His office has received dozens of calls from worried women being treated with DMSO for interstitial cystitis. Some fashion schools and people in the fashion industry use large rolls of Manila to create finalised clothing patterns. She was now the second member of the Riverside emergency room staff being wheeled away from the trauma room on a gurney. Police released strange footage of Elisa ducking in and out of an elevator at the hotel shortly before her disappearance. The texture can be the same as the underlying surface or any other texture you create in the scene. We specialize in products designed for medical facilities, law firms, educational institutions, and more. A bare minimum of staff remained to stabilize Gloria Ramirez. All the emergency room patients were ordered to move to the parking lot. [2] Electric shocks administered during emergency defibrillation could have then converted the DMSO2 into dimethyl sulfate (DMSO4), the highly toxic dimethyl ester of sulfuric acid, exposure to which could have caused some of the reported symptoms of the emergency department staff. But Lams case is one of the most bizarre. Because of concern that the stricken staff had been felled by a noxious chemical, they were stripped down to their underwear, and their clothes were bundled into plastic bags. Then when I woke up, I couldnt control the movements of my limbs. The plan they developed was straightforward: analyze the compounds, both organic and inorganic, in the blood, bile, and tissues from Ramirezs organs, including her heart, liver, lungs, brain, and kidneys. True Manila hemp folders would have been much tougher and longer lasting than modern folders.[4]. Manila is most commonly used for making file folders[1] and envelopes, called Manila folders and Manila envelopes, respectively. When they tried to draw blood from her arm, they noticed an ammonia-like smell coming from the tube and manila-colored particles in her blood. Several microscopic owl feathers were found in Kathleens hair. Rather, the Livermore team thought the more likely event was that Ramirez had rubbed DMSO on herself to relieve the pain from her cancer. In the RGB color model #e7c9a9 is comprised of 90.59% red, 78.82% green and 66.27% blue. Tag size: 6 1/4" x 3 1/8". A total of 23 staff became sick after exposure, and 5 were hospitalized. Her blood pressure continued to drop, and her pulse was growing fainter. This material-related article is a stub. Maureen Welch, a respiratory therapist who was assisting in the trauma room, was the third to pass out. He was discouraged. On May 24th, 2006, 32-year-old financial writer Rey Rivera was found dead in the conference room of the Belvedere Hotel in Baltimore, Maryland. Boxed in groups of 1,000. Manila paper is buff-colored and the fibers of the paper are usually visible to the naked eye. Im a nuclear chemist, and my organic chemistry knowledge truthfully is minuscule, he says. Despite the extensive injuries to his body, Riveras glasses and cellphone were found next to him undamaged. Ramirez was only 31-years-old and in the late stages of cervical cancer which was thought to have caused her sudden deterioration. She was taking shallow, rapid breaths. Kane turned toward the door of the trauma room and swayed. In court, three experts backed the possibility that an owl had attacked her and caused a deadly fall down the stairs. Others developed breathing problems and one nurse experienced paralysis and no one knew why. DMSO has a checkered past. 1186 Lynnhaven Pkwy, Virginia Beach, VA 23452. To help lure him back to the case, she sent him a copy of a scrapbook of material she had accumulated, including news stories, the Riverside coroners report, legal briefs, and toxicology reports. On May 11th, 2000, Marks visited the stations doctor three times feeling ill and they attempted to ask for medical advice by satellite, but Marks died the next day. One member named Yuri Yudin turned back early because of joint pain. Thus this process could have produced the crystals that had been observed in the syringe in the hospital, particularly since emergency rooms tend to be cooler than most rooms about 66 degrees. Whatever the true reason, Overtoun Bridge now has signs installed warning owners to keep their pets on leashes during their walks. Baby Born From The Transplanted Uterus Of A Deceased Woman In World's First, Santa Muerte: The Saint Of Death That The Vatican Tried To Shut Down, What Stephen Hawking Thinks Threatens Humankind The Most, 27 Raw Images Of When Punk Ruled New York, Join The All That's Interesting Weekly Dispatch. Save up to 70% off the cover price when you subscribe to Discover magazine. Instead, Welch says, it smelled like ammonia. But if Ramirez had taken PCP, someone should have found some traces of the drug itself. An emergency room entrance. Specifications. The medical staff injected her with diazepam, midazolam, and lorazepam to sedate her. [5], The possible chemical explanation for this incident by Patrick M. Grant of the Livermore Forensic Science Center is beginning to appear in basic forensic science textbooks. A skeleton crew stayed behind to help him in a desperate struggle to save Ramirezs life. Ochoa ordered the staff to evacuate all emergency room patients to the parking lot outside the hospital. "[7], Grant's conclusions and speculations about the incident were evaluated by professional forensic scientists, chemists, and toxicologists, passed peer review in an accredited, refereed journal, and were published by Forensic Science International. At 8.50 PM, after 45 minutes of CPR and defibrillation, she was pronounced dead due to kidney failure. For now, researchers cant find a similar poisoning in the medical annals, nor can they say whether hospitals should fret about future cases. One thing that particularly struck him was a speculation in the autopsy report about the source of the garlicky odor of Ramirezs body and its oily sheen: DMSO. Authorities have disputed the helicopter idea because there was no noise reported at the time, the location was too low to allow helicopters in the airspace, and the nearby harbor would have been a better location to dispose of a body. In her case the avascular necrosis attacked her knees, restricting her to crutches for months. You have successfully joined our subscriber list. It contained a photo with a strong resemblance to him, but the lead went nowhere. The second communication gave supplemental support for the postulated chemical scenario as well as insight into some of the sociology and vested interests inherent in the case.[specify]. According to an August report on the Riverside incident by Tam Smalstig, an industrial hygienist with Californias Department of Industrial Relations, the Riverside Coroners Office had told the department, without elaborating, that Ramirezs body had indications consistent with phencyclidine use. In the end, all of the dimethyl sulfate either vaporized or broke back down in the blood into its constituents. When Ramirez collapsed (presumably from cancer-related kidney failure) and was put in an ambulance, the paramedics put an oxygen mask on her face. She wanted someone to look at the case more closely, and in her opinion Livermore was the only laboratory involved without a vested interest. The medical staff hovering over Ramirez injected her with a host of fast-acting drugs that were part of the standard protocol for her condition: Valium, Versed, and Ativan to sedate her, and agents such as lidocaine and Bretylium to quell her aberrant heartbeat. But how did the dimethyl sulfone convert to the nerve gas dimethyl sulfate? They interviewed 34 hospital staff who had been working in the emergency room on February 19. If theres one place where you dont want to have a medical emergency, its the remote tundra of the South Pole. This page was last edited on 28 November 2022, at 05:44. She fainted after handing the syringe to a medical resident, Julie Gorchynski, and was taken out of the room. We had a meeting on the very last day of the month to determine our exact game plan, says Brian Andresen, the centers director. And despite their desire to press forward, they had to put the Ramirez case on the back burner for the rest of September. At 1:00 a.m., she heard an object hit the roof and roll but she went back to sleep. While treating Ramirez, several hospital workers fainted and others experienced symptoms such as shortness of breath and muscle spasms. She looked closely at the blood and saw manila-colored particles suspended in the otherwise normal sample. To the relief of hospital administrators, the hazmat crew detected none of these chemicals in the emergency room. The woman, clad in shorts and a T-shirt, was awake, but she responded to questions with only brief and sometimes incoherent utterances. Not only did Grant use it, but Andresen as well remembers the DMSO rage from his days during the 1970s as a pharmacology professor at Ohio State University. This theory has been endorsed by the Riverside Coroner's Office and published in the journal Forensic Science International. Andresen thinks some of the backlash was avoidable. Theyre swamped with calls and letters urging them to get to the bottom of a host of mysteries, from Gulf War syndrome the symptoms suffered by some U.S. soldiers who fought in the Persian Gulf to sudden infant death syndrome. Investigations by scientists, however, have resulted in another theory. Soon her situation got worse and had to be laid out on a gurney. In early October, when the Livermore scientists took up the Ramirez case again, they first had to decide whether her body could have generated the dimethyl sulfate. The Livermore chemists envision a reaction which hasnt yet been observed in which some of the molecules of dimethyl sulfone in Ramirezs blood broke apart. You will need to use the method Player.spawnParticle which takes the full set of available . The Riverside Coroner's Office hailed Livermore's DMSO conclusion as the probable cause of the hospital workers' symptoms, while her family disagreed. But the theory has provoked a backlash from other scientists. The nurse who drew the blood quickly fainted, and soon two other people in the room passed out. But the index also said dimethyl sulfate is a war gas. Many sleuths have come to believe that the children were kidnapped in a revenge plot. When absorbed into the body, dimethyl sulfate causes convulsions, delirium, paralysis, coma, and delayed damage to the kidneys, liver, and heart. Broken down by the liver, dimethyl sulfone has a half-life in the body of less than three days, so healthy people never have measurable amounts in their system. Livermore, situated about 60 miles east of San Francisco, is rooted in the nuclear arms buildup that started shortly after World War II. There were multiple reports from locals that they had spotted the Sodder children in the years following the fire and a letter came to the family in 1968 claiming to be from a surviving son. Jeannie, George, and four of the children escaped. It takes a really damn potent toxin to do all that, says Sheldon Wagner, a clinical toxicologist at Oregon State University. But the most interesting theory is also the most cartoonish. But there was another possible murderer considered: an owl. The nurse who drew the blood quickly fainted, and soon two other people in the room passed out. Soviet authorities investigated and decided that six died from hypothermia and three from trauma. Appreciable amounts of it built up in the syringe, and some of it vaporized out of the blood. 1 part Manila Colored Inventory Tag - Plain. [2][3] The Livermore scientists theorized that the DMSO in Ramirez's system might have built up owing to urinary blockage caused by her kidney failure. In 2016, diplomatic staff in Cuba began to experience a strange illness. Canadian college student Elisa Lam checked into the Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles on January 28th, 2013. Like many other chemicals, dimethyl sulfate has a good side and a bad side. Grant, "Response to Letters to the Editor Concerning the Riverside 'Mystery Fumes' Incident Analysis", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Death_of_Gloria_Ramirez&oldid=1124288808, Articles needing more detailed references, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0. By studying the mass spectra, Andresen divined the identity of a number of compounds that had been circulating in Ramirezs system just before her death; among them were the drugs lidocaine, Tylenol, codeine, and Tigan, an antinausea medication. She initially shared a room with strangers, but was moved soon after when the other girls complained about her strange behavior. They shot through two sets of double glass doors, veered to their left, and parked her in a small curtained space marked trauma room one. Test with samples. The REDSTONE, SPELL_MOB and SPELL_MOB_AMBIENT particles can also use custom colors by providing some specific data when spawning them. Marc Micozzi, director of the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Washington, D.C., is one. Gloria Ramirez sickened half a dozen ER personnel after she came in. The electrons shatter the molecules into all types of pieces, says Andresen. DMSO2 is known to crystallize at room temperature, and crystals were observed in some of Ramirez's drawn blood. Following that, several other people, including staff, started saying they felt ill and the staff was ordered to evacuate the emergency room to the hospitals parking lot. Welch sniffed the syringe and smelled something, too: I thought it would smell like chemotherapy, the way the blood smells putrid when people are taking some of those drugs. Manila 2158-50 | Benjamin Moore Manila 2158-50 A peach-tinged beige that captures the iconic buff tone of manila paper. It was a registered nurse, Susan Kane, who drew blood and noticed the smell as the syringe filled. Medical staff also noticed a strange fruity garlic scent on her breath and manila-colored particles floating in Ramirez's blood. The stuff is like tear gas, says Jack de la Torre, a physiologist and professor of neurosurgery at the University of New Mexico. As if the situation wasnt strange enough already, suddenly, one after the other, nurses in the room started to faint. Medical staff also noticed a strange fruity garlic scent on her breath and manila-colored particles floating in Ramirezs blood. When it became clear to them that she wasnt responding, they tried to defibrillate her. A third odd chemical signal defied being pigeonholed as either trivial or important: dimethyl sulfone. Each of the emitters has its own texture emission attributes, so you can apply a different texture (or color) to each group of particles even though each emitter emits the same nParticle object. The investigation by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health had also found this amine and had suggested that it was a possible culprit, despite its minuscule levels in the autopsy samples. He also sought medical attention immediately, which made a suicide attempt even more unlikely. DMSO is sold in a gel form at hardware stores as a heavy-duty degreaser, and it has long been a folk remedy among athletes for achy muscles and joints. The Riverside Coroners Office apparently agrees it released the Livermore report last November, hailing its conclusion as the probable cause of the hospital workers symptoms. A trained forensic eye can quickly dismiss such misleading signals. Catch her! Pine needles and clumps of her own hair were found in Kathleens hands, which also point to a potential entanglement. Gorchynski denied that she had been affected by mass hysteria and pointed to her own medical history as evidence. Ochoa and three others repeatedly administered electric shocks and drugs, but their efforts to stabilize Ramirez failed. To obtain blood for analysis, a registered nurse named Susan Kane swabbed Ramirezs right arm with rubbing alcohol, inserted a catheter, and attached a syringe. He has been a guest speaker on numerous national radio and television stations and is a five time published author. This is likely to occur again DMSO is not uncommon, asserts Barry Taylor, a microbiologist at Loma Linda University School of Medicine who has followed the case closely. But the strangest theory is a supernatural idea. [2][3] A skeleton crew stayed behind to stabilize Ramirez. This woman, the paramedics reported, was 31 years old and had cervical cancer. The fire was ruled an electrical accident. The hazmat team was after a smoking gun some volatile toxicant that might yet be lurking in the air of the emergency room. Our colored particles are prepared by polymerizing styrene in oil soluble dye solution in styrene. Ana Maria Osorio and Kirsten Waller, on the case. That surreal night would throw Riverside General Hospital into newspapers and tv news broadcasts for weeks, as the frightening possibility of a human body releasing toxic fumes captured the publics imagination. Georges ladder was missing. Reich doubts that dimethyl sulfone would split apart in the human bodys relatively cool environment. A second investigation from Livermore National Laboratory came to a different conclusion. Kane turned toward the door of the trauma room and swayed. Thousands of Cuban scientists and officials investigated the case at the time and the country denied any involvement with a potential attack, but many people remain unconvinced. One thing, however, is certain: several days after the autopsy, the Riverside coroner had still found nothing remarkable and had begun to solicit help. They took a blood sample and saw manila-colored particles floating in it. Andresen also found a lot of hydrocarbons, chemicals that had leached into the samples from their sterile plastic containers. Adapted from Sheng, 2017. It is just as strong as kraft paper but has better printing qualities, such as stronger pigment retention. Now the Livermore team needed to figure out the next step: how the relatively harmless dimethyl sulfone could have been converted to the extraordinarily harmful dimethyl sulfate. 10 Creepy Mysteries That Are Still Unsolved, Including The Poisoning Of The Titanic Cast, Surveillance video of Elisa Lam shows bizarre behavior, 10 Best Supernatural Occurrences Caught On Camera, Top 10 Reasons Skinwalker Ranch Is The Strangest, Top 10 Strangest Farms From Around The World - 2020, Top 10 Strangest Flavoured Foods And Drinks Ever, Top 10 Crimes That People Committed For The, 10 Strangest Unexplained Phenomena In Our Solar System, 10 Strangest Candies From Around The World, 10 Mythical Humanoids from the Ancient World, 10 Decades-Old Cold Case Murders Solved with DNA, 10 Revealing Recreations of Long-Gone Things, The Most Incredible Animal Mummies from Egypt, Top 10 Biggest Upsets in World Cup History, Ten Hauntings at Breweries, Distilleries, and Vineyards, 10 Colonial Punishments We Thankfully Ended, Ten World Leaders Who Leaned on Astrology for Guidance, 10 Unexplained Mysteries Of The National Parks, 10 Unsolved Cases Involving Murdered Couples, Ten Disturbing Dogman Sightings of the American Midwest, 10 Mysterious UFO Incidents Confirmed By Radar. But now add two oxygen atoms to dimethyl sulfone which in chemical notation is written (CH3)2SO2 and you get dimethyl sulfate, (CH3)2SO4, a truly nasty chemical. Lams strange behavior in the elevator has led some to believe that Lam was playing a Korean elevator game. Her blood also alarmingly smelled like ammonia. So the products they use are superclean and sterilized but covered in chemicals. I was hoping to see a chemical, some small molecule thats going to knock everybody down, but nothing was showing up there, he says. In February of 1994, 31-year-old Gloria Ramirez was rushed to Riverside General Hospital with a racing heartbeat and abnormal breathing. Twenty-three people eventually reported symptoms. Andresen laid out a paper with the gas chromatography-mass spectrometry results, a graph with spikes similar to earthquake readings on a seismograph, and pointed at the dimethyl sulfone peak. It is true, he notes, that no one has done experiments to show that dimethyl sulfate is produced when dimethyl sulfone breaks apart and recombines with the bodys sulfates. [8][9] The first paper was technically detailed and contained two potential chemical reaction mechanisms that may possibly have formed dimethyl sulfate from dimethyl sulfoxide and dimethyl sulfone precursors. You can color emitted particles with a 2D or 3D texture. Source: Wikipedia commons Get unlimited access for as low as $1.99/month. CD Bioparticles provide a wide range of uniform and monodisperse colored polystyrene particles. Realizing dimethyl sulfate was their best lead yet, Richard Whipple and Jeffrey Haas, chemists at the forensic center, searched among the thousands of papers that have been written about these compounds. As the syringe filled, Kane noticed a chemical smell to the blood. This WWII Shipwreck Is Pouring Pollutants Into The North Sea. I remember thinking, How could I spend this much time and not find anything?. Other precursors of dimethyl sulfate, like sulfur-bearing amino acids, probably couldnt produce enough of the chemical to wreak so much havoc. A Woman Had Carried a Baby in Her Womb for 46 Years and Then Gave Birth to a Stone baby, 18 Unbelievable Facts That Sound Completely Fake Part 2, 10 Facts About Artificial Intelligence Thatll Leave You with Mixed Feelings, Two Decades Ago Their Rescuing Hug Stunned The World And Revolutionised Medicine, 10 Most Horrifying Torture Methods In All of History, Sexsomnia The Sleeping Disorder that Makes You Have Sex While Youre Asleep, What Are These Massive Super-Cows? Colored Particles. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. Andresens team had a more likely explanation for the amine, though: they said it formed as Ramirezs body broke down the antinausea drug Tigan. It was so bizarre that it inspired episodes in many TV shows, including The X-Files, Greys Anatomy, The New Detectives, and Law & Order. Stanley Jacob, a physician and medical researcher at the Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland, doubts that significant quantities of the suspect chemicals could have been produced from dmso. Of the 20 types of symptoms reported by the staff, from the fainting to the convulsions to Gorchynskis hepatitis, only one nausea and vomiting is not a symptom of dimethyl sulfate exposure. Catch her! . No one clue gives a perfect fit to explain a death, but when all the clues are added up, you get a pattern. All That's Interesting is a Brooklyn-based digital publisher that seeks out stories that illuminate the past, present, and future. There was immediate speculation that Marks drank menthol intentionally, perhaps driven by depression over the desolate polar environment. Nevertheless, he thinks the hypothesis is a good one. About 8:15p.m. on the evening of February 19, 1994, Ramirez, suffering from severe heart palpitations, was brought into the emergency department of Riverside General Hospital in Riverside, by paramedics. One was missing a tongue. This hunting desire could combine with the layout of the bridge and the surrounding plant life to give the appearance of solid ground, confusing the animals into thinking there is no drop off. The long-term effects of these kinds of devices remain unknown. (A liter of liquid dimethyl sulfate sells for around $32.) They stripped off her shirt and pressed padded electrodes against her chest; at that point several people saw an oily sheen covering Ramirezs body, and some noticed a fruity, garlicky odor that they thought was coming from her mouth. A staff member asked her if she was okay, but before she could respond she also fainted. Browse 270 colored manila folders stock photos and images available, or start a new search to explore more stock photos and images. The riverside coroners office felt it had reached the end of the road, too. By signing up, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy & to receive electronic communications. The hospital was evacuated except for a few people staying to help Ramirez, but she died forty-five minutes after she arrived at the hospital from complications of cancer. He points out that forensic investigations often fail to find the actual smoking gun, but they can still come to valid conclusions. On the same page of the index he had been reading, he found the answer: dimethyl sulfate. George and Jeannie Sodder were Italian immigrants who lived with their ten children in Fayetteville, West Virginia, an area with many other Italian families. She had been admitted to the emergency department while suffering from late-stage cervical cancer. Fiber patch and drilled hole for extra reinforcment. Other scientists dont see a match between the symptoms of the hospital staff and some of the symptoms of industrial workers who have been accidentally exposed to dimethyl sulfate. However, Osorio and Waller did not rule out the possibility that some substance poisoned emergency room staff who had worked directly over Ramirez. The report may be based on politics or ignorance, but its not based on science, Kussman told the New York Times. Shortly after that, three of the medics began feeling sick and fainted one after the other. This, however, has not been confirmed. In the HSL color space #e7c9a9 has a hue of 31 (degrees), 56% saturation and 78% lightness. Ive gotten messages on my answering machine from chemists who say its an impossible conclusion, says Andresen. An investigation by local scientists found human white blood cells in the material, leading to the idea that the blobs were at least once a living material. They also noticed an oily sheen on her chest and a fruity, garlic-like odor which they thought was coming from her mouth. The material has a garlic smell and oily sheen. Sign up for our email newsletter for the latest science news, Want More? There are 3 types of particles that are colorizeable, however it is not so obvious how this works. At around 11 PM, a hazardous materials team from Riverside County arrived and started looking for known volatile toxins, including hydrogen sulfide, but found none. The team was supposed to come back by February 12th, and a search party of their classmates and teachers were sent out to look for them on the 20th. Facebook Watch is the place to enjoy videos and shows together. Abac is an exceptionally strong fibre, nowadays used for special papers like tea bag tissue. Yet chemists have on several occasions discovered that seemingly impossible reactions turn out to be quite possible. If Andresens team is right, one has to wonder whether the outbreak was unique. They interviewed 34 hospital staff who had been working in the emergency department on February 19. It was one of those deals that was pretty fortuitous, Grant says. The medical staff noticed an ammonia-like smell coming out of the syringe used to install a catheter in Ramirez's arm. The puzzle is that if the Livermore investigators are wrong, then what did happen in the Riverside emergency room on February 19, 1994? However, a former hotel employee endorsed the theory and said that helicopters were known to fly low over the hotel, despite the airspace rules. There were a lot of things we hadnt seen before, he says. The crime scene quickly puzzled authorities. DMSO is a solvent used as a powerful degreaser and sometimes as a home remedy for pain. With the rise of internet sleuths, true crime podcasts and videos, and discussion forums, its safe to say that many people love speculating about real-life mysteries. There was not yet a sufficient amount of nerve gas to harm the paramedics. At 8:50p.m., after 45 minutes of CPR and defibrillation, Ramirez was pronounced dead from kidney failure related to her cancer. Five workers required hospitalization, one of whom remained in an intensive care unit for two weeks. Over a period of two years, various staff reported hearing loss, nausea, and memory loss connected to these sounds. The Livermore team was able to cull details about the symptoms of dimethyl sulfate exposure from the reference book, as well as from a safety sheet that accompanies any dimethyl sulfate purchased by industry. Andresen suspected that the headspace would be a likely retreat for a noxious gas particularly in the container holding the bile, a yellowish secretion of the liver, where poisons often concentrate. Suddenly, one of the attending nurses started to faint. The Riversides Coroners Office gave the investigation work to Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, who came up with the DMSO hypothesis. There were also injuries on the back of her head consistent with blunt force, and the coroner stated that he believed she had not died from a fall, but may have been beaten. First on the scene, arriving at the hospital at around 11 p.m., was a Riverside County hazardous materials team. The health departments report triggered another flurry of news reports; these featured Gorchynski and her lawyer, physician Russell Kussman, who denounced the mass hysteria conclusion. folder with document - colored manila folders stock pictures, royalty-free photos & images. This color has an approximate wavelength of 580.86 nm. He and his fiance were both spending the winter at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station with forty-eight other crewmates. The state report also angered some of the other emergency room staff, including Welch. Complaining that she was light-headed, she left the trauma room and sat at a nurses desk. Top 10 Creepy Mysteries From The American South. An investigation by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory proposed that Ramirez had been self-administering dimethyl sulfoxide as a treatment for pain, which converted into dimethyl sulfate, an extremely poisonous and highly carcinogenic alkylating agent, via a series of chemical reactions in the emergency department. Residents speculated that it could be human waste dumped from passing planes, which could explain why it made people sick, but airlines quickly disputed this because plane waste is dyed blue. Andresen recalls some anxious questioning by the coroners office in hopes of finding a smoking gun, but he insisted that it appeared Ramirez had simply taken a lot of codeine and Tylenol, which in large, sustained doses can damage the liver. A special team came in to examine her body while wearing hazmat suits to protect themselves from whatever had taken down the nurses. In chemistry little changes can sometimes lead to big results. Find the latest trending videos, discover original shows and checkout what's going on with your favorite creators. The warning is that the human body can be a place where bizarre and potentially deadly chemistry can occur. But other factors that correlated with severe symptoms didnt seem to match a scenario in which fumes had been released: the survey found that those afflicted tended to be women rather than men, as well as people who had skipped dinner that evening rather than those who had a full stomach. In the end, the Riverside case leaves us with a warning and a puzzle. People use it for a variety of ailments, from arthritis to muscular strains, says George Rutherford, Californias state epidemiologist. At this point, Kane fainted and was removed from the room. In September of 2017, the U.S. government pulled all of their non-essential personnel and discouraged all travel to Cuba. Gorchynski shook intermittently; over and over again she would stop breathing for several seconds, take a few breaths, then stop breathing again a condition known as apnea. It took six months before the body could be removed and autopsied, when it was determined that Marks had died of menthol poisoning. If the children were kidnapped, they may not have come forward to protect the rest of their family from harm. The American government stated that they believed Cuba was responsible for the events. And thus the macabre chemistry of that night hid most of its traces from investigators. We just wanted the coroners offices opinion, and they took it and said, This is the answer. It caught us way off guard. Questions were immediately raised over how she made it to the locked rooftop and how she replaced the heavy lid from inside. Sooez 18 Pack Plastic File Folders Colored with Sticky Labels, Letter Size Colored File Folders with Erasable 1/3-Cut Tab, Stronger Than Manila File Folder, Perfect for Organization, Assorted Color. FREE Shipping on orders over $25 shipped by Amazon. Meanwhile, back in trauma one, Welch became the third to succumb. Add one oxygen atom to DMSO and you get dimethyl sulfone you change one solvent to another. Lam appeared to be hiding from someone in the hallway or potentially suffering a mental crisis of some kind. Dozens of Americans and Canadians reported hearing an odd sound for twenty seconds to a minute at a time. [2], She passed the tube to Julie Gorchynski, a medical resident, who noticed manila-colored particles floating in the blood. Six days later, the search party found the campsite with nine sets of footprints and two bodies nearby under a pine tree. Two months before the fire, a traveling salesman had argued with George and told him that his house would go up in smoke and his children would be destroyed because of Georges anti-Mussolini statements. But in the past decade, as the production of nuclear weapons has tapered off, Livermore and its fellow labs have attempted to find an identity better suited to a post- cold war world. After that, Gorchynski felt nauseated and lightheaded, she left to a nurses desk, and there she fainted too. In severe cases, the vapors kill. [6] In Houck and Siegel's textbook, the authors state that, although some weaknesses exist, the postulated scenario is "the most scientific explanation to date" and that "beyond this theory, no credible explanation has ever been offered for the strange case of Gloria Ramirez. Then, thanks to the publicity of the Riverside case, theyll have no problem shifting from one eldritch tale to another. [2], Manila paper was originally made out of old Manila hemp ropes which were extensively used on ships, having replaced true hemp. 839. They also stated that the cuts on her scalp may have been caused by the owls talons. The higher the concentrations of the ingredients required, the more efficiently chemical reactions will run; thus, with so much oxygen, no DMSO was left untransformed. As the vapors grew warmer, chemicals began to migrate along the column, sorting out along the way according to their electric charge and vapor pressure. Colored Polystyrene Particles. (Although dimethyl sulfate has been tested as a nerve gas, it has apparently never been manufactured for use in war.). The team would also check for any gases that may have vented off the samples into the headspace, the pocket of air separating the samples from the tops of their containers. However, a shopkeeper saw her the day of her disappearance and reported that she seemed happy and calm, picking up souvenirs for her family. Other scientists are more convinced that action is necessary. Nor has its use been limited to athletes. This was the moment when things went from a bit odd to bizarre. But other factors that correlated with severe symptoms did not appear to match a scenario in which fumes had been released: the survey found that those afflicted tended to be women rather than men, and they all had normal blood tests after the exposure. The most severe case required two weeks of hospitalization. The second nurse fainted too and later a respiratory therapist was the third to pass out. Nurses removed Ramirezs shirt and saw a mysterious oily sheen on her skin and her mouth was emitting a fruity, garlicky smell. About 10 for 9 P.M, Ramirez was pronounced dead from kidney failure related to cancer. Doctors quickly got to work trying to save her life, but nothing seemed to be working. The tan-ish color of the envelope is known as Buff or un-dyed. Using a standardized questionnaire, Osorio and Waller found that the people who had developed severe symptoms such as loss of consciousness, shortness of breath, and muscle spasms tended to have certain things in common. Nevertheless, according to Grant and other chemists, some fraction will still vaporize at room temperature. Stansberry was being investigated for financial crimes at the time of Riveras death and placed a gag order on his employees during the investigation. The Ramirez family's pathologist was unable to determine a cause of death because her heart was missing, her other organs were cross-contaminated with fecal matter, and her body was too badly decomposed. This is where we were afraid we might find a showstopper that would kill the theory, says Grant. Since DMSO can react with oxygen and form dimethyl sulfone, Grant began to wonder what other compounds might be formed when oxygen is added to the chemical. When it became clear that Ramirez was responding poorly to treatment, the staff tried to defibrillate her heart with electricity. But in her warm blood, the dimethyl sulfate was unstable and quickly fell apart into its hydrocarbon and sulfate components. When it became clear that Ramirez was responding poorly to treatment, the staff tried to defibrillate her heart; at that point several people saw an oily sheen covering Ramirez's body, and some noticed a fruity, garlic-like odor that they thought was coming from her mouth. One of the most interesting theories is that Rivera was dropped through the roof of the hotel by a helicopter, possibly because of his work cleaning up the public image of his childhood friend Porter Stansberry. She was extremely confused and was suffering from tachycardia and CheyneStokes respiration. Translation Context Grammar Check Synonyms Conjugation. Next Andresen analyzed the samples using a high-powered tool known as a computer-guided combined gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer. Image Source: brantford Alarmed by the growing cult of DMSO users, the FDA issued a warning to physicians in 1980: Counsel patients against purchasing dmso of unknown quality and medicating themselves. The evidence at the scene was strange from the beginning. But given its potential side effects, its a dangerous remedy because in its readily available hardware- store grease-cutting form, its 99 percent pure. One consulting group was an obscure outfit called the Forensic Science Center, at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. George and Jeannie believed that their five missing children did not die in the fire, as noo bones or other remains were found. In all, 23 of the 37 emergency room staff members experienced at least one symptom. The Sodders put up a billboard with their childrens pictures and continued searching for them for the rest of their lives. Sometimes its a pattern that weve never seen before, he says, such as the Riverside case. Find Out About the Gaurs. On Christmas Eve, 1945, a fire quickly overtook the home of the Sodder family. After the exposure, she spent two weeks in the intensive care unit with breathing problems. They took a blood sample and saw manila-colored particles floating in it. In DMSO2 form, it is known to crystallize at room temperature, which could explain the manila-colored crystals the blood that was drawn from her body (at 98.6 0F) and into the syringe (at room temperature, 64 0F). in /home1/neuxs/public_html/www.biggervisionmusic.com/wp-content . When Susan Kane drew blood at the hospital, however, the cool temperature had slowed the breakdown of the dimethyl sulfate. An initial investigation from the California Department of Health and Human Services concluded that the mysterious symptoms of the hospital staff were a case of mass hysteria, which the affected professionals heavily disputed. Overall, 23 people became ill and five were hospitalized. When oxygen was added, it could have become dimethyl sulfone, forming the crystals in Ramirezs blood. Gloria Ramirezs life was pretty normal but the circumstances surrounding her bizarre death have made her one of historys weirdest people. "colored particle" in Chinese SentencesMobile She passed the syringe to Julie Gorchynski, a medical resident, who noticed manila-colored particlesfloating in the blood. This urban legend, similar to the Bloody Mary mirror game, involves pressing elevator buttons in a certain order to travel to a different dimension. Bizarre Case of Gloria Ramirez, AKA "The Toxic Lady", Whose Body Emitted Toxic Fumes That Caused the ER Staff to Faint Kane passed the blood sample to the attending doctor, who agreed that the blood smelled like ammonia, before giving the vial to a medical student named Julie Gorchynski, who noticed strange manila-colored particles in the sample. Ignoring the red herrings, Andresen found a few interesting anomalies. That Andresen had found evidence of dimethyl sulfone in Ramirezs blood and organs pointed to her having first been exposed to DMSO. Tag series numbered from 0000-19999. Grant decided to find out more about DMSO and dimethyl sulfone, so when he got back to Livermore he looked up the two compounds in the Merck Index, a chemists bible that describes the characteristics of more than 10,000 chemicals, drugs, and biological substances. To refresh Grants memory of the case, he also showed him his results, including the puzzling compounds he had identified. A staff member asked Gorchynski if she was okay, but before she could respond she slumped to the floor. The medics started standard protocol for her condition by administering fast-acting drugs, Valium, Versed, and Ativan. He tried to pull his truck around to climb to the second floor, but it would not start. Social media has allowed people from around the world to connect and share ideas on bizarre occurrences that have puzzled investigators. The roof above Riveras body had a small hole that suggested he had smashed through at an almost vertical angle, but there was no clear area he could have jumped from. Trace levels of radiation were discovered in the campsite and a scrap of cloth from a military jacket was also found at the scene. Then with an electrical shock from the defibrillator, it could have become dimethyl sulfate, a toxic chemical that could have poisoned the staff. Ramirezs seemingly average life took its unusual turn on Feb. 19, 1994, when she was taken to General Hospital in Riverside, Calif. after she experienced a rapid heart rate, a drop in blood pressure, and was unable to form coherent sentences. TG15401. The FDA later relaxed that policy and in 1978 approved a 50 percent solution of DMSO as a treatment for interstitial cystitis, a condition marked by painful urinary tract lesions that occurs predominantly in women. The staff was then ordered to evacuate all emergency department patients to the parking lot outside the hospital. The strong scent of mink musk may be too tempting for the pets to resist. During the mid-1960s a flurry of research showed it had remarkable healing powers, easing intractable pain and reducing anxiety. It is manufactured as an industrial solvent, but it is also sometimes produced naturally in our bodies from amino acids that contain sulfur. Agents such as lidocaine and Bretylium were given to correct her heartbeat. The ropes were made from abac or Musa textilis, which is grown in the Philippines;[3] hence the association with Manila, its capital city. They emerged 90 minutes later with samples of blood and tissue along with air from the body bag and aluminum crate holding the body. Sulfates (SO4) are common in the body, so the two CH3 molecules may have linked up with them to form (CH3)2SO4 dimethyl sulfate. Jamie founded Listverse due to an insatiable desire to share fascinating, obscure, and bizarre facts. Menu for Verde Taqueria in Brookhaven, GA. TAQUERIADELSOL.COM GIFT CARDS AVAILABLE! In other words, theyd been felled by stress and anxiety. Here finally was a chemical that could cause some real damage. The procedure was as follows: First Andresen inserted a drop of a prepared sample into the chromatograph. Industries use dimethyl sulfate to tack methyl groups onto organic chemicals. (The autopsy, the researchers note, had found that Ramirez had a urinary tract blockage. At the time he died, Rivera seemed to be happily married and pursuing his dream of becoming a screenwriter. Then Kane collapsed on the emergency room floor. Then came the pathologists from Riverside Coroners Office who took samples of blood, tissue, and air from the body bag and aluminum crate in which Ramirezs body was held. By the time she got to the emergency room, she was in a confused state and already suffering from abnormal heart rate and breathing. Its a really clever piece of detective work, says Oregon State toxicologist Frank Dost. Commonly featured with a top flap, they can be open ended or have a closing mechanism attached. Grant was a bit hesitant. The Livermore scientists had been working on the case for free as a public service, after hours and on the weekends. The clothes of whoever could have been exposed were removed into plastic bags. About 8:15 in the evening on February 19, 1994, paramedics wheeled a young woman into the emergency room of General Hospital in the southern California city of Riverside. Known as the Oakville blobs, this transparent jelly fell in tiny droplets half the size of rice grains over a period of three weeks and reportedly sickened local people and animals with a flu-like illness. The worlds only Antarctic murder mystery remains unsolved. The match between the symptoms experienced by the hospital staff and the symptoms of dimethyl sulfate exposure was uncanny. We found we could load it up in the Ringers solution to an appreciable extent without any sweat, says Grant. Strange orange orbs were sighted by other nearby hikers around the time of the incident that some believe could have been a type of bomb. Registered nurse Susan Kane drew blood from Ramirez's arm and noticed an ammonia-like smell coming from the tube. Shop Now LRV 68.26 Collection Color Preview Get your own digital color dollop of Manila 2158-50 Create My Dollop Lighting Screen colors may differ. But in Ramirezs blood and tissues there was a hefty concentration of tens of micrograms per milliliter, about three times higher than the codeine in the samples. However, the autopsies never presented definitive reasons for Ramirezs strange ailments and why several of the hospital staffers fell mysteriously ill. Medical personnel think of sterile as being without bugs, not without chemicals, Andresen says. The standard model is the name given in the 1970s to a theory of fundamental particles and how they interact. It was later discovered that she was being treated for bipolar disorder, but had it under control for several years. Andresens team is going to conduct more experiments and check Ramirezs blood again; soon they hope to turn their preliminary report into a paper they will submit to a refereed forensic journal. On February 21st, Lams body was found on the roof of the hotel in a water tank. Its like that silliness with cold fusion, except this has the potential to hurt people, he says. Those findings, coupled with the autopsy results, the hazmat analysis, and unremarkable blood test results from the stricken hospital staff, led to an official report that the health department released on September 2. Ramirezs family has since denied she was using DMSO or PCP before her death, but if she did use a DMSO gel for her pain, it would have been far from unusual its been estimated that two-thirds of cancer patients use some kind of unprescribed home remedy for their disease. Gorchynski too began feeling queasy. I just tell them the dimethyl sulfate theory is a chemical impossibility, says Jacob. Only 1 left in stock - order soon. Twenty-three people eventually reported symptoms. Fearing that a DMSO drug might ruin peoples eyesight, the Food and Drug Administration ordered companies to cease clinical trials of the drug in 1965. It took the fire department hours to respond and by then the house had burned completely to ash. They also noticed strange manila-colored particles floating in the blood. The tent was sliced open from the inside. This was the gas that poisoned the emergency room staff. Two months after Ramirez died, her badly decomposed body was released for an independent autopsy and burial. Dimethyl sulfate doesnt vaporize easily the Merck Index lists its boiling point as 370 degrees. The incident was initially considered to be a case of mass hysteria. And people still go nuts. Gorchynski, the most severely ill, spent two weeks in intensive care, where in addition to apnea she suffered from hepatitis, pancreatitis, and avascular necrosis, a condition in which bone tissue is starved of blood and begins to die. She was sedated and then defibrillated by doctors, who noticed that her body was covered in an oily sheen. The Toxic Lady At this point, Kane fainted and was removed from the room. Balderas endured bouts of apnea during a ten-day hospitalization. Experts have speculated that Cuba or a third party could have been testing a sonic weapon. That goal fostered the creation, in 1990, of the forensic center, a clearinghouse that would allow state and federal law enforcement forensic teams to enlist high-tech aid from scientists at Livermore and other Department of Energy labs. The Livermore scientists do offer a cautionary note in their report, which recommends that hospitals be made aware of the possible consequences of such a chemical reaction occurring in their emergency rooms. It is sold in gel form at hardware stores and said to have agarlic-like smell, which explains the odor and greasiness of her chest. One was an unidentified amine, a derivative of ammonia, that may have contributed to the ammonia-like smell noted in the emergency room. In 1997, residents of Oakville, Washington were shocked by a strange gelatinous material falling from the sky. She was convinced that neither she nor anyone else that night had been party to mass hysteria. But dimethyl sulfone itself couldnt knock out an emergency room, so when Andresen flew to Riverside on April 12 to brief the coroner, his conclusion was that he had found nothing that looked like a poison. Fainted too a screenwriter, a fire quickly overtook the home of Riverside! Out stories that illuminate the past, present, and more toxicologist Frank Dost with air from the room. Smell and oily sheen on her skin and her mouth was emitting a fruity, garlic-like odor which thought! And Medicine in Washington, D.C., is one of those deals that was normal! 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