LOS ANGELES, May 15 -- A published report says the mysterious fumes that injured six emergency room workers at a Riverside County hospital several years ago probably came from a hidden drug lab at the facility. Gloria Ramirez, a young mother with advanced cervical cancer, was being treated at the hospital's emergency room for nausea and difficulty breathing on February 19, 1994, when a nurse who had been drawing her blood passed out. A physician was wheeled out of the room unconscious and with severe breathing problems, a respiratory therapist also passed out and another nurse threw up. Ramirez died shortly after, although it is unclear whether she died before or after the Riverside General Hospital's emergency room was evacuated. The New Times Los Angeles says state inspectors deemed her corpse a public health hazard. The Riverside County coroner's office believed the fumes had come from the sick woman and took extreme precautionary measures before performing the autopsy. But the cause of the fumes have remained a mystery. According to the autopsy, the woman died of heart and liver failure from cancer. The New Times of Los Angeles says officials never pursued the theory that the fumes came from an illicit methamphetamine lab in the hospital, despite the fact that the smells and symptoms experienced by the ER staff uncannily match those associated with exposure to meth fumes. State health and safety officials who investigated the hospital after the incident found no evidence that the vapors were generated by the hospital's use and storage of chemicals, ventilation system or sewage disposal system.
More than three years after the incident, the source of the ammonia- like fumes remains a mystery. The coroner initially said the fumes were just 'the smell of death.' But a second coroner's report suggested the fumes may have been produced by mixing oxygen with a certain type of bladder medication. Ramirez's family, who has filed a wrongful death suit against the hospital, says there's no evidence Ramirez was using any bladder medication at the time. ---
Copyright 1997 by United Press International. All rights reserved. ---
