Does anyone remember the "yellow crystal" emergency room incident when everyone in the ER got sick

Does anyone remember many years ago (15 years maybe?) when a woman was taken into an emergency room for surgury, and when they cut her open they found all these weird yellow crystals growing and everyone in the emergency room passed out? It was in the mainstreem media for like a day and then you never heard anything else about it. Anyone have any info on this? Thanks!

That sounds pretty strange, I cant say I remember that. I was only 6 at the time. But do you remember where it happened? Maybe that might help someone find some info on it. Anywho, thats my uhh 2 cents...I guess...

I remember a documentary on it, prolly on Discovery Channel (Medical "Conspiracies" or something I forget the exact name, forgive). It was strange and scary - caused by a chemical reaction somehow?

- Nazgarn

Sounds a bit like SODIUM CACODYLATE which is pretty nasty stuff. When dealing with these types of cases hospital staff have to obtain authorization and/or further instructions for administration of an antidote or performance of other invasive procedures.

Couldn't find anything on the case you were referring to, though.

Originally posted by craig732
Does anyone remember many years ago (15 years maybe?) when a woman was taken into an emergency room for surgury, and when they cut her open they found all these weird yellow crystals growing and everyone in the emergency room passed out?

Yeah, I remember that - thanks for reminding me. I do recall the documentary the other poster mentioned, but cannot remember what the final conclusion was. It was some kind of rare chemical reaction the produced a gas, that much I know. I remember it being written up in a few mainstream news magazines as well. Perhaps you'll find something in their archives? If you get any more info...please pass it along!

i remember. the woman being treated in the ER was a cancer patient.....i believe an ovarian cancer patient. they determined if i'm not mistaken that the "cloud" that resulted was from the chemo drugs in her system.

also i believe the family sued the hospital for embarassment and stuff because all the uproar that the ER caused over her. once the HAZMAT folks got on site they found nothing out of the ordinary.


angie

Okay, I finally found something on this at:
brainmind.com...

They are dismissing it as "mass hysteria" at this particular site.

Excerpt from site:
Consider, for example, the widely reported incident of possible mass hysteria which took place in the emergency room of General Hospital in Riverside California (reviewed by Stone, 1995). Specifically, on the evening of February 19, 1994, a 31 year old women, Gloria R. was in the process of being resuscitated when a female nurse, S. K. noticed a chemical smell, similar to ammonia that she thought was coming from Gloria's blood.

In addition, a female resident, J. G. noticed manila colored particles floating in the blood. Suddenly the nurse, S.K. felt that her face was burning and she fell to the floor. She was placed on a gurney and taken to away. Suddenly the female resident, J. G. began feeling queasy and light headed. She then slumped to the floor, shook and convulsed intermittently, and displayed apnea. And then, a female respiratory therapist M. W. also began displaying symptoms and "couldn't control the movement of" her "limbs." And then, a vocational nurse, S. B., felt a burning sensation and began retching. Eventually 23 of the 37 emergency room staff were afflicted and an intensive investigation was launched to determine the cause.

According to the California Dept. of Heath and Human Services, and two of its scientists, Drs. A. Osorio and K. Waller, those afflicted experienced "an outbreak of mass sociogenic illness, perhaps triggered by an odor," i.e. mass hysteria. It was noted that the two male paramedics who brought in the patient and who touched G.R.'s skin and blood did not become ill, and that women were predominantly and the most severely effected. It was also noted that those who had skipped dinner and were working on an empty stomach (which would induce limbic arousal) were also more likely to be effected.

Nevertheless, the diagnosis of "mass hysteria" was not acceptable to those who became ill, or to their attorneys. Scientists at Livermore Laboratories were called onto the case. As often occurs when lawsuits are involved, completely different conclusions were reached and a completely different scenario involving a rather harmless substance, DMSO, was hypothesized as the main factor involved (see Stone 1995 for details). That is, these female nurses and female doctors became "ill" because of a sequence of chemical transformations involving the deceased patient's presumed excessive use of DMSO as a treatment for pain. The family of the patient (Gloria R.), however, denied that she ever used DMSO or had access to it.

www.emergency-nurse.org...

Well I lived in Los Angeles at the time, and I believe it happened in Riverside. I don't remember a thing about crystals, only that when the woman was operated on there was a smell and gas that left people passing out.

It was on all the TV news and papers.

Oddly enough I had just been thinking about this the other day, wondering if they ever figured out what caused it.

Edit: Sorry, yes, Riverside. I always associate them together.

[edit on 8-3-2005 by Jadette]

Just a few links for your pleasure:

www.straightdope.com...

Finally some folks with IQs in the triple digits got into the act. Scientists at the Forensic Science Center at Livermore National Laboratory found a chemical called dimethyl sulfone (DMSO2) in Ramirez's blood. Dimethyl sulfone is a reaction product of dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), a solvent sometimes used by cancer patients as a home pain remedy.

The official opinion of Cal-OSHA is that, while some of the staff may have been affected by hysteria, at least three people had a genuine reaction to some kind of toxin or agent.

tafkac.org...


www.dir.ca.gov...

I remeber this case quite well and I 'm glad you started this thread as it does pop into my head from time to time. I highly doubt that what the ER staff was expierencing was mass hysteria considering they had no idea what was going on at the time. Now, the 50 people at the autopsy feeling ill though, does sound like a classic example of mass hysteria. In my opinion, I believe that this woman was trying to treat her self at home with some kind of alternative remedy and it reached toxic levels. Lets face it, at the time, and for the most part also today, this type of cancer was considered a death sentence. She probably was trying anything she could to stay alive for as long as she could. I wonder if she was originally born in the US or if she immigrated from another country? I ask this because it wouldn't be considered that strange for someone say from a Latin American country to use some form of a combination of "natural" medicinal compounds to try and treat an illness. Once this treatment reached toxic levels and she became ill, the paramedics probably began to administer fluids and drugs to regulate her heart beat. With the combination of these new drugs and her "home remedy" a chemical reaction could have taken place which began slowly secreting from her body from her pores. Once in the ER her body was placed under extreme stress as they tried to resuscitate her and more drugs were probably introduced. Thus, the chemical reaction continued and her body increasingly secreted more of this toxin into the atmosphere finnaly causing the ER staff to become ill. Just a thought.

Yes I heard of this case and it was fasinating at the time. Mainstream media ran with it for a day or so but it was out of the press just as fast as it entered. I have also over the yrs. wondered about the outcome of this case. Did they ever find the root cause of this problem.? It sounded pretty un-real at the time but it might hold water if the woman in question was trying two different types of treatment for her ailment. I would suggest doing a little more snooping around. I would like to see some more info. on the topic.

en.wikipedia.org...