A Scientist Spilled 2 Drops Organic Mercury On Her Hand. This Is What Happened To Her Brain. 

Happy Medical Monday (which isn’t every Monday, and sometimes isn’t on Monday, but I try my best) 👨‍⚕️👩‍⚕️🚑 PS Why do people in these videos have 2 letter initials for names? It’s a didactic tradition in presenting case reports. It lightly de-identifies the patient while upholding their humanity. They are, and will always be, more than just “the patient.” Thanks for watching :)

*NOTE:* This video is about *DIMETHYL MERCURY LIQUID* and *not* mercury metal. Comments about mercury metal are as irrelevant as comments about *mustard* would be to a video about "mustard gas"!

Her name was Karen Wetterhahn, and she was an extraordinary chemist. She worked at Dartmouth College, where she established the Women in Science Project, doubling the percentage of women pursuing science degrees. She was exposed to a lethal dose of dimethylmercury in 1996, and less than a year later, in 1997, the scientific world lost one of its brightest and most inquisitive minds. Her legacy lives on in both her efforts to involve more people, especially women, in the sciences, and her colleagues' efforts after her death to increase workplace safety and the regulation of harmful chemicals. Karen Wetterhahn: Oct 16, 1948 - Jun 8, 1997.

"dimethyl mercury" me (a chemist): what the hell, why wasn't she wearing proper protection for that...oh.......oh so she's the one who warned us. Here's to you KW, I honor you for protecting all those who came after you (including me)

Nothing worse than being an expert in a field, seeing the symptoms and slowly realising that you know exactly what is happening and what's to come. The description of her appearing to be screaming, then back to no response... That is terrifying... either she was suffering from some type of locked in syndrome, or briefly comes back to sentience, like dying multiple times. This is just absolutely terrifying.

"Upon autopsy" I always get so heartbroken when I hear that. So many of Emu's stories make it to recovery, it always hurts to hear about the ones who don't.

Karen Wetterhahn was her name, rest in peace

This is a well-known story to us chemists. She's a hero too. Essentially okayed every form of experimental medicine and procedure that was known at the time, called medical teams super early in advance knowing she was basically going to die once it was found out that the glove type used was actually NOT good for the chemical used (contrary to what was understood at the time). A lot about mercury poisoning was learned from this case to be applied to future medical cases. It also changed procedure in how to grade PPE used for toxic organomercury compounds and other heavy metals.

I took a bioinorganic chemistry course last semester and our professor had personal connection with her, sharing her story as we learned about heavy metals. RIP

The scary thing is that she was still conscious, but neurologically trapped and unable to act.

It’s sad that many safety rules are written in blood. Thank you Dr.

Thank god I only tend to eat 64,000 kgs of salmon in one sitting... I wouldn't want that to happen to me

7:47 That got me. That's incredibly sad and horrifying to think about: "There's someone inside, but that person is trapped in a prison of her own comatose body." Nothing less than a tragedy, I can only hope that with the awareness brought by this case, lives have been saved. Thank you for your work, Professor Wetterhahn.

She went to my high school and her chemistry professor was still there when I went there. He told us about this.

*One of her former students said that "Her husband saw tears rolling down her face. I asked if she was in pain.* *The doctors said it didn't appear that her brain could even register pain."* *Wetterhahn was removed from life support and died on June 8, 1997.*

I read an article in which KW was interviewed about this incident. She didn't ignore the spill. She was wearing two pairs of latex or neoprene gloves. She saw the two drops hit her gloved hand, she immediately removed her gloves and washed her hands. She then went to the hospital and received treatment for heavy metal poisoning. It didn't help she was dying by the time the magazine article was written and new she would not survive. That stuff is so toxic that lethal dose got through the gloves in seconds and her skin and remained toxic despite immediate treatment. Keep that stuff locked up.

The fact that she knew... and the possibility that there could be even a glimpse of a moment in which she was fully cognitive on the inside but felt the limbs and senses started to become unresponsive is literally making me walk around the room in fear of what such moment would feel

Should be mandatory to watch this video in college for any chemist course or any educational course that even has the remotest possibility of coming in contact with this form of mercury.

I like how he says, "two drops" as the actor drips like 10 on her hand.

This made me cry... She must have been so terrified as she helplessly died trapped in her breaking body. Death might have been a merciful end. I am so heartbroken for her. She died from the work she did to protect others

My mother has had classic MS, which attacks the milan sheath of the nervous system since she was 31 and she’s now 91. The thought of suffering such a fate compressed into mere months is horrifying. My mother is finally in a wheelchair, but she and my 94-year-old father still enjoy life together as they finally wear out.

With that much dimethyl mercury in her brain, she was lucky, or should I say extremely unlucky, to survive that long. She was an absolute legend. She kept her composure and decided we should learn from her tragedy.

The fact that she suffered... It wasn't just an immediate death and she was fully aware and trapped in her body... I just want to cry at that fact.

Did anyone else cringe when the gloved hand rubbed the non gloved hand to see if there was anything there??🤦🏽‍♀️

I love how you also explain the meaning behind the words by using their stems. It makes the terminology so much easier to understand for us non-medical folks!

Dude you are awesome ... the fact that you .. 1. explained the mercury toxicity 2. Physiology of cerebellum 3. Basic pharmacokinetics concept All in such an interactive way. I dont think people realise how genius your case discussions are. Thank you.

What a horrible way to die. I hope she was not “in there” during the last moments of her life. Trapped with no way to communicate, but fully aware and processing thoughts would be just the worst way to go.

Gosh this is so sad, it's actually a famous case. She followed all of the proper established safety procedures but said procedures and gloves were unknowingly insufficient. Because of her they've been updated today to prevent this in the future... at least this tragedy has a silver lining that will benefit future scientists, if not her.

This is the first time I say it in public. I am a medical student myself and this happened to me in my first year of studying. 3 years ago I was exposed to mercury intoxication which was present in fish. I felt very bad after eating the meal and immediately after 20 minutes my body reacted by vomiting all that bad food. I did not even really think it could have been an intoxication. Without any thoughts I went to sleep and nothing happened in the next days. Exactly one week later I started to have really strange discomfort in my abdominal region such as pain and cramps. I left the lecture and went home. On my way home I experienced disorientation and difficulties in my balance or motoral functions. That day I couldn't move out of my couch. I was laying there straight with only being able to move my eyes for three hours. After this my most horrific time in my life started. I called ambulances every evening straight for 4 days. The doctors could not find anything in my blood, urine, organs, x-rays, CT's, MRI's and ultrasound. Pain started in my chest, which made no sense, because there can't be any type of pain in the areas and it was not caused by any organs or muscles. Finally, after very precise examination and diagnostic tests, my doctor was able to diagnose an intoxication with fish product which was mercury. He told me that he had already a patient with the same symptoms and it took him up to three years to get back to "normal" life and health. Exactly as he told, I gained slowly my health back over three years. During this time I had extreme pain and discomfort in my whole body, fatigue, decrease of concentration and the ability to memorize things and loss of weight due to loss of appetite. All this together also created a type of depression. For you guys, I really want to remind you to pay high attention to every food and product you buy. Always check for the date of production or preparation! I don't wish anyone to experience such a horrific time in their life. I can't even imagine how Karen Wetterhahn must have felt after her intoxication. Rest in peace.

She played her part in advancing science, but, oh man, this story is just so sad every time I hear it.

A man got rejected from a art school... This is what happened to Europe

You're telling me I can't eat 144,000 pounds of salmon in one sitting?

I think it would have been ok if you mentioned her full name,--Karen Wetterhahn, a renowned and amazing scientist.

I love the way he explains the meaning of each medical term by breaking it down

I like how you get into the point instead of clickbaiting

Man, the most terrifying part is that it went through her glove immediately.

Thats a very sad story :(

This is scarier than those horror stories.

I have never been more afraid to touch anything in my entire life

I think this is so fascinating yet still heartbreaking at the same time. KW (aka Karen Wetterhahn) was a great mind and inspiration to many other scientists, especially female scientists (which were not common fields for women then). This just goes to show how dangerous certain chemicals can be, and in general, just how dangerous it is to be a chemist. To all of my fellow chemists, always always always always be very cautious. And to Karen Wetterhahn, thank you for the sacrifice and knowledge you have given this generation. Rest well Professor.

That's really sad. The idea of being trapped in your increasingly-disabling body and only being able to let out cries or moans periodically is so horrible. RIP for that woman.

Think about how many lives she has saved because of what we learned from her.

organomercury compounds of one of the few things i refuse to work with for exactly this reason. Keep up the good work. Awesome video

I find stories like this fascinating. Scientists who know exactly what is happening to them but they still do their jobs as scientists. In a similar vein, in the 1940s, one of the leading nuclear scientists in the world lived in Nagasaki and survived the bomb but got a massive exposure to radiation. He documented his radiation sickness and that information is still used today.

I remember reading about this. She was a well known and highly respected professor who was following all protocols. Unbeknownst to her (and the entire research field) was that the gloves that were prescribed to be worn when working with this do not prevent it from permeating to the skin. Tests after her poisoning showed that dimethylmercury permeated the gloves in as little as 15 seconds. This is really nasty sh*t

Fuck man, that must be so scary to go through. Slowly becoming a vegetable, and then becoming a vegetable. Being stuck in your head, not being able to use your body, but you're still aware. Truly a nightmare come true.

It's so hard to wrap my head around, and so scary, that a drop of something falling on a GLOVED hand for a few seconds could result in something like this 5 months later. Mind blowing. Fascinating video as always

I had a science teacher in my secondary school (located in a city in southwest England called Bristol). Amazing guy, Very, very smart and always adding to our learning by supplementing other general science facts which I and many others even minutely interested in the subject found utterly fascinating all the time. He told us this story about him as a young child getting a temprature reading, most of the thermometers at the time contained Mercury, this is probably sometime in the 60s/early 70s as he was in his late 50s teaching us in 2015. But he bit the thermometer too hard causing it to break releasing a few grams of pure mercury into his mouth, he was expected to pass away by most estimates or survive with severe neurological decline. Luckily he survived and amazingly even with that certain neurological decline he got a Degree in chemistry and became a teacher. Still one of my favourite teachers and I really hope he's doing well as I don't remember seeing him again after 2018. Thanks for reading, Rest in Peace KW

Lesson learned don’t fuck with mercury

Just discovered this channel a few days ago. Really enjoy these case studies and the scientific approach to their presentation.

"kw noticed something wrong when she would walk into walls" GIRL

That doctor of chemistry was so accomplished and gave her life in pursuit of research. Terrible loss. When I worked in labs, way back in the 1980’s, a problem we had was finding gloves and other safety equipment which fit. The women omen wore XS or S, but very few were ordered in those sizes. We would request more of those and fewer Large and XLarge. The reply was that each lab was stocked with what the majority of employees used. The empty box of small gloves can lead to a snap decision to use a different type of glove. Each type of material has different properties. Some might absorb liquids you’re using and others would protect you. In my case, large gloves worn to protect up to the elbow were so loose, the liquid I needed to avoid splashed inside the opening and ran down my arm. I was working with HF acid solution. Luckily, I was barely injured, but I was rushed to the hospital just in case. (my boss also threw a bucket of dilute base on me, to help and surprise me) Glove protection was just part of the problem, but there were many problems regarding what was considered average size. I hope now that the women in the lab now can have more influence over lab design, equipment layout, and accessory sizes. We were advanced enough to start earning more science degrees, but still had much to prove to gain respect. Safety can make all the difference. The situation in the video really brings back so much.

I hate how some people in the comment sections keep saying when they were young they played with mercury and nothing happened... Different mercury.....

I struggled to comprehend medical science and biology in high school and college, but I was able to follow his detailed explanations completely. His delivery was concise and had a level of seriousness that had my attention. Well done.

Okay, don't touch anything, ever. That's what I've learned.

It feel so bad knowing that someone as smart such as her didn't make it while other people doing dumb stuff gets through.

This was probably the scariest thing I have seen all year

You contributed so much with your sacrifice and your knowledge. Rest well Professor Karen Wetterhahn.

I know it's harsh to say, but thank god she died. That mental prison shit is worse than death.

as someone who struggles with what-ifs and anxiety and ocd but still likes content like this, i really really appreciate the comments about the salmon. it helps to qualm those things and i think you should include comparisons like that and likelihoods in your videos when applicable :D

The thought that hospital staff caught a glimpse of the true suffering during her random short bursts screaming, crying, and flailing, surrounded by much longer periods of unresponsiveness...that always gets to me.

I sent this video to my chemistry teacher and got her to show the video to the entire class to promote lab safety. Thank you for making the content that you make!

Some people in comments seems to have a neurological disorder without having any kind of exposure to mercury.

When i was in 12th grade, my chemistry teacher was showing in lab about some phenolic compound which goes to solid state at room temperature and becomes liquid when it's heated. He also told it's highly flammable and not to play with it. By this time i had already kept it aside in spatula and it spilled on my hand. I washed my hads immediately and my skin became pale. I showed to the chemistry teacher and told the phenolic compound fell on my hand, he scolded and opened a jar with a base chemical that can absorb the acidic compound that fell on my hand. He took the powder and held my hand inside that. After sometime he removed and told me to go take rest and observe if anything happens. I kept observing my fingers and i saw a burned dot forming on tip of my finger. He didn't put the base powder on my finger tips. Since it was just small burn the size of a mole i ignored it and everything went back to normal. If the chemistry teacher didn't act on time, i would have been handicapped. Always remember not to wash hands if you touched anything acidic. You need to neutralize with base.

She was a modern day Marie Curie, who died of radioactive poisoning.

KW was Karen Wetterhahn (October 16, 1948 - June 8, 1997). She was an American professor of chemistry at Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, who specialized in toxic metal exposure.

I was just going to eat 68.000 kilograms of salmon in one siting thanks for saving my life!

being trapped in a body that's unresponsive is probably my biggest fear. What a terrible fate for someone so intelligent.

I learned more in this video than I did all last year in science class

I like how you break down what a word means.

Karen Wetterhahn 1948-1997 Thank you for your contribution to the scientific community

I was a dental nurse for years in the 1970-80's and handled mercury every time a filling was needed, in fact my rings used to turn dull. In fact we used to play with it. This was in the days when the alloy & mercury was mixed by hand. I've never had any side effects though, why would this be. I went on to become an RN & shudder to think back how casually we treated the mercury. Best wishes from Australia.

My condolences to KW's family. Thank you for sharing her story. The accident may have taken her future, but she chose to make preparations so it wouldn't happen to others. What a human being.

R.I.P. Karen Wetterhahn 1948 - 1997

Mad as a hatter. That’s where the phrase comes from- hatters used to work with mercury and inevitably went mad from chronic exposure

I remember finding a pint sized bottle (completely full) of mercury in an abandoned paper factory when I was 13yrs old. I'll never forget how astonishingly heavy it was for the size. My friends and I thought it was coolest thing ever... We were pouring it in our hands, throwing it at each other, some of it even went the river... I don't remember what happened to that bottle. But I recall finding tiny beads of it in my bedroom carpet for VERY, very long time... This was almost 30 yrs ago, I sometimes wonder if I'll eventually pay the price for this... Then again, maybe I already am.

A truly incredible video. Great work as always!

There should be a movie about this woman. Maybe one that starts with her growing up as a curious child, becoming an adult who had an intense passion for Chemistry, and finding the love of her life in her husband...all of this, taken away by failure of lab safety. She became a cautionary tale...

Imagine watching your wife slowly lose her mind over a short period of time 😞

This has quickly become one of my favorite channels on YT. Karen Wetterhahn was a leader in her field and an American professor of chemistry at Dartmouth College. Great story and reporting!

“It was awkward, imbalanced and disorderly” my life summed up in one sentence.

Well, that was a depressing way to go to bed. Why did I watch this?!

in conclusion; we need much better gloves.

I like it when people make content that explains things in a way even laymen can understand them. This series, along with others like the Chevrolet videos from the 1930s are some really good ones to watch.

We are so gifted to have our scientist take sometimes daily risk of fatal infections for our own safety and concerns of survival. I praise and bless each and every.

A history tidbit for the few seeing this comment: Decades ago, NASA was trying to get higher thrust out of rocket engines, and this time they were looking for propellants with higher density than the usual kerosene or hydrazene. Dimethal Mercury is one of the densest combustible molecules, so they ordered several tons of the substance featured in this video for testing. Earlier, the lab producing Dimethal Mercury had this _exact same thing_ happen to one of their scientists, the one you mentioned. Understandably, they declined to provide the substance, and made sure that the engineers received a very, very detailed lecture on Mercury toxicity.

I know this video is old but respect to the scientific community for their work. Humanity owes you a great gratitude. RIP KW

This guy speaks in the clearest voice. Even when talking somewhat fast, you know the words he's saying.

This story should come as no surprise to anyone with a history or science background. Up until top hats went out of style part of the tanning process for beaver pelts involved boiling mercury. This caused brain and mental disorders in many hat makers and is the origin of the term 'mad hatter'.

"How should i handle dimethyl merc-" "YOU DONT"

This is actually a very famous case in chemistry lab safety. It changed the gloves requirements for Dimethylmercury.

Spilling deadly chemicals on your glove should never be an unremarkable incident, that's amateur mentality.

She died in 1997 aged only 48, what a great lost to science.

I literally had a nightmare that I spilled mercury on my hand after watching this.

our world is fucking scary

This story terrified me when I first started in chemistry, but it is a strong lesson to pay attention to the type of gloves you are wearing. I'm glad he mentioned silver shields in the end. Not all gloves are created equal.

imagine dying to a drop of Mercury ...

"Becouse she was an expert in her field she knew what was to become of her" Jesus Christ...

That's enough internet for one night

Note to commenters: Mercury in a thermostat is not dimethyl mercury.