Do you have people in your lives that you cant stand?
A co-worker perhaps, or a family member, or a grumpy neighbor.
Her name was Gloria Ramirez.
Ramirez, a patient with terminal cervical cancer, was complaining of irregular heartbeat and difficulty breathing.
En route to the hospital, Ramirez was administered oxygen and given intravenous fluids.
When those failed to produce any change, the staff tried to defibrillate her heart with electricity.
Welch sniffed the syringe in her hand.
It smelled of ammonia.
Gorchynski also observed unusual manila-colored particles floating in the blood.
At this point, Kane collapsed and had to be carried out of the ER.
Moments later Gorchynski complained of nausea and she too slumped to the floor.
Maureen Welch was the third to pass out.
That night twenty-three people fell ill, of which five had to be hospitalized with various symptoms.
Gorchynski was in the worst shape.
Her body convulsed and she breathed intermittently.
Gorchynski was on crutches for months.
Gloria Ramirez died within 45 minutes of her arrival at the hospital.
The official cause of her death was given as kidney failure due to metastasized cancer.
The source of the toxic fumes was undoubtedly Ramirez, but autopsy reports were inconclusive.
The report angered many staff members who were on duty that night.
The conclusion of the health department, they felt, was an insult to their professionalism.
Eventually the federal research facility in Livermore was asked to take a look at Ramirezs autopsy and toxicology reports.
There was a lot of different drugs in her system such lidocaine, Tylenol, codeine, and Tigan.
Ramirez was a cancer patient and was understandably under a lot of pain.
Many of these drugs were painkillers.
Locating the source of the ammonia-like smell observed in the emergency room was easy.
But in Ramirezs blood and tissues there was a hefty concentration of dimethyl sulfone.
Its likely that Ramirez had applied DMSO to her body to ease her pain.
The DMSO was absorbed by her skin and entered into her bloodstream.
Vapors of dimethyl sulfate instantly kill cells in exposed tissues.
In severe cases, dimethyl sulfate can also kill people.
What caused the dimethyl sulfone in Ramirezs body to convert to dimethyl sulfate is up for debate.
Organic chemists scoff at the idea since direct conversion of dimethyl sulfone to dimethyl sulfate had never been observed.
Others believe that the symptoms shown by the hospital staff doesnt match the symptoms of dimethyl sulfate poisoning.
Others still doubt that significant quantities of the suspect chemicals could have been produced from the DMSO.
The exposure to methamphetamine may have caused the rounds of nausea, headache and blackouts.
The bizarre incident surrounding the death of Gloria Ramirez will continue to remain a medical and chemical mystery.
