True Story #2

On the night of February 19, 1994, Gloria Ramirez was brought into the ER at Riverside Regional Hospital in Southern California. She had been suffering from cervical cancer, and was brought in specifically for bradycardia (a slowing of the heart beat), Cheyne-Stokes respiration (an irregular breathing pattern), and confusion. She was given injections of Valium, Versed, and Ativan to sedate her, and she was also given Lidocaine for her heartbeat. She started getting worse, so they had to defibrillate her heart.

It was at that moment when things got weird. Hospital staff noticed an oily sheen on Gloria's skin and a fruity garlic smell coming from her mouth. An RN took a blood sample and smelled an ammonia odor coming from the sample tube. The RN passed the syringe to the doctor who saw what appeared to be crystals floating in the blood. The RN then passed out and was taken out. The doctor started feeling ill and light-headed, so she left as well. The doctor soon passed out as well. A respiratory therapist in the room also passed out, and the ER was forced to evacuate. After 45 minutes in the ER, Gloria Ramirez died. Her death has been attributed to kidney failure due to complications from her cancer.

California's Department of Health and Human Services investigated and found very few things, mostly looking at a mass hysteria leading to the cause of most of the issues. The doctor that night spent two weeks in the ICU with breathing problems, and she actually ended up developing hepatitis and avascular necrosis in her knees. She and the RN chose to seek a second opinion as to the findings. She turned to Livermore Labs for help.

Livermore Labs believed that Gloria Ramirez had been taking Dimethyl Sulfoxide on her own to treat herself. This compound is a solvent that has a garlic taste and can be secreted onto the tongue after exposure. The Lab believed that because of her failing kidneys, this compound built up in her system. When CPR was administered, it added a lot of oxygen into Gloria's system which would've caused the Dimethyl Sulfoxide to combine with the Oxygen to form Dimethyl Sulfone, which crystallizes at room temperature (hence the crystals in the blood sample). When Gloria was defibrullated, the electricity would have caused another chemical reaction to the Dimethyl Sulfone and caused it to change into Dimethyl Sulfate. This compound is highly toxic which could have caused the effects that the hospital staff reported.

Even though Gloria's family didn't agree with the Livermore investigation, it's the only investigation that has been able to explain all the odd occurrences in the ER that night. If the story sounds at all familiar, the premise had been used in an episode of the TV shows 'The X-Files' and 'Grey's Anatomy'. Gloria's story has made itself into medical journals and Livermore Labs have been hailed for their investigation. Unfortunately for Gloria, she has become known as "the toxic lady" by the media. She has been buried in an unmarked grave in Olivewood Memorial Park in Riverside, California.