Why Did This Woman's Blood Produce A Toxic Nerve Gas?

On February 19, 1994, Gloria Ramirez was wheeled into the emergency room at Riverside Hospital in California. Within minutes, the staff began collapsing to the floor and the hospital was evacuated. What turned this woman's blood into a chemical weapon? It's one of the weirdest medical mysteries of all time.

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TIMESTAMPS -
0:00 - Happy Halloween!
1:13 - Gloria Ramirez
4:34 - The Toxic Lady
6:47 - Department of Health Investigation
8:34 - Tangent Cam
8:49 - Dimethyl Sulfoxide (DMSO)
10:55 - Dimethyl Sulfate
11:30 - Recap
13:27 - Issues With The Theory
15:00 - Sponsor - Nebula

LINKS LINKS LINKS -

[nelsoncabrera]

RIP Gloria. I really liked that he reminded the viewers that ultimately this was a human being that was suffering tremendously and who know what agonizing hell her final hours were like.

[brockevans]

DMSO is actually a really crazy chemical. It will carry chemicals dissolved in it into the blood stream. I worked for a guy that worked as a pathologist for the New York CSI during the 50’s. He told a story about a girl that was murdered by her boyfriend. He had painted the steering wheel of her car with DMSO that he had dissolved snake venom into. To this day, that’s the craziest chemistry story I’ve ever heard.

[kevinbyrne]

While I was an undergraduate, a graduate student was doing an organic chemistry synthesis. He dissolved cyanide in DMSO. But he dropped the flask containing the solution, and when the flask shattered, he was splashed with the cyanide -- which immediately entered his blood. He nearly died, but because the doctors knew what the poison was, he survived.

[TransboiFrogs]

8:05 ah yes. The classic loss of bone density from a panic attack

[mattp]

Two interesting things about DMSO, which is a commonly used solvent in organic chemistry: it’s a very effective topical anesthetic. It also is easily absorbed by the skin into the bloodstream, often taking its solute with it.

Which leads me to this true, but slightly embarrassing story that occurred during my undergraduate days as a chemistry major. I was working in the chem lab on an organic synthesis project and (here’s the embarrassing part) I was not wearing gloves. I did not realize that one of my fingers made contact with a test tube containing bromine dissolved in DMSO. Bromine is very caustic and it really burns if you were to spill some on your skin…..unless said skin is numb because it’s been treated with a topical anesthetic like, say, DMSO. In which case, the bromine can painlessly penetrate and burn its way through the skin. In, my case, to the bone.

When I glanced down at my hand, I noticed it was orange-tinged by the bromine. I also couldn’t help notice that I was staring at one of my finger bones, exposed through a sizable chemical burn. I wasn’t shocked or grossed out. Rather, I had three simultaneous thoughts: 1) I’m gonna get in trouble for not wearing gloves; 2) Pretty cool that this does not hurt at all; 3) I probably should go to the hospital.

Fortunately, the University’s chemistry lab was directly across the street from the medical school and hospital, where my father just happened to be an attending surgeon. I strolled into his office, finger raised, saying, "Hi Dad, I think I should get this treated." He went white as a ghost (no, not from any toxic gas emissions), grabbed me by the finger and dragged me to the ED to have my wound attended to. They did a great job; I still have all of my fingers and no scar!

Good times!

[supermag]

I'm a chemist who works with DMSO, and the hazard that we worry about is it's ability to carry other chemicals with it into the bloodstream. This means that another chemical (a topical medicine, or makeup or an accidental spill) could have been transported into her bloodstream by DMSO.

[johannaverplank]

Just a little note, women can be just as sexist toward women as men. I had female boss once, and I was the only woman on staff. She paid me the least and was constantly making disparaging remarks to and about me. It was so bad it made my male coworkers uncomfortable. I've seen other incidents but that was the most egregious. I always enjoy your videos. Thank you!!

[ellag]

About the "woman were more effected, as were those who skipped dinner"--this supports the DSMO theory as well. The ones likely handling the vial of blood affected by the vacuum were probably mostly nurses (primarily female at the time), and anyone who skipped a meal is going to be more heavily affected by a potential drug in the air.

[cameronbuttigieg]

I remember hearing about this in the 90s. As I recall, the article stated she'd been receiving medication mixed with DMSO as a transdermal vehicle. We used to use it all the time to get meds into horses just by rubbing it on their skin. You wear rubber gloves but it still goes through them and you taste garlic pretty fast.

[cassidyvelasquez]

About women being more affected by what happened, I remember hearing a while ago that you shouldn't wear makeup to protests because it can make the effects of tear gas worse. Maybe something like that could also explain why women seemed to be more negatively affected if this were a gas/vapor, if it were sticking to the foundation, moisturizer, etc on their skin maybe they'd experience effects like burning skin more strongly than men would?

[justmenotyou]

I remember this case. When they came out and said it was mass psychosis I said BS. Too many observations indicated something chemical had happened to affect the professionals in that room.

[lateformyownbirth]

Yeah, I don’t put much stock in her family’s rejection of the DMSO theory. Seems like they just don’t want to acknowledge that this could have been her fault in any way.

(Which is dumb. How could she possibly have foreseen this outcome? She did nothing wrong, even if her actions led to this.)

[elrhyesseyhrle]

I watched this in real time. The hazmat guys were there when I went to bed. In the morning people were so uncomfortable about it the news agencies started to sweep it under the rug. Over the last quarter century it almost became urban legend. Thanks for covering the facts, the unknown, and doing it respectfully. Curious if women, generally, having more fat and less muscle, compared to men, absorbed more during the incident.

[LearnSciSnippets]

As a chemist I've used lots of DMSO. Everyone hated using it. It used to be used in medical patches to administer medicine through the skin. So care needs to be taken when handling it because the DMSO will transport it through the skin. I understand that Gloria was in advanced stages of cervical cancer and probably using a lot of the DMSO cream, hence the oily sheen on her body. DMSO does smell a bit garlicy but the lower purity DMSO smells like garbage. It induces the gagging reflex due to the impurities of diethyl sulfide and dimethyl sulfide. If you get DMSO on your skin, you can taste it, and it is absolutely disgusting, like someone emptied a garbage can in your mouth. Sadly, I think a simpler explanation can be concluded. She used lots of lower purity DMSO cream and these impurities built up due to her condition. When one or more hospital staff touched her skin they absorbed some of the DMSO and impurities and reacted they way they did. DMSO is a white solid below 18C which would appear as a yellow solid when they drew blood and it cooled.

[MTerrance]

My memory from the early 1980s is that DMSO was considered an amazing universal solvent - notable for its ability to penetrate human flesh in a way that was unparalleled. One of the symptoms of DMSO exposure was anyone so exposed would have garlic breath - yup, a drop on your hand could give you garlic breath. It was seen as potentially offering a method of dispersing medicine without the need for an injection. This was a big enough deal that I recall a Time Magazine cover feature on it - and, in typical journalist fashion, it made DMSO sound wonderful as well as potentially toxic. It is entirely plausible that the toxic patient could have used it since it was rumored to treat cancer as well as mitigate pain. She would not have needed to rub it all over herself - given its propensity to disperse widely from a single location.

[I]

My mom has a toenail fungus, one day she put DMSO on it with a little silicone toe cover. It began to hurt so she took it off. She was shocked to see her toe had shriveled into a raisin. It took a couple weeks to go back to normal. Didn’t get rid of the fungus.

[macmcleod]

All my life, doctors have told patients it was in their heads way too often.
Many people suffer for years before proving they have something with a new test. Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, for example, now called post viral syndrome, was treated as psycho psomatic for decades before being proved to be a real testable thing.

[bevinboulder]

We used to use DMSO on our horses as a topical treatment for strains, etc. My best show horse (Arabian) was prone to laminitis (a very painful hoof condition) and one vet gave DMSO in an IV to see if it would help. The horse smelled like a giant clove of garlic until it worked it's way out of his system.

[SySnootles]

This story has always fascinated me. I do recall from other research that the DMSO theory also took into consideration that she was "shocked" with a defibrillator, which could have superheated her body for a brief period of time, possibly causing chemicals to be aerosolized briefly. Unbelievably interesting story, regardless.

[dontpanic]

If one of the family members recommended the DMSO or was involved in the use of it, of course they would deny any knowledge of it. They would probably be full of fear and guilt.