When Gloria Ramirez was admitted to the hospital and the medical staff began to treat her, the nurses noticed that her body exuded a strange odor, and then began to faint in a strange way.
Gloria Ramirez was an ordinary woman living in Riverside, California with her husband and two children. Reverend Pastor Brian Taylor called this woman a friend to everyone she met along the way, and a joker who brought joy to those around her.
However, that all changed on February 19, 1994, when Gloria Ramirez was admitted to Riverside General Hospital. She had a rapid heart rate and a drop in blood pressure. The woman could hardly breathe and answered questions with incoherent sentences.
Unusual case
To make this case even more unusual, it should be noted that the woman was only 31 years old. Ramirez was diagnosed with end-stage cervical cancer, which explained her deteriorating health.
Doctors and nurses immediately took all measures to try to save her life. They followed the procedures as closely as possible, injecting her with drugs to get the patient out of the critical situation, but nothing worked.
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Blood test
When the nurses took off the woman's shirt to use the defibrillator, they noticed a strange oily sheen on her body. The medical staff also noted that there was a garlic smell coming from the patient's mouth. Then the nurses took blood from her vein, which was sent to the laboratory for analysis. Her blood smelled like ammonia, and strange particles of an unnatural color were found in it.
The doctor looked at the blood sample and agreed with the nurses on duty: something is wrong with the patient, and this condition has nothing to do with heart failure.
Suddenly one of the nurses fainted. Another nurse is having trouble breathing. The third nurse lost consciousness, and when she woke up, she could not move her arms or legs.
What happened?
A total of six people were unable to assist Ramirez because they had strange symptoms that were somehow related to the patient. Symptoms ranged from fainting and shortness of breath to nausea and even temporary paralysis.
Ramirez died the same night. Even after the patient's death, the hospital environment was still hectic. The special service arrived in protective suits. She searched the entire hospital premises to find the source of the poison gas, but nothing was found.
The team then placed the body in a sealed aluminum container. The autopsy was performed no earlier than a week later, and in a special room where the autopsy team performed their work in suits as a precautionary measure.
The press called Ramirez "Toxic Lady" because no one could get close to the body without facing a medical problem. But no one could point out the final cause of the phenomena even after her death.
Three autopsies
Officials performed three autopsies. One six days after her death, then six weeks, and again right before her funeral.
A more thorough autopsy was performed on March 25, more than a month after the death of Gloria Ramirez. The team of researchers concluded that her body contained substances such as tylenol, lidocaine, codeine and tigan.
Tigan is an anti-nausea drug and is broken down into amines in the body. Amines are related to ammonia, which may explain the ammonia odor in Ramirez's blood sample.
The toxicology report states that large amounts of dimethyl sulfone were found in blood and tissues. Dimethyl sulfone is actually found in the human body because it breaks down certain substances. Once the substance enters the body, it quickly disappears with a half-life of just three days. However, there was so much of it in Ramirez's body that it was still registered even six weeks after her death.
Three weeks later, on April 12, 1994, county officials announced that Ramirez's death was triggered by heart failure as well as kidney failure caused by end-stage cervical cancer. Ramirez was diagnosed with cancer six weeks before her death.
The unusual substances in her blood were too small to explain her death, although her body had elevated levels of ammonia and dimethyl sulfone. It took county leaders two months to allow the body to be buried without damage to the health of the people around.
Was the hospital staff at fault?
The woman's family was outraged. Her sister blamed the death on hospital staff. Despite the fact that violations have been noted behind the treatment object in the past, during the examination this time nothing was found that would indicate that the proper conditions were not observed in the hospital.
After an investigation that lasted several months, officials concluded that the hospital staff suffered from excessive stress and a massive sociogenic disease caused by odors. In other words, it was mass hysteria.
The stench was caused by DMSO cream in its somewhat diluted and less toxic form
Ramirez covered her skin from head to toe with cream, using the product as a possible treatment for advanced cervical cancer. But back in 1965, DMSO cream was found to be toxic.
The reason for the use of the toxic substance Ramirez was that research in the early 1960s led doctors to believe that DMSO could relieve pain and reduce anxiety. Athletes even rub DMSO on their skin to relieve muscle soreness.
Then a study in mice showed that DMSO could reduce the quality of your vision. The use of DMSO has dwindled.
Clandestine use of funds
DMSO was later used informally as a treatment for many types of diseases. By the late 1970s, the only way to obtain this substance was by purchasing degreasers from hardware stores. The DMSO compound found in degreasers was 99% pure, in contrast to the less concentrated form found in muscle creams in the 1960s.
Scientists have observed what happens to DMSO when it is exposed to oxygen. The substance is converted to dimethyl sulfate. Dimethyl sulfate acts differently than dimethyl sulfone.
Dimethyl sulfate vapors attack cells in the eyes, lungs and mouth. When this vapor enters the body, it can cause seizures, delirium and paralysis. Of the 20 symptoms reported by the medical staff that night, 19 of them correspond to those of people who were exposed to dimethyl sulfate fumes.
The medical staff did not suffer from mass hysteria or stress. He suffered from dimethyl sulfate poisoning.
The composition of the DMSO cream can explain all the manifestations that doctors noticed on Ramirez's skin. He also explains the garlic smell coming from the patient's mouth. The most likely explanation is that Ramirez, or "Toxic Lady" as she is nicknamed, used DMSO to try and relieve cancer pain.
However, Gloria Ramirez's family denied that she had used DMSO. Regardless of the prism through which people look at this case, the result is sad. A young woman found out that she had cancer too late to do anything about it. When medical science offered her no help, she turned to an archaic substance to try and get some relief.
After all, Gloria Ramirez's nickname is the last sad note in her life.
Maya Muzashvili
