The mother required 8 days of mechanical ventilation and 11 days of atropine therapy. In this case, the infant appeared relatively less poisoned than the mother by a presumed organophosphate exposure. However, if exposure has been cutaneous or by ingestion of a nerve agent, the pupils may be normal or, in the presence of severe systemic symptoms, slightly to moderately reduced in size. In this event, the symptoms of nerve agent poisoning other than its effects on the pupils must be relied upon to establish the diagnosis. These nerve agent symptoms are followed by cessation of breathing and death.
Symptoms appear much more slowly from skin dosage.
Although skin absorption great enough to cause death may occur in 1 to 2 min, death may be delayed for 1 to 2 hr. Respiratory lethal dosages kill in 1 to 10 min, and liquid in the eye kills nearly as rapidly. The number and severity of symptoms are dependent on the quantity and rate of entry of the nerve agent into the body.