Toxic Lady - Riverside General, 1994

THE SMELL OF INTRIGUE DEPARTMENT -

Fumes at Woman's Death still Mystery After 10 Years

RIVERSIDE, Calif. - The source of noxious fumes that sickened
emergency room staff as they worked to save a woman's life remains a
mystery a decade after her death at Riverside General Hospital.

Gloria Ramirez, 31, suffered from ovarian cancer when an ambulance
crew brought her to the hospital with chest pains 10 years ago this
week.

While doctors and nurses tried to save her life, they began getting
ill. Some passed out. Others were nauseous. Fumes overwhelmed them,
and the emergency room was evacuated.

"It was very, very chaotic," recalled Joan Breeding Letbetter, a
fire department spokeswoman who was there while hospital staff became
victims themselves. "It made it a very unreal experience."

No one has ever determined the source of the fumes. An autopsy
conducted under a tent of protective sheeting determined that Ramirez
died of kidney failure brought on by the cancer.

"The situation was a fluke and it was unexplainable," said Mary
Dilley, the county's risk manager. "That is the mystery and it
probably will remain a mystery forever and ever."

The case led fire officials to rethink how they handle hazardous
materials cases, and it highlighted the need for a new coroner's
facility where autopsies could be performed without jeopardizing the
health of workers.

The coroner's office has since abandoned its old Riverside offices
and now operates from new quarters in Perris.

The hospital was later bulldozed to make room for a shopping center
and the county opened Riverside County Regional Medical Center in
Moreno Valley four years after Ramirez's death.

Dr. Tim Nesper, the hospital's emergency department director, said
the hospital has a large decontamination center outside its emergency
department, and it now has trained its staff in how to better handle
patients contaminated with chemicals.

In the months following Ramirez's death, several theories emerged to
explain the source of the fumes, including that she drank a pesticide
in a suicide attempt; that she used a solvent as a home cancer
remedy; and that the hospital's plumbing emitted a noxious gas.

Maggie R. Garcia still believes her sister wasn't the source of the
mysterious ammonia-like fumes. She notes that no one in the ambulance
that brought Ramirez to the hospital got sick.

"I've always believed the source of fumes was within the hospital,"
Garcia said.

The family sued the county for medical malpractice and for general
damages stemming from the coroner's autopsy. The cases eventually
were settled for $800,000, without the county admitting any
wrongdoing.

Most of the money went to buy annuities for Ramirez' two children:
Evelyn Arciniega, now a 22-year-old student at Riverside Community
College, and Buddy Angel Arciniega, 19, who is serving a 12-year
prison sentence for voluntary manslaughter.

Source: AP Wire & The Mercury News
Conspiracy Journal