But the theory has provoked a backlash from other scientists. Three bodies had head and chest injuries consistent with intense force similar to that of a car crash. She handed the full syringe to doctor Julie Gorchynski, another member of the staff. There was immediate speculation that Marks drank menthol intentionally, perhaps driven by depression over the desolate polar environment. George and Jeannie Sodder were Italian immigrants who lived with their ten children in Fayetteville, West Virginia, an area with many other Italian families. A staff member asked her if she was okay, but before she could respond she also fainted. Catch her! The match between the symptoms experienced by the hospital staff and the symptoms of dimethyl sulfate exposure was uncanny. She passed the syringe to Julie Gorchynski, a medical resident who noticed unusual manila-colored particles floating in the blood an observation echoed by Humberto Ochoa, the doctor in charge of the emergency room, who was helping treat Ramirez. Six days later, the search party found the campsite with nine sets of footprints and two bodies nearby under a pine tree. Kane turned toward the door of the trauma room and swayed. DMSO has a checkered past. 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. Oxygen molecules flooded her bloodstream, combining with the DMSO in her system, the researchers hypothesized, to form high levels of dimethyl sulfone. Balderas endured bouts of apnea during a ten-day hospitalization. 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. The worlds only Antarctic murder mystery remains unsolved. In the HSL color space #e7c9a9 has a hue of 31 (degrees), 56% saturation and 78% lightness. Next to faint was a respiratory therapist, Maureen Welch, who was trying to keep Ramirez breathing with bag valve mask. 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. A second peculiar find was nicotinamide a compound, like phosgene, with a dual personality. Shortly after that, three of the medics began feeling sick and fainted one after the other. Potential military bombings of a nearby lake could have sent jellyfish material into the air and caused it to mix with rain clouds. 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. If theres one place where you dont want to have a medical emergency, its the remote tundra of the South Pole. This was the gas that poisoned the emergency room staff. But Lams case is one of the most bizarre. The hazmat team was after a smoking gun some volatile toxicant that might yet be lurking in the air of the emergency room. When it became clear that Ramirez was responding poorly to treatment, the staff tried to defibrillate her heart with electricity. DMSO is a solvent used as a powerful degreaser and sometimes as a home remedy for pain. Whatever the true reason, Overtoun Bridge now has signs installed warning owners to keep their pets on leashes during their walks. It was later discovered that she was being treated for bipolar disorder, but had it under control for several years. Half an hour later, she woke up to smoke filling the house. Up to 600 dogs may have died this way, prompting theories that a supernatural presence may be at play. By this time Gorchynski had filed a lawsuit against Riverside General Hospital, the coroners office, and several others, seeking $6 million in damages. Cause of illnesses of multiple hospital workers. The procedure was as follows: First Andresen inserted a drop of a prepared sample into the chromatograph. When it became clear to them that she wasnt responding, they tried to defibrillate her. One of the harshest critics of the Livermore theory is a scientist who did much of the clinical research on DMSO in the early 1960s. The woman, clad in shorts and a T-shirt, was awake, but she responded to questions with only brief and sometimes incoherent utterances. Georges ladder was missing. Test with samples. This color has an approximate wavelength of 580.86 nm. With this technique, you can layer a single . 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. Meanwhile, Sally Balderas, a vocational nurse who had gone back inside to help take Ramirezs body into the isolation room, began retching and felt a burning sensation on her skin. Soon she was in such bad shape that she too was laid out on a gurney. The REDSTONE, SPELL_MOB and SPELL_MOB_AMBIENT particles can also use custom colors by providing some specific data when spawning them. The only remaining theory for many people is murder, and unlike most murders, this one has a very specific number of suspects. [citation needed] Because the paper is generally inexpensive, it is commonly given to children for making art. 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. The crime scene quickly puzzled authorities. Over a period of two years, various staff reported hearing loss, nausea, and memory loss connected to these sounds. They emerged 90 minutes later with samples of blood and tissue along with air from the body bag and aluminum crate holding the body. In her case the avascular necrosis attacked her knees, restricting her to crutches for months. 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. He has been a guest speaker on numerous national radio and television stations and is a five time published author. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. Gluons are also colored . The drop, containing hundreds of chemicals, was vaporized and shunted into a chromatography column, where it was slowly heated to 570 degrees. The tent was sliced open from the inside. TG15401. In 2018, the Canadian government found evidence of brain damage in their diplomats and pulled them from the country as well. Im pretty skeptical, says Hans Reich, an organic chemist at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Some people have pointed out the similarities of the blobs to jellyfish, and have brought up the idea that the blobs could be somehow related to the creatures. Gloria Ramirez sickened half a dozen ER personnel after she came in. Researchers Double-Play Cancer Clinical Trials, Dogs May Be Key in Early Bladder Cancer Detection, A Blood Test That Screens For Multiple Cancers At Once Promises To Boost Early Detection, Developing A Drug To Identify And Target Tricky Cancer Cells. Grant mistook dimethyl sulfone for dimethyl sulfoxide, or DMSO the only difference between the two chemicals is that DMSO has one oxygen atom, not two. Andresens team had a more likely explanation for the amine, though: they said it formed as Ramirezs body broke down the antinausea drug Tigan. The solution became supersaturated, and dimethyl sulfone began to form beautiful white crystals, says Whipple, who did the experiment with Grant. Here are the details about the mystery of Gloria Ramirez and all the pandemonium that ensued. 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. Order Pick-Up; Pure Leaf Iced Tea . 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. Andresen asked Grant, his deputy director, to sift through the file. So far, so good. Save up to 70% off the cover price when you subscribe to Discover magazine. 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. Social media has allowed people from around the world to connect and share ideas on bizarre occurrences that have puzzled investigators. 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. One consulting group was an obscure outfit called the Forensic Science Center, at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. 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. 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. Catch her! People who had worked within two feet of Ramirez and had handled her intravenous lines had been at high risk. None of the hospital staff reported tearing or other eye irritation. Trace levels of radiation were discovered in the campsite and a scrap of cloth from a military jacket was also found at the scene. Translation Context Grammar Check Synonyms Conjugation. If Andresens team is right, one has to wonder whether the outbreak was unique. 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. A search of his house turned up a bizarre note taped to the back of his computer, which contained quotes from Freemason texts, lists of movie titles, and names of Hollywood figures. Its like that silliness with cold fusion, except this has the potential to hurt people, he says. I remember hearing someone scream, Welch says. It also triggered one of the most extensive investigations in forensic history medical detectives from ten local, state, and federal outfits examined dozens of potential culprits, from poisonous sewer gas to mass hysteria. They took a blood sample and saw manila-colored particles floating in it. Meanwhile, back in trauma one, Welch became the third to succumb. Medical personnel think of sterile as being without bugs, not without chemicals, Andresen says. 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. 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. 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. In the end, the Riverside case leaves us with a warning and a puzzle. The nurse who drew the blood quickly fainted, and soon two other people in the room passed out. A total of 23 staff became sick after exposure, and 5 were hospitalized. 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. Experts have speculated that Cuba or a third party could have been testing a sonic weapon. All That's Interesting is a Brooklyn-based digital publisher that seeks out stories that illuminate the past, present, and future. 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. In real blood those crystals might have appeared manila-colored. 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. You can color emitted particles with a 2D or 3D texture. 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. Gorchynski had to spend two weeks in intensive care and use crutches for two months. Grant was a bit hesitant. 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. On Christmas Eve, 1945, a fire quickly overtook the home of the Sodder family. Menu for Verde Taqueria in Brookhaven, GA. TAQUERIADELSOL.COM GIFT CARDS AVAILABLE! If the owl did do it, then he got away with it, as Michael Peterson served eight years in prison for his wifes death. Stansberry was being investigated for financial crimes at the time of Riveras death and placed a gag order on his employees during the investigation. Appreciable amounts of it built up in the syringe, and some of it vaporized out of the blood. Andresen measured their concentrations and then piped the vapors into the mass spectrometer chamber, which fires electrons at the chemicals. 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. Shortly after, everyone standing near the dying woman was starting to feel sick and nauseous. They interviewed 34 hospital staff who had been working in the emergency room on February 19. 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. Printed on 2 sides in black ink. They dont become hysterical because of a heart attack. 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. 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. Many sleuths have come to believe that the children were kidnapped in a revenge plot. Its a really clever piece of detective work, says Oregon State toxicologist Frank Dost. Alcohol was also found in her system. Questions were immediately raised over how she made it to the locked rooftop and how she replaced the heavy lid from inside. Grant didnt get to Welchs file until a few days later when he was on a flight to a business meeting in Washington, D.C. Ramirez earned the nickname the Toxic Lady because no one could examine her body without exposing themselves to a wide range of medical problems. One thing, however, is certain: several days after the autopsy, the Riverside coroner had still found nothing remarkable and had begun to solicit help. 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. Overall, 23 people became ill and five were hospitalized. Here finally was a chemical that could cause some real damage. At this point, Kane fainted and was removed from the room. But other scientists come to Livermores defense. The state report also angered some of the other emergency room staff, including Welch. Adapted from Sheng, 2017. She was extremely confused and was suffering from tachycardia and CheyneStokes respiration. She had been admitted to the emergency department while suffering from late-stage cervical cancer. This, however, has not been confirmed. Yuri Yudin stated that he believed there was an explosion, possibly from a weapons test, and cover-up by the Soviet military. There are 3 types of particles that are colorizeable, however it is not so obvious how this works. Andresen corrected him, saying the spike was dimethyl sulfone. The investigation into her death, Hill said, was finished. But most hadnt even read our report, and some of them change their minds after I explain our hypothesis. 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. Manila 2158-50 | Benjamin Moore Manila 2158-50 A peach-tinged beige that captures the iconic buff tone of manila paper. Several hikers were only in their underwear. 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. But when he warmed the bile to body temperature to pull out any gases still lurking in it, all he found was nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, and argon normal constituents of air. Colored Polystyrene Particles. (based on the use of quantum dots) detecting enrofloxacin. The medical staff injected her with diazepam, midazolam, and lorazepam to sedate her. The hotel itself has had a spooky reputation for decades as the site of several suicides and connections to several murders. FREE Shipping on orders over $25 shipped by Amazon. 1186 Lynnhaven Pkwy, Virginia Beach, VA 23452. Others developed breathing problems and one nurse experienced paralysis - and no one knew why. It takes a really damn potent toxin to do all that, says Sheldon Wagner, a clinical toxicologist at Oregon State University. This urban legend, similar to the Bloody Mary mirror game, involves pressing elevator buttons in a certain order to travel to a different dimension. Then Kane collapsed on the emergency room floor. someone shouted. 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. Suddenly, one of the attending nurses started to faint. To the relief of hospital administrators, the hazmat crew detected none of these chemicals in the emergency room. 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. 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. $1299 ($0.72/Count) Save more with Subscribe & Save. About 10 for 9 P.M, Ramirez was pronounced dead from kidney failure related to cancer. It seemed that everybody in the athletic department was using dmso on injuries, he recalls. Rodney Marks was a 32-year-old astrophysicist doing research for the University of Chicago. 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. When Susan Kane drew blood at the hospital, however, the cool temperature had slowed the breakdown of the dimethyl sulfate. Manila paper is buff-colored and the fibers of the paper are usually visible to the naked eye. 839. 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 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. In addition, they pointed out, neither paramedic who had treated Ramirez in the ambulance became ill despite the close quarters and their having touched her skin and some of her blood after starting an intravenous line. Some people believed he may have poisoned himself accidentally by attempting to home-brew alcohol, but this theory was quickly disproved by the fact that the station had a well-stocked bar available. They interviewed 34 hospital staff who had been working in the emergency department on February 19. But the most interesting theory is also the most cartoonish. Her name was Gloria Ramirez. But the rise of this potential wonder drug was stopped suddenly when animal tests showed that prolonged exposure to DMSO altered the lens of the eye. It would seem to me that it would take a hell of a lot of DMSO, but in that stage of fighting for her life, Ramirez may have really overloaded on it, he says. Taking no chances, they put on airtight moon suits and disappeared into a sealed examining chamber to work on the body. However, a shopkeeper saw her the day of her disappearance and reported that she seemed happy and calm, picking up souvenirs for her family. Manila is most commonly used for making file folders[1] and envelopes, called Manila folders and Manila envelopes, respectively. [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. Reich doubts that dimethyl sulfone would split apart in the human bodys relatively cool environment. 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. Complaining that she was light-headed, she left the trauma room and sat at a nurses desk. . Then, thanks to the publicity of the Riverside case, theyll have no problem shifting from one eldritch tale to another. CD Bioparticles provide a wide range of uniform and monodisperse colored polystyrene particles. 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. Marc Micozzi, director of the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Washington, D.C., is one. The staff was then ordered to evacuate all emergency department patients to the parking lot outside the hospital. It reported that a ten-minute exposure to half a gram of dimethyl sulfate dispersed in a cubic meter of air can kill a person. Jamie founded Listverse due to an insatiable desire to share fascinating, obscure, and bizarre facts. 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.
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