Death of Gloria Ramirez

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Gloria Ramirez
Born
Gloria Cecilia Ramirez

(1963-01-11)January 11, 1963
Riverside, California
DiedFebruary 19, 1994(1994-02-19) (aged 31)
Riverside, California
Cause of deathCancer due to malignancy
Known forCause of illnesses of multiple hospital workers

Gloria Cecilia Ramirez (January 11, 1963 – February 19, 1994)

emergency room suffering from late-stage cervical cancer. While treating Ramirez, three hospital workers fainted, and others experienced symptoms such as shortness of breath and muscle spasms. Five workers required hospitalization, one of whom remained in an intensive care unit
for two weeks. Ramirez herself died from complications related to her cancer shortly after arriving at the hospital.

The incident was initially considered to be a case of

mass hysteria. 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 room. This theory has been endorsed by the Riverside Coroner's Office and published in the journal Forensic Science International
.

Emergency department visit

At about 8:15 p.m. on February 19, 1994, Gloria Ramirez, suffering from severe

Riverside General Hospital in Riverside, California, by paramedics. She was extremely confused and was suffering from tachycardia and Cheyne–Stokes respiration
.

Hospital staff administered

defibrillate her heart; at that point several medical workers saw an oily sheen covering Ramirez' body, and some noticed a fruity, garlic-like odor that they thought was coming from her mouth. Registered nurse Susan Kane drew blood from Ramirez' arm and noticed an ammonia-like smell coming from the tube.[2]

Kane passed the tube to Julie Gorchynski, a

CPR and defibrillation, Ramirez was pronounced dead from kidney failure related to her cancer.[2] 23 people who were in Ramirez's vicinity became ill, and five were hospitalized.[2][3]

Investigation

The

mass hysteria.[2]

Gorchynski denied that she had been affected by mass hysteria and pointed to her own medical history as evidence. After the exposure, she spent two weeks in the

dimethyl sulfone (DMSO2); DMSO2 is known to crystallize at room temperature, and crystals were observed in some of Ramirez's drawn blood.[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 the reported symptoms of the emergency room staff.[4] Livermore scientists postulated on The New Detectives
that the change in temperature of the blood drawn, from the 98.6 °F (37 °C) of Ramirez' body to the 64 °F (18 °C) of the emergency room, may have also contributed to a conversion from DMSO2 into DMSO4.

Burial

Two months after Ramirez died, her body was released for an independent autopsy and burial. The Riverside Coroner's Office hailed Livermore's DMSO conclusion as the probable cause of the hospital staff's symptoms while her family disagreed. On April 20, 1994—ten weeks after her death—Ramirez was buried at

Olivewood Memorial Park in Riverside.[5]

Status of technical forensic analysis

The possible chemical explanation for this incident, by Patrick M. Grant of the Livermore Forensic Science Center, has appeared in some forensic science textbooks.[6] In one such textbook, Fundamentals of Forensic Science, 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."[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.[8][9]

In popular culture

The Murdoch Mysteries episode A Most Surprising Bond is loosely based on the Ramirez case, using the DMSO hypothesis to explain how a hospital patient's blood is causing those around her to fall ill.

Gloria Ramirez's story also played a part in inspiring the 1995 episode "Stink Bomb" of the three-part film anthology Memories by Katsuhiro Otomo, where a lab technician ingests an experimental drug and becomes a walking biohazard.[10]

See also

References

  1. SSDI
    ; Gloria C. Ramirez.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Stone, Richard (April 1995). "Analysis of a Toxic Death". Discover Magazine. Retrieved 25 April 2021.
  3. ^ a b c Dunning, Brian (3 January 2012). "Skeptoid #291: The Toxic Lady". Skeptoid. Retrieved 22 June 2017.
  4. ^ Adams, Cecil (22 March 1996). "What's the story on the "toxic lady"?". The Straight Dope.
  5. ^ Gorman, Tom (21 April 1994). "Woman at Core of Mystery Buried". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 14 January 2018.
  6. ^ Fundamentals of Forensic Science, M.M. Houck and J.A. Siegel, Academic Press, 2006, p. 46.
  7. OCLC 934933234
    .
  8. PMID 9248041
    .
  9. ^ Grant, "Response to Letters to the Editor Concerning the Riverside 'Mystery Fumes' Incident Analysis", Forensic Science International 94: 223–230 (1998).
  10. ^ "Memories: Stink Bomb – All the Anime". August 25, 2022.
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