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

I get unreasonably angry every time I hear a medical mystery explained off as hysteria.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.)

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.

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.

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.

This is so sad :( Rest in Peace Gloria. You were not a toxic lady. You were just unlucky.

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.

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?

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.

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.

As a chemist, DMSO is really cool because it can carry other chemicals with it seamlessly into your body. Also, if you're near phosgene and you smell fresh cut grass but there isn't anyone near you mowing a lawn, look for the windsock and RUN.

the question unanswered is: did the DMSO theorie convince the court enough, so that the insurance company had to pay?

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.

"filled with a vacuum" is the best oxymoron

The one point that sticks out to me is the family denying she was using DMSO cream. I wish there were more resources or interviews with the family for why they think she was not using it. Her using the cream makes sense and it's not a slight against her for using a remedy like this.

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.

Okay Joe - want to hear something amazing? In February, 1994 I was a 4th year medical student who did a rotation with California Poison Control at San Francisco General Hospital. I was there when this call came in from that emergency room and it was our main topic of discussion for the rest of my elective! Nice overview, by the way. Though a good bit of that is stuff that happened after I moved on from my elective. I did get interviewed, though, and asked to give a brief summary of the case at a toxicology conference a couple months after. I can add that we speculated on the DMSO pretty early on - it is still widely used as a carrier to bring medications thru the skin; it is absorbed so quickly that it drags other molecules (drugs) that normally don't get thru the skin so well with it. We were suspicious with this oily sheen pretty quickly - we thought topical or home remidies about this also. And she also had a Hickman or Mediport (a large IV which goes into a large vein near the heart - common for chemotherapy patients). The thing we were hung up on, though, was the "knock out" power of whatever happened. And, by the way, at the time the report we had was that people did not start passing out until the patient vomited into a basin - we thought there could be something in her stomach contents with knock-out potential, and there just are not that many chemicals which will make people collapse in just seconds. Not even this Dimethyl Sulfate nerve gas, as you mentioned, which, by the way, was not at all on our radar. One such group of knock-out chemicals are a class called "Azides." They are very active nitrogen compounds, which makes them very useful - most notably: in air bags. A spark sets off some azide powder stored in the air bag and it decomposes explosively into mostly nitrogen gas which inflates the air bag. And this lady had a family member who worked in a factory which made air bags for car manufacturers. We were wondering if it was possible she ingested some of this powder. It is very poisonous; it brought up many questions about a possible suicide attempt. But we were the Poison Control Center - it was our job to think about stuff like that. And there were other theories at the time. Her acetylcholinesterase blood activity levels were undetectable - which is related to how pesticides (and she did have a garden shed, though I don't recall if she was actually a gardner) and nerve gas work - by inactivating cholinesterase. I remember we recommended that her Hickman should be particularly evaluated to see if there was any trace of chemicals which were injected into it, but I was already off service by then and I don't know what came of it. Fun (if tragic) little trip down memory lane!

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.

I know one of the biggest detractors of this theory is that her family said she’d never even heard of DMSO nor used it. But what are the chances a friend suggested it and she decided to try it out of desperation from pains? I don’t think it’s an impossible theory just because her family said, or rather, didn’t know if she had known about it or not.

Just because her family hadn't heard of DMSO it doesn't mean she wasn't using it. She would have been buying it from some shady person because in the 90's you couldn't buy DMSO in stores or anything. I know this because I used to work for a vet that used it in his clinic, he had to get his from Mexico, he vacationed there every year and bought a number of supplies down there for use in his clinic. I don't know anything else that would give her skin the oily appearance and garlic smell. That sounds like classic DMSO (I used to accidentally get it on myself all the time, the oily thing is caused by your own oil glands and the smell doesn't go away for days). The thing I'm not buying here is the nerve agent. If the proposed nerve agent acts more like tear gas, what other nerve agent could have been created? Was there something in her body along with the DMSO that interacted with everything else? I think like many things in life we will never know the exact nerve agent. The fact that one person ended up with bone disease is weird, did she have some hidden genetic thing going on that triggered by the nerve agent? Why was she the only one that it happened to? What a weird situation!!

I remember when this story was reported! it seemed to be straight out of the X-Files!!! I think Chris Carter the creator of the X-Files later used the concept of "toxic" blood in the series. The dismissal of verifiable physical symptoms as "mass hysteria" is also straight out of the Men in Black playbook.

You are the first person who has covered this who actually explained the logic behind the most probable theory. Could’ve just been the people I watched before, but they were like 🤷‍♀️

I remember this story being covered on Buzzfeed unsolved. Someone in the comments seemed to have solved it, saying that one of the treatments for cervical cancer at that time would've caused the reaction that emitted the poison and would explain everything. I can no longer find the comment otherwise I'd credit the person and get more details.

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.

DMSO gets used frequently (not that I agree) as a bladder instillation for patients with diagnoses such as Painful Bladder Syndrome or Interstitial Cystitis. And yeah, on those days the whole surgery center smells like a garlic chopping factory. No poisonings or worse yet. I'll make sure the nursing staff don't allow for any vacuum formation in anyone's bladder.

I was treated with DMSO for one of my conditions, and it was nightmarish. No exaggeration. One of the worst things I’ve ever been through.

This is one of those Unsolved Mysteries I remember as a kid and always knew there was some scientific explanation but just couldn’t even begin to think of where it might start. This was a really fascinating episode that ebbed a long, long-standing mystery from my childhood. Bravo and thank you!

DMSO (Dimethyl Sulfoxide) would explain the garlic scent. One interesting thing about it is, while not toxic on its own, it can very easily ferry compounds that would normally be blocked by the skin through the skin. Depending on the type of gloves they were using, it could have gone through those too

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!!

Great closing statements. Glad you recognized her as a human being and not just as a side show. Awesome video as always! Love when you drop new content.

im glad I got to watch this! I watched the buzzfeed unsolved video about this and I thought the mass hysteria explanation was total bs too. like these were experienced doctors and trauma nurses and there wasn't anything remotely gross or that disturbing initially about Gloria's case. thank you for breaking down the science!

Back in the 70's my dad used to use DMSO because he had chronic terrible pain. He had post-polio syndrome. He had to inject it. It definitely has a fruity garlic smell, quite strong and kind of nauseating. When you said it smelled like that, I knew it had to be DMSO.

A similar incident happened here in Pittsburgh back around that same time. A patient was brought in that sickened the E.R. doctor and and nurses. They suggested that it was because he had been using insecticides at home. I think I heard that the doctor died. The story dropped from the news cycle and was never covered again making me wonder what really happened.

Thank you so much for covering this woman’s death. I have read about it a long time ago, and this is the best explanation of what happened to her and the people who tried to save her that night.

Thank you for recognizing this lady as a good human being. It is too often that a death is overlooked.

Speaking of phosgene, I vaguely recall an incident at an indoor swimming pool in England where a number of smokers attending the pool wound up generating it in their lungs from the chlorine in the air mixed with chemicals from their smoking in their lungs, or something to that effect. They basically got gassed by going to the pool.

I remember seeing this on live news when I was a kid. The press immediately started covering it up and by the next day there were no more updates, people talked about it for weeks. I've thought about it for years and even wondered if I dreamed the whole thing. Thanks for this video!

The concerned humanity and sympatheic fellow-feeling that Joe exhibits in these videos... speaks well of his good character. Keep doing what you're doing, Joe. 'Preciate it.

I remember this story when it first broke. I was an ER nurse at the time and was fascinated. A few months before, the er i was at had a patient brought in by ambulance who looked AWFUL. I was supposed to go off shift, but stayed to help land him cause he looked so bad. We cut off his clothes, was getting him on monitor, putting in an IV... We were shocked when he started swearing at us after looking him for the IV. We all thought he was comatose. Long story short, everyone who had been in that er room got horrifically sick with nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. At least two people were hospitalized. I had showered immediately afterwards(again, i was going off shift) and flew across the country to go to a wedding. I had the most mild case... but afterwards, had chronic diarrhea, arthritis, and other health problems that lasted for 8 years; until i finally went on an antibiotic cocktail while doing an extended fast. There's a lot of weird stuff out there

I've watched probably every single video made about this case. I've seen the DMSO suggestion before, but this was the clearest explanation so far! As an RN,the case was especially fascinating to me, because I could not come up with any scenario which made sense, or didn't beggar the imagination. That report made up by the two women was absolute garbage. ER staff aren't going to faint and/or seizure becase of a smell. Or anything else.

So the real mystery is why Gloria wasn't given enough pain relief to the point where she had to slather DMSO all over her body? The blood tests showed that she had Tylenol and codeine in her blood, so she was already taking a weak opioid with Tylenol, level 2 of the WHO analgesic ladder, surely doctors could've given her tramadol or something.

I really enjoyed the video, but want to point something about out the brief comment @7:45 about how those affected weren't "shrinking violets" but were experienced ER doctors and nurses who routinely dealt with critical ill patients (and weird smells). You don't need to look any further than police officers who develop immediate respiratory distress or faint when they have physical contact with suspected fentanyl to realize that anyone can develop a psychogenic reaction in the right circumstances. (Brief skin contact with fentanyl is completely, 100% safe and does not cause physical illness)

I wonder if the cancer cells played a part in how the DMSO reacted. I'm sure all the test that were done were on healthy people and healthy skin. He did say the cervical cancer did spread if damaged cancer cells combine with the DMSO and concentrated oxygen and cooler/warmer air made a ticking time bomb.

Dmso is also used as a solvent for various chemicals. I used it the lab quite often. You have to be very careful because dmso is readily absorbed through the skin; and anything dissolved in it as well. I once spilled dmso on my hand and within about 10min I had the taste of garlic in my mouth.

I worked in wastewater treatment plants for years and hydrogen sulfide is something we operators are acutely aware of.

This is incredibly fascinating and a lot of the comments are super interesting. With a case like this it can be hard to remember that the subject of study was once a person, so the bit near the end about remembering the person who passed was really sweet. Heck even I got so invested into hearing all the theories that I started to forget the person at the center of all this. Then again this is the kind of stuff I love to learn about.

I stopped by again (watched this the other day) to tell you how happy I am having found your channel (and that there is so much more content to yet unearth here). Your sprawling diversity of interests seems pretty unique on youtube and it's just perfect for me, for many of us, who are just curious people w/o perhaps the time to do the work you are doing to do a topic justice. Your dry humor is great, even in more "serious" videos-I laugh allowed in surprise almost always a couple of times. I almost never comment on RU-vid, but came here to say this.

I have little knowledge on pharmacology but i do know mustard gas derivatives are used sometimes in chemotherapy. It may be possible a combination of several different medications and chemicals (and poor oversight in treatment) used to treat her cancer interacted with each other (either before treatment or within her body) to create some toxic compound.

She had a kind face. I'm sure her kindness made many other people's lives better. RIP.

My mom was there when this happened, she was in the background of a news report, she doesn’t like talking about it, and is worried that some of her chronic headaches and pains are from this incident.

Dmso is an incredible chemical, it has transdermal properties and must be handled with extreme care

I love your mystery videos, I always come away from them feeling like I got a satisfactory explanation from it. You make sure to cover details that other channels don't and round things off with theories or answers that make me think it's pretty much been solved. I'd love more of these kinds of videos, where you take a scientific and level headed approach into other unexplainable events in history.

I heard a story years ago about a worker at the gold mine who goes to the doctor, very worried. he said a snake bit him, and immediately after biting him, the snake writhed and died. Doctor took samples, and found he had very high levels of cyanide in his blood, from working decades on a mine in the cyanide plant where gold was dissolved. He was fine, snake died from cyanide poisoning. Oh yes, also a lethal snake bite normally, but he was fine, aside from a headache.

Perfect pacing, minimal editing and good humour. Alongside it being a great telling of what happened, love it!

Wow! This is actually mind blowing. Love the way you tell the story with suspense and special effects. Especially love the Tangent Cam. Thanks for sharing your knowledge Joe!

I heard about this when it happened. I was in high school, and I was always curious about it. I had heard the 'mass delusion' explanation, and figured it was just that, but it did seem odd that such a thing would happen in a hospital of all places. I know mass delusion is something people are prone to, especially in stressful circumstances.... but of this specific kind just seemed very odd. They're treated thousands of people just like Ms. Ramirez and for them to imagine something that would cause a response unlike anything else they have ever experienced just seems weird. If they had believed she was infected with meningitis or some other scary contagious disease, sure, but there's really no such thing as "knock out gas" and they would know that.

May Gloria rest in peace. Kind of a messed up legacy.

I lived in Riverside when this happened, there were a lot of theories circulating at that time. Crazy stuff. So glad to finally hear the back story. Thank you

I remember when this happened. I read a short story in the news paper and never heard what happened. So glad to finally learn the story

I knew what it was when you started describing the symptoms. My parents used to get DMSO to use on our horses when I was a kid. It was a smell you could taste, if that makes any sense.

As a fan of mystery stories, I absolutely love this

Oh my gosh !! What a great podcast and explanation. I've wondered about this case for a long time ! Thanks !

Partly due to their accessibility, DMSO is sometimes combined with Sodium Nitrite to create a solution that is ingested and applied to skin as a method of taking your own life. Sodium Nitrite induces hypoxia and DMSO increases the absorption rate to speed up the process and make it as peaceful as possible.

We used DMSO often in the veterinary office on horses and yes, if I came in contact with it, I would immediately taste garlic and become nauseous

Respect to you Joe, for respecting her as a human being

Your video got me to like, and your compassion for the original victim compelled me to subscribe. Great content. From, an Aussie that watches RU-vid when I should be sleeping.

I am a chemist and I’m highly skeptical that the chemical reaction that would have to take place to convert DMSO to the sulfate, is possible without powerful oxidizing agents.

Fun fact about DMSO- it's used in the horse world to reduce swelling and to help transport other topical medications past the skin barrier. It definitely smalls super garlicky!

Talking h2s gas, I work in the oil industry as a power engineer in Canada. We wear h2s monitors on site 12 hours a day as soon as you hit the main buildings. That stuff is so dangerous we have to take a yearly course on it, and the instructor without fail every year says “if you smell it working here, it’s probably already too late.” Pretty scary stuff.

Thanks for covering this. Also, kudos to the investigator for really knowing his material. That’s incredible attention to detail.

I’m so glad I found this, I love these types of channels

This is absolutely and truly my favorite medical mystery case to this day! I love thinking about everything that could have caused this, and how this might change how we study and treat patients

My neighbors uncle worked for Squibb Pharmaceutical and he use to bring my neighbor and me small bottles of DMSO for use on our sore muscles. It worked great except it gave a odd taste in your mouth and an oily patch where it was applied. We only used a very small amount on a small area and it worked. It sounded like the woman in your story was using way to much of the stuff.

I really appreciate your content, educational, interesting and always served with a pinch of salt. Keep up the good work! 👍

I remember when this happened and every since, I have wondered what happened. I like your theory.

If she was covered in DMSO, whatever else was on her skin would have gotten into her bloodstream, as well as anyone else who touched her. The gel for defibrillator pads? The alcohol wipe for the blood draw? What if they used hibicleanse (sp?)? DMSO turns whatever is on your skin into something in your blood. Such a nifty chemical. I used it as a hangover cure back in the day because it gets into your system so much faster than oral medication. Gives you garlic breath though.

This is one of those stories that’s particularly fascinating to learn about because of how recent it is, there’s a ton of details about it online

Delivered movingly, you covered this curious incident wonderfully.

I remember this on TV when I was 14! So exciting you reviewed this! Brought me back.

Another way that the reaction could possibly happen would be when she was defibrillated. The oily substance on her chest would have been heated by the paddles (there is enough energy to burn skin if not done properly. It would also get spread through the air

This is one of my favourite medical stories. Also excited to be awake in Australia to see you upload 3 minutes ago - it’s 1am.

I absolutly love this story. I had heard it before but people usually pick a theory and share just their opinion. I really enjoyed hearing other viewpoints.

13:35 they say that dimethyl sulfate takes hours but considering it was also mixed with DMSO couldnt the DMSO carried the dimethyl sulfate into the body causing it to react faster in this instance than it normally would on its own?

She'll probably be remembered longer and better than most of us.

On a note about DMSO, it is an excellent transdermal carrier agent. Which is a danger of handling DMSO. It can dissolve some chemicals and carry them across the lipid layer of skin tissue. In some studies I've read they used DMSO as a drug administration method.

Excellent vid! I remember the Gloria Ramirez case back in the 90's. I didn't really see any follow-up reporting which tried to explain the strange events that occurred. I did see the episodes of the X -Files that played off this case. Regarding industrial strength DMSO, did anyone ever check her residence to see if she had that or anything similar? Otherwise, that theory makes the most sense. I suppose one positive from the Covid Pandemic is that now every hospital has the protective gear necessary in case something like this happens again.

I've seen so many weird things in media over the years, I keep thinking 'this is it. Life doesn't get any stranger than this...' but it's amazing how that bar keeps shifting. Rest in Peace Gloria.

I worked in a lab for a while growing cell cultures, and we used DMSO all the time. We worked with pretty small amounts and wore gloves anyway to avoid contamination, but my supervisor said it was pretty harmless. I worked with a lot of stuff that was *not* pretty harmless, so I'm guessing by comparison it didn't register.

personally, i think the defibrillator might have played a role in turning it into a toxic gas so fast

This lady looks just like my aunt who also died of cancer but at 33 years old in 1993. Such young beautiful women. 🥀❤️

Such a timely story. I will be discussing oxidation of sulfur compounds in my ochem class this week. Now I have a new story to tell! Thanks!

I remember this incident. I haven't thought about it in years. I was on a Haz Mat team for a fire dept. so that's why it attracted our attention. It's unfortunate what happened to this woman. Have you ever done a video on spontaneous human combustion? I've always wondered if there is any validity to that or if it's an urban myth. I read a few articles about it years ago but not anything I felt confirmed it. Thanks for the video.

The "pressure changes everything" got me laughing so hard. Thank you!

4:55 something scary about hydrogen sulfide is that you can't smell it once it reaches concentrations that can kill you

I am a registered nurse and nurse practitioner. I was a relief charge nurse at a (different) emergency department in the late 90's while in graduate school. I worked with Dr. Gorchynski (after her recovery) for several years. She did not talk about that night very much, but it affected her profoundly. She struck me as a calm, collected, and remarkably intelligent individual. It was *not* mass hysteria.