Enclosed are two of the many articles on the death of Gloria Ramirez, who became known as “the toxic lady” because she downed several medical attendants with her fumes. Pesticides, nerve gas, cervical cancer, kidney failure, cardiac arrest, crystals in blood, and other obscure causes were cited in these and many TV reports. Did they ever find out what killed Ms. Ramirez and made the workers sick? –J. Pilla, Tucson, Arizona
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It all began when the terminally ill Ramirez began having heartbeat and breathing problems at her home in Riverside, California, on the evening of February 19, 1994. Paramedics rushed her to Riverside General Hospital, administering oxygen en route. Shortly after arriving at the ER she passed out.
Soon medical staff all over the place were retching and fainting. The ER was ordered evacuated. Further attempts to revive Ramirez failed, and she was pronounced dead. The body having been sealed in an airtight casket, the experts arrived to clean up and figure out what had gone wrong.
The Livermore scientists hatched the following hypothesis: (1) Ramirez doses herself with DMSO. Due to urinary blockage, the stuff builds up in her bloodstream. (2) Oxygen administered by the paramedics converts the DMSO in her blood to a high concentration of DMSO2. (3) When the DMSO2-laden blood is drawn out in the syringe and cools to room temperature, crystals form (this was confirmed by experiment). (4) DMSO2 is converted to DMSO4 by some unknown mechanism and clobbers the medical staff. (5) The volatile DMSO4 evaporates without a trace.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): illustration/Slug Signorino.
