shiny objects

One thing tetrahydrozoline has NOT been known to do is to cause sudden onset bouts of severe diarrhea. Although this belief has been around for decades, and everyone knows someone who knows someone who really did administer a Visine mickey to a deserving miscreant and thereby caused him an immediate serious case of the trots, there's no documented evidence the product would have that effect. Of the Visine poisoning cases studied by medical observers, we found none that mentioned diarrheal output brought about by the drug.

Yet if Visine doesn't cause diarrhea, it has done things far more terrible. Drinking it can (and has) caused severe depression of the central nervous system. In 1996, a two-year-old child who ingested at most 2 to 3 mL of Visine eye drops became dangerously lethargic and unresponsive to every stimulus except deep pain. Thanks to prompt medical attention the child recovered, but not before enduring intubation and two days' worth of mechanically-assisted breathing.