines prescribed by a healthcare professional.⁶¹⁴ RCUK's general principle is to use only medicines you have been trained to use, and this course does not teach them.² St John adds that a phone video of the seizure can help the doctors with a diagnosis.¹⁰

The supermarket in Cheltenham

A man collapses in a supermarket in Cheltenham and starts to jerk. You look at your phone as he goes down: 11:02. You're nearest. Another shopper says, "Put something in his mouth!"

You push a trolley back from a shelf edge and slide your folded coat under his head.⁶¹⁰ You don't hold his arms, and nothing goes in his mouth (AHA/Red Cross 2024, COR 3: Harm, for both), and you tell the shopper why: he can't swallow his tongue, and anything in there can break teeth or go down into his airway.¹ You ask people to step back, which the Epilepsy Foundation suggests because waking to a crowd can be embarrassing and confusing.¹⁴

A card on his lanyard says he has epilepsy and his seizures usually last 1 to 2 minutes. In England the NHS says to turn him after the convulsions stop, so you wait.⁶ At 11:04 the jerking stops. You tilt his head back, and his breathing is quiet and regular. His eyes open when you say his name, and he mumbles, but he can't tell you where he is. You roll him into the recovery position and stay, watching his chest.

Children with a fever

A febrile seizure is set off by a high temperature in a child. The NHS says they usually last 2 to 3 minutes, rarely more than 10, mostly between 6 months and 6 years; the AHA's text says they affect 2% to 4% of children.⁸¹ The first aid is the same, including your country's timing for the side position. The NHS febrile seizure page says call 999 or go to A&E for a first febrile seizure, one over 5 minutes, difficulty breathing, twitching on one side only, sleepiness for more than an hour afterwards, or more than one in 24 hours, and to call 999 rather than drive a child who is still seizing or unconscious.⁸

On the fever, the texts disagree:

• The NHS: "do not try to lower your child's temperature by undressing them or sponging them with cold water".⁸
• St John, for small children: "Try to cool them by taking off bedding and strip them of a single layer of clothing, but make sure they don't get cold."¹⁰
• The AHA/Red Cross guideline, on medicine: fever medicines such as paracetamol (acetaminophen) or ibuprofen are "not effective for stopping a seizure or preventing a subsequent febrile seizure." (AHA/Red Cross 2024, COR 3: No Benefit, LOE B-R); treating the fever can help a child feel better.¹

The two UK pages disagree, and neither gives a reason. The US evidence is about medicine, not undressing. This course's reading of the three: the seizure first aid comes first, and the fever is not the emergency.

Low blood sugar

Low blood sugar, a hypo, mostly affects people with diabetes who take insulin or some other diabetes medicines, the NHS says, and is rare otherwise.¹¹ RCUK 2025 says to suspect it in someone with diabetes or chronic malnutrition and a sudden change in how responsive they are or how they behave, and treats a reading below 4.0 mmol/L or 70 mg/dL as low. Those are the two units blood sugar is measured in, the first used in the UK and the second in the US.²

The signs include hunger, sweating, shaking, dizziness, a racing heart, irritability, confusion and tiredness (the NHS), and slurred speech (the AHA); left alone, it can lead to a seizure or unconsciousness.¹¹¹ Lesson 12 met it as a stroke mimic. Someone muddled, sweaty and slurring can also be taken for drunk. That is this course's observation from those signs, not a source's. St John lists the giveaways: a medical bracelet, glucose tablets or gel, a glucose monitor, an insulin pen or pump.¹⁰

Awake and able to swallow

Everything here turns on one question: is the person awake and able to swallow? Those are RCUK's and the AHA's words; St John's are "fully alert".²¹¹⁰

• Yes: sugar by mouth, now. The first aider should encourage the person to swallow oral glucose (AHA/Red Cross 2024, COR 1, LOE C-LD). RCUK: glucose or dextrose tablets by mouth if the person is awake and able to swallow (RCUK 2025).¹²
• No: nothing by mouth. "Oral glucose should not be administered to people who are not awake or not able to swallow." (AHA/Red Cross 2024, COR 3: Harm, LOE C-EO). RCUK: "In an unresponsive person, do not give oral sugar in any form due to the risk of aspiration; instead, call 999 and consider the recovery position."¹² The one exception, below, is sugar under the tongue for a child who is awake.

The AHA's supporting text gives the reason for the line: treating severe low blood sugar with oral glucose in a person who is not fully alert or cannot swallow can lead to choking and aspiration.¹ St John: if they are not fully alert, do not give them anything to eat or drink, as they may choke.¹⁰ If you find yourself wondering whether they're awake enough, this course's reading is that they aren't.

How much, and when to check

In the US. Glucose tablets in preference to gel or dietary sugar if they're available (COR 2a, LOE B-NR), and simple dietary sugars if not (COR 2a, LOE C-LD) (AHA/Red Cross 2024). The guideline's text says 20 g or more of oral glucose, and its table of foods with at least 15 g includes 1 tablespoon of sugar or honey, 6 to 8 oz (about 180 to 240 mL) of juice or regular soda, and 15 to 25 jellybeans. The American Diabetes Association's shorthand is the 15/15 rule: 15 g of fast-acting carbohydrate, then 15 minutes.¹¹⁵ Call EMS if they don't improve within 10 minutes of the glucose (COR 1, LOE C-EO).¹

In the UK. Glucose or dextrose tablets, 15 to 20 g; if there are none, a handful of sugary sweets or 50 to 100 mL (about 1.7 to 3.4 fl oz) of fruit juice or a sugary drink; and if there's no oral glucose, glucose gel (RCUK 2025). The NHS's examples are a small glass of juice or sugary fizzy drink, 5 glucose tablets, 4 large jelly babies, or 2 tubes of glucose gel, and Diabetes UK also says 15 to 20 g.²¹¹¹⁶ RCUK: repeat the sugar if the symptoms are still there and not improving after 15 minutes. The NHS and Diabetes UK recheck blood sugar after 10 to 15 minutes. Afterwards, a light snack once recovered (RCUK 2025), or something longer-lasting such as a sandwich or the next meal (the NHS).²¹¹¹⁶

Neither country gives a reason for its timing. The US 10 minutes is a clock for the call. RCUK's 15 minutes is for a second dose; its call line, "if the person is/or becomes unresponsive, or the condition does not improve", has no time on it, and St John says call if they don't improve quickly.²¹⁰ Noting the time the sugar went in is this course's suggestion, for the clock and the call handler; St John says stay until they feel completely better.¹⁰ A diet drink is no use, since it has no sugar in it (the British Red Cross).¹² RCUK adds a meter reading if feasible, and another after treatment, but its first line gives the tablets with no reading, and the AHA's recommendations ask for none.²¹

ILCOR's 2025 review kept tablets and swallowed glucose as strong recommendations on low and very low certainty evidence, and dietary sugars as a weak one, and a narrative review cited in its update concluded that most people recover after 15 to 20 g (ILCOR 2025).⁴ Strong recommendations on thin evidence are the pattern lesson 4 taught you to read.

A child who is awake but won't or can't swallow.

• In the US: a slurry of granulated sugar (about 1 teaspoon, in the AHA's supporting text) and water under the tongue may be reasonable for a child who is awake but unwilling or unable to swallow glucose (AHA/Red Cross 2024, COR 2b, LOE C-LD).¹
• In the UK: consider half a teaspoon (2.5 g) of table sugar under the tongue for a child who is uncooperative with swallowing but not unresponsive (RCUK 2025).²

Both are for a child who is awake, never for one who won't respond.

Not awake

The person who won't respond gets lesson 7's two branches: breathing normally, quiet and regular, the recovery position and watching; not breathing normally, lesson 2 and CPR. Then the call, which the two countries word differently.

• In the US: call EMS for a person with low blood sugar who is unable to swallow or has a seizure (AHA/Red Cross 2024, COR 1, LOE C-EO).¹ The American Diabetes Association says call 911 immediately if someone is unconscious and glucagon is not available or nobody knows how to use it.¹⁵
• In the UK: RCUK 2025 says call 999 if the person is or becomes unresponsive.² The NHS says give a glucagon injection straight away if one is available and you know how to use it, and call 999 if there isn't one, you don't know how, or they haven't recovered within 10 minutes of it; its list adds someone not responding normally who has been drinking alcohol.¹¹ So the two UK texts differ on timing when glucagon is given. This course follows RCUK: make the call, and the glucagon does not wait for it. Diabetes UK says one glucagon injection kit is available in the UK.¹⁶

Glucagon is only for someone who carries it, given by someone who knows how. The AHA's text calls it one of the hormones that regulate blood sugar, and the NHS tells people with diabetes to carry an injection kit.¹¹¹ RCUK's training principle applies, and this course does not teach the kit.² Once they come round and can swallow safely, the NHS says give food or drink that will raise their blood sugar.¹¹

The office in Milwaukee

Mid-afternoon in an office in Milwaukee, Dev, who takes insulin for diabetes, is sweating, pale and snappy, and he is reading the same email over and over, slurring when he speaks. He says he's fine and waves away the juice you offer.

Sweating, confusion and slurred speech are on the AHA's list of signs, and he has diabetes.¹ He is awake and can swallow, so you encourage him to swallow oral glucose (COR 1).¹ He has tablets in his bag. If he still refuses, stay, keep asking, and tell someone else. St John's list of signs includes confusion and irrational behaviour, so this course reads a refusal as possibly part of the hypo, not the end of your job.¹⁰

He takes three tablets at 3:10. By 3:20 he is worse: slumped, eyes half shut, mumbling, and when you offer the juice again he coughs and it runs out of his mouth.

Poisoning

By poisoning, the NHS means something harmful swallowed, touched or breathed in: medicines such as paracetamol, cleaning products such as bleach, plants and mushrooms, pesticides, alcohol and drugs, carbon monoxide.⁵ Chemicals on the skin and in the eyes were lesson 10's, and an opioid overdose was lesson 7's.

Who to call

So a well child who may have swallowed tablets is a Poison Help call in the US, where you speak to a poison expert, and a 999 or A&E matter in England. The NHS gives its reason: symptoms may take hours or days to start, so get advice quickly. It also says not to drive to A&E yourself; ask someone to drive, or call 999.⁵ Once the person has collapsed, the two countries meet: 911 or 999, lesson 7's recovery position if they are unresponsive and breathing normally (AHA/Red Cross 2024, COR 2a; the NHS says "still breathing"), and lesson 2's CPR if they are unresponsive and not breathing normally.¹⁵

What you don't do

Don't make them sick. The NHS: do not try to make someone sick, because "they could choke and stop breathing".⁵ St John: "Do not try to make them vomit."¹⁰ PoisonHelp.org says no home remedies and no making someone throw up.¹⁸ The old way, syrup of ipecac, has been given up for routine use. A 2013 position paper from the American Academy of Clinical Toxicology and the European Association of Poison Centres and Clinical Toxicologists found no convincing evidence from clinical studies that it improves the outcome of poisoned patients: "The routine administration of ipecac at the site of ingestion or in the emergency department should definitely be avoided."¹⁹ It adds that ipecac may delay or weaken hospital treatments such as activated charcoal. It also says the data are insufficient to support or rule out ipecac soon after some specific poisons in rare situations.¹⁹ The charcoal is a hospital treatment, on the NHS's list of what hospitals may give.⁵

On drinks, the countries differ.

• In the UK: the NHS and St John say give nothing to eat or drink.⁵¹⁰
• In the US: PoisonHelp.org's first step for a swallowed poison is to wipe out the mouth gently and give a small amount of water, then call Poison Help.¹⁸

Neither page says why. ILCOR's line, from 2010 and restated in its 2022 evidence update, is the narrowest: "Administration of a diluent in first aid may be considered if a caustic substance has been ingested, if advised to do so by a healthcare provider." A diluent is a drink that waters the poison down, and a caustic substance is one that burns. It is a weak recommendation on very low certainty evidence, and ILCOR's 2025 review lists oral dilution among topics without a systematic or scoping review since 2020.²⁰⁴ This course's reading: follow your country's page, and in either, the person on the phone. The awake-and-swallowing rule sits over both: nothing by mouth, water included, for anyone who is not fully awake and able to swallow.

What to tell them

• What, when, how much. St John: if the person is responsive, ask what they swallowed, when, and how much, and give the emergency services as much information as you can.¹⁰
• The evidence. Find packaging, containers or medicines (the NHS), keep the packaging or labels (St John), and if the person vomits, keep some in a container for the professionals (the NHS; St John).⁵¹⁰
• Who. PoisonHelp.org's online tool asks the person's age, whether they are pregnant or breastfeeding, whether more than one product is involved, and whether they are having any effects: worth having ready for any call.¹⁸
• Keep checking their breathing and response, and if they are awake, keep talking to them (the NHS; St John).⁵¹⁰

St John says poisoning can be deliberate.¹⁰ Someone who tells you they took an overdose on purpose is, in this course's reading and under the callout's rule, an emergency call first: 911 or 999. PoisonHelp.org's own online tool asks the user to confirm they are not trying to harm themselves or others.¹⁸ Lesson 16 covers what to say to someone in crisis.

Carbon monoxide

Lesson 2 gave you carbon monoxide's signs, the NHS's line between 111 and 999, and getting outside first. The clue the NHS adds is the pattern: symptoms that get worse in one room or building and better when you leave or go outside.⁵

• Don't go in after them. St John: do not enter the fume-filled area yourself.¹⁰
• In the UK: stop the appliance if you can and go outside. St John says call 999 or 112 and tell the ambulance you suspect fume inhalation. The NHS's carbon monoxide page is more graded, with lesson 2's line between 111 for symptoms and 999 or A&E for the severe signs. A suspected gas leak goes to the National Gas Helpline, 0800 111 999.¹⁰⁵
• In the US: PoisonHelp.org says get to fresh air right away and call Poison Help, with 911 for anyone who collapses, has trouble breathing or can't be woken.¹⁸
• Prevention: the NHS advises a carbon monoxide alarm in every room with an appliance that burns gas, oil, coal or wood.⁵

What people get wrong

"Put something between their teeth, or they'll swallow their tongue." The tongue cannot be swallowed; objects break teeth and can be breathed in (AHA/Red Cross 2024, COR 3: Harm).¹

"Hold them still so they don't get hurt." Restraint does not stop a seizure and can injure them or you (AHA/Red Cross 2024, COR 3: Harm). Move the danger, not the person.¹

"Every seizure needs an ambulance." Not a known epilepsy seizure that follows its usual pattern in someone who is coming round (the NHS; the CDC). Every first seizure does, in both countries.⁶¹³¹

"Give a sugary drink to anyone who collapses." Only to someone awake and able to swallow (AHA/Red Cross 2024, COR 3: Harm for anyone else; RCUK 2025).¹²

"Make them sick." They could choke, and ipecac is no longer used routinely (the NHS; the 2013 toxicology position paper).⁵¹⁹

Practice

One last task, off the page: save your country's numbers in your phone's contacts now (in the US, Poison Help; in the UK, NHS 111, and the National Gas Helpline if you use gas), without dialling any of them to test.¹⁷⁵ If someone at home has epilepsy or diabetes, ask them, when it suits them, what their usual looks like and where their plan and supplies are, and add it to the card you started in lesson 13.

Where to learn more with your hands

The recovery position after a seizure is lesson 7's skill, and a class with a manikin and an instructor is where to practise it and the CPR that can follow. The free practice tools this course points to are the BHF's RevivR and RCUK's Lifesaver, and lesson 16 lists where to find a class.

Connections

Lesson 2's check, breathing normally or not, ran through all three parts of this lesson, and so did its warning that a brief seizure can be how cardiac arrest begins. Lesson 7's recovery position is where a person goes once a seizure ends or a hypo takes them past swallowing, and lesson 13's person who carries their own medicine returns with glucose tablets and a care plan.

Lesson 15 covers heat, cold, bites and stings, where confusion is again a sign to act on. Home Repair and Maintenance, later on the Core, can assume you know carbon monoxide's signs and why every room with a burning appliance needs an alarm.

Go deeper

• NHS, What to do if someone has a seizure (fit). The UK steps, the 999 list, and what to notice for the doctors, on one page. Read in full.
• NHS, Poisoning, and PoisonHelp.org. The two countries' public advice, including where they differ on water. The NHS page read in full; PoisonHelp.org's home page and its first aid section read.

Sources

1. E. K. Hewett Brumberg, M. J. Douma and colleagues, "2024 American Heart Association and American Red Cross Guidelines for First Aid", Circulation 150, 2024, e519 to e579. Read level: full, direct, from the Internet Archive capture 20260329073336, for all prose; the seizures, hypoglycemia and emergency-numbers sections re-read on 2026-09-25. The seizure (Table 23) and hypoglycemia (Table 24) recommendation tables were read from the table images, checked against the publisher's own images on 2026-09-24, and re-read from archived copies of those images on 2026-09-25.
2. Resuscitation Council UK, 2025 Resuscitation Guidelines: First aid, 27 October 2025 . Read level: full, direct; the hypoglycaemia and "Expectations of a first aid provider" sections re-read on 2026-09-25. It has no seizure or swallowed-poison section.
3. Resuscitation Council UK, 2025 Resuscitation Guidelines: Adult basic life support, 27 October 2025 . Read level: full, direct. The seizure-like onset, the call for any unresponsive person, slow and laboured breathing, "If there is any doubt", and the low risk of harm from CPR.
4. T. Djärv, M. J. Douma and colleagues for the ILCOR First Aid Task Force, "2025 International Consensus on First Aid Science With Treatment Recommendations", Circulation 152, 2025. **Read level: full, direct, from the accepted manuscript on ilcor.org**; the hypoglycaemia recommendations and evidence update, and the list of topics not reviewed since 2020.
5. NHS, Poisoning, last reviewed 12 June 2025, and Carbon monoxide poisoning, last reviewed 16 December 2025 . Read level: full, direct; both re-read on 2026-09-25.
6. NHS, What to do if someone has a seizure (fit), last reviewed 19 December 2023 . Read level: full, direct.
7. NHS, Epilepsy, last reviewed 6 March 2025. **Read level: full, direct**; the call-999 box re-read on 2026-09-25.
8. NHS, Febrile seizures, last reviewed 21 June 2023 . Read level: full, direct.
9. Epilepsy Action, Tonic-clonic seizures, published April 2026 . Read level: full, direct.
10. St John Ambulance, Seizure, Diabetic emergencies, Poisoning and Carbon monoxide poisoning, each clinically reviewed 28 April 2025 . Read level: full, direct; all four read on 2026-09-25.
11. NHS, Low blood sugar (hypoglycaemia), last reviewed 3 August 2023 . Read level: full, direct.
12. British Red Cross, Diabetic emergency, undated . Read level: full, direct.
13. US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, First Aid for Seizures, dated 15 May 2024 . Read level: full, from the Internet Archive capture 20260915105552.
14. Epilepsy Foundation, First Aid for Seizures: Stay, Safe, Side. **Read level: full, from the Internet Archive capture 20260826112324**.
15. American Diabetes Association, Hypoglycemia (Low Blood Glucose). **Read level: partial (the key points box), direct.**
16. Diabetes UK, Hypos. **Read level: full, direct**.
17. America's Poison Centers, home page . Read level: full, direct; used for the number and the 53 centres only.
18. America's Poison Centers, PoisonHelp.org . Read level: the home page's first aid section and online-help questions, direct, on 2026-09-25.
19. J. Höjer and colleagues for the American Academy of Clinical Toxicology and the European Association of Poison Centres and Clinical Toxicologists, "Position paper update: ipecac syrup for gastrointestinal decontamination", Clinical Toxicology 51, 2013, 134 to 139. **Read level: abstract only** (PubMed 23406298), re-read on 2026-09-25.
20. ILCOR, 2022 International Consensus on CPR and ECC Science With Treatment Recommendations, summary. **Read level: partial (the evidence update on oral dilution), direct.**