Yep! I’ve watched and looked up that case so much since it did happen in my hometown, I’m fascinated by it and your breakdown by far has been the best explanation I could find to really break down what could have happened and how. Mind you I was just a baby when all this happened but it’s definitely a very known famous case here in lame old riverside lol I think your very accurate and for a long time people just thought it was a phenomenon that couldn’t be explained.
It was my favourite kind of case really, one that with a bit of science and medicine was solvable. Really had to revise my organic chemistry to get to the answer though
@@PeakedInterest yes definitely such an interesting case and you did sooo damn good with that breakdown, I found your channel looking for more information on the Dutch ladies that went “missing” and came across that second video. 👌🏼
There is also the video about the poor Japanese guy which is very similar to those two but with less mystery involved. I'll also be covering many more since people keep.sending me things to look into lol
One of the saddest parts about this case was that Gloria’s children were subsequently bullied at school as a result of the sensationalized news stories about their dead mother. Other kids spread rumors that they came from a filthy household, that their mother was a meth addict, that their mother was a mutant, that their family was dangerous, etc. I can’t imagine losing your mother at a young age in such a horrific way, only to be teased and ostracized for it.
Somebody replied to the pinned comment stating they ended up in Riverside General after being stabbed. Overall, it really sounds like a wonderful place to raise a family... Although children are often horrible to each other the world over I suppose. How sad for her children to have been put through that.
Not only did psychiatrists once believe hysteria only affected females, they believed that it was CAUSED BY female anatomy, namely the uterus. The word "hysteria" comes from the Greek word "hustera," meaning "womb." It is from this root word that we also get "hysterectomy." It was once believed that hysterectomy was a legitimate treatment for hysteria.
I was in the ER that night. I was working as a EMT just starting my career. To get to the ER via ambulance was down a ramp to the ER doors. people where running up the ramp as I was outside doing paperwork. I have zero idea if anything toxic was going on with Gloria but the air in the ER was pungent and gritty. That's the only way I can think to describe it. I suffered no side affects but clearly remember that night. Your analysis is spot on, well done.
@@basamaro1 That's a good question. seeing as it was my 1st year in EMS, I probably did have it. It was a crazy night before the events in the ER. They demolished the entire hospital and put a business park on top of it, sad really.
You were an EMT, but can't even properly spell? Well, either you're a liar, or the medical system in the USA is on third world level, when they have to resort to hiring folks who can't even spell simple every day words. Even more frightening is you spell like that NOW - meaning years after your "career started", as you put it.
Ohh thanks for clarifying. I thought it was not a real person and a pretty nice event. Good thing you made this comment or else I'd look pretty stupid.
I "love" how you said to treat her like a real person and everyone starts giving you crap like you aren't. Thanks for being the voice of empathy, friend, not everyone gets it. ❤
I remember when this case happened and it was pretty scary to think a bio. weapon had been released in the city of Riverside where I lived hospital staff was very scared and wore masks
he did say that the chemical didnt turn to the second form until the oxygen mask had been administered, then the deadly form after a while of the chemical breaking down and binding with carbon within her
Or even just they wasn't suspicious enough to smell sniff or deeply inhale anything from a close proximity. An oxygen mask would help to 'mask' odor from her mouth also maybe?. Plus there would be more fresh air turbulence in and out of a vehicle.
@@jessieqk12 The nurse and doctor said they sniffed the blood sample and odour from the mouth. The Ambulance crew would maybe put in an iv but they wouldn't have extracted or sniffed anything. They would hook her up to the equipment using gloves and be gone. There's more fresh air inside an Ambulance a 😷 over her mouth would help dissipate a toxic odour while potentially creating the chemical reaction..assuming that's what happened. If it was the blood the ambulance crew would not have smelt it at all. The nurse smelt the extracted sample of blood the Doctor held it to her face to notice the white particles and odd colour, probably inhaling to notice a smell too either way it was close enough to her face.. assuming it WAS toxic.
Its so ironic for the scientific/medical community to use such a non-scientific term/theory which basically meaningless and translates to "we dont have a fckn clue what occurred."
@@muppetb.lansing8374 When you look at things like the dancing plagues that were contributed to mass hysteria, “I don’t have a fucking clue” is a pretty accurate description
@@ethpling165 we can't actually prove that any of it happened, and even if it did, there is a way more logical explanation than mass hysteria. honestly, i think mass hysteria is a bunch of bull and it was also used to disregard women entirely. there was another case of "dancing plague" in spain long ago, where people would dance as remedy when they were bitten by venomous spiders. because they would dance themselves into exhaustion that would kill them, it reinforced this idea that you had to continue dancing to survive once bitten. that is how they learned, as untrue as it may be. considering this happened a few times, it was probably common knowledge to people to dance to survive the bite, or whatever else may have troubled them. in other words, i don't think these people were subject to hysteria or true madness- although, with the medical knowledge we have now it's easier to write it off as "they were just crazy" when in reality, they experienced a huge lack of medical phenomena and resources, and were left to find their own "remedies" in a time of desperation and confusion.
I just can't quite buy the mass hysteria theory when these doctors are faced with critical emergencies on a daily basis including severe trauma victims and don't all collapse into heart arrhythmic unconscious states. I definitely think the ketoacidiosis theory holds weight, but I somehow also think this would have been considered and ruled out by the medical professionals. Though things do get overlooked so it's possible.
Maybe ketoacidosis isn't common for an ordinary cancer patient? However, cancer patients are known to sometimes pursue weird diets in a desperate attempt to beat the cancer when contemporary orthodox medical care doesn't do it. I had a friend who perished of cancer who near the end was trying kale juice. Perhaps a combination of things, including medical fumbles and staff under harmful stress. I'd like to know how that hospital rated among hospitals at that time for accuracy of medical care.
The hysteria theory was definitely very flawed. they're doctors...there's no way an entire staff team would be that deeply affected by a patient having a heart attack. they've seen a whole lot worse; it just doesn't make sense. and it sounds like a lousy, lazy-ass way to explain what happened
As soon as you said "blocked urinary tract" I said "ketoacidosis with excessive ammonia present in blood " so same theory as you; just needed the one piece that was missing.
Your theory explained a lot, and is very convincing! However, I can't help but wonder if Gloria might have tried some sort of alternative Cancer treatment. A lot of people who can't afford traditional treatment or feel as if their chances of survival are low resort to more unconventional measures. Is it possible that Gloria was self medicating? Were there any experimental treatments that used similar ingredients to meth? Could Gloria have been using meth for palliative care, knowing that she was going to die? She probably wouldn't have told anyone. And if she was buying drugs to ease her suffering, its not unlikely she got a "bad batch" either mixed with or missing specific chemicals. Just a thought, though! As always, great research and presentation.
I did check and there aren't any experimental or alternative treatments but there's is a little research regarding DMSO use to shrink certain types of tumours
@@PeakedInterest , some sort of mustard gas? -Just a thought from a sleep deprived teen... EDIT: wait, one of the chemicals that in an old class of mine (IDK what it was called but another student thought was something to clean the table with) "smelled like ammonia." but made me feel a burning sensation in my face, lightheaded, I had trouble breathing. EDIT 2: It was used to keep finished artwork from smudging. (it was supposed to be used outside, not in large amounts inside to a point where it was a greasy mess)
@@SalusKitty I don't know the specific chemicals but the spray you used in art class is called fixative. It can be nasty, has a strong odor and unless you have good ventilation needs to be used outside. I use it to fix my pastel and charcoal drawings.
That statement made by the state had my blood boiling. ‘Mass hysteria’ should never be attributed to something like this among trained medical professionals, female or not. I’m glad they fought it.
I remember My dad getting a prescription for something, and it turned into Aspirin in his stomach causing him to be in the hospital for about 8 days. He was allergic to Aspirin. The thing that made Me angry about it was the doctor knew He was allergic to aspirin prior to prescribing this drug.
Imagine what could happen to people who aren't allergic. Aspirin is a blood thinner, which is why dentists ask if you took any before tinkering at your teeth. They don't want you to bleed out.
It is complicated… if there was a prodrug of aspirin, I agree it should have been avoided, but because I don’t know the drug, I can’t really give you an objective statement.
@@wiwaxiasilver827 Yeah, and I can't remember what it was. But My dad told me the doctors at the hospital said it turned into aspirin in his stomach. But thanks.
I arrived at a location about the same time EMS arrived. A middle aged man was unresponsive. After they worked on him I assisted loading him and he projectile vomited like a volcano. It was black, mixed with blood and got on us. Immediately we all felt a burning sensation, eye irritation and breathing issues. Another deputy met me in the hospital and told me they found a bottle of commercial grade pipe acid. Still have slight scars 20 years later.
I remember when this happened. This was a very confusing story and the news programs NEVER followed up. Thank you for this. That poor woman's family was vilified and they had to plead for privacy while they dealt with her death.
came from the most radioactive man video, then watched the dutch girls video & now onto this. you have a new subscriber, your videos are truly on the same field as dateline & 60 minutes. i’m so impressed by the quality of your videos, you deserve so many more subscribers & views to compensate for all the hard work you put into these videos! it does not go unnoticed & unappreciated by us! can’t wait to see more from you in the future
I had heard variations of this woman's story but never got the details that I wanted. This video is an unexpected godsend!! You, my good sir, have earned my subscription.
My mother in-law worked for a doctor during this incident and it was known fact that some drug activity was going on behind closed doors. Gloria also went across the border for treatment for her cancer and became and sick when she came back and her family called for a ambulance. The hospital was closed and demolished shorty after this investigation. My mother in-law and a lot of her friends were told not to talk about anything about drugs. Also Gloria was buried in a sealed infectious bag.
This makes the most sense. I suffered ketoacidosis as a child (I was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes at age 2.5 and P-ANCA, a rare kidney disorder not at all related to the diabetes, at age 8). Apparently I had grey, oily skin, fruity-smelling breath, problems urinating and a blood glucose level of over 1000. Although my A1C has gone from 12 to 7 in the past 2 yrs, I still experience strange, fruity-smelling or garlic-tasting breath when my BG is over 300. I've had chemotherapy and am on chemo medication because of my rare kidney disease. I never had weird symptoms like what was explained in the video. So yeah, I think you're spot-on.
I went into DKA just before I was first diagnosed at 18. my blood glucose was around 30mmol/l. I was told I had a pear drop smell and I'd lost a load of weight
This video must be the only one on this case that is actually detailed and not full of paranormal bs. Great job, got yourself a new subscriber. I really enjoyed the video on the dutch girls going missing in panama too, very informative!
I really appreciate you calling out the sexist roots of “hysteria.” Honestly psychology was such a joke in its infancy (buut I mean, what field of study wasn’t tho? lol)
Psychology was not just sexist, but just plain fucking weird in it’s infancy. Just basically a bunch of crackpot theories about the brain made by a literal crackhead.
I know I instantly get my hackles up when someone even skirts close to suggesting something is psychosomatic, or "hysterical" due to the historical misogyny involved. Honestly I wish it was discussed more; we're all, as humans, suggestible and affected by the mind controlling the body--just look at chronic pain conditions! I just think medical professionals need to be more aware in communication, and that the general public needs to understand that, if it's your reality, it's real. Some people's pain is triggered by the mind, but there's no difference in the suffering of that person, and good harm reduction approaches don't treat physical pain only.
Sounds like an overly broad brush... maybe the weird symptoms of the woman did get to the other ladies there, in addition to the ammonia exposure she caused to some of those gathered there. It might speak to how stressful the medical care environment is. You want to tend to someone who is in serious medical trouble, and you don't even eat??? Something is being pressed to the breaking point for no good reason.
@@SeekingTheLoveThatGodMeans7648 it's not uncommon for people and nurses to not eat because of how long their shifts are. This is not really rare. Especially if you are called in to take up a patient, and the care goes on for hours there's no real room to eat there. Hospitals are very chaotic, I wouldn't find all of them collectively forgetting to eat or not having time to eat as particular unusual
Amine isn't a chemical but a functional group. You do not call something specifically ester, nor hydroxyl as they are all ubiquitous functional groups. It would be like calling an animal with feet, a foot.
OTOH, submarine atmosphere control equipment includes CO2 scrubbers that use monoethanolamine, but we sub sailors normally just referred to it as ‘amine’, even those of us with chemistry backgrounds.
Thank you! I remember this case as I live nearby. The last I heard of it was the official mass hysteria dx, and I just didn't buy into that at all. I was a radiographer, accustomed to sights, smells and sounds of trauma rooms and I could not imagine that many trauma personnel passing out hysterically. This was a very good, and fascinating, presentation.
As someone who spilled 100% DMSO outside a fume hood (lab setting) I can confirm that it does smell like garlic..... However I did not pass out cleaning it up😎
What I find irritating is the narrator saying, multiple times, that Dimethyl sulfone got extra CARBON atoms to form dimethyl sulfate. DMSO, dimethyl sulfone AND dimethyl sulfate all have the same number of carbon atoms. Each has progressively more oxygen atoms, but the C content are the same.
@Glenn Murray I'm not a chemist and thought I'd read enough to understand, clearly I was mistaken. sometimes errors happen all I can do is learn from it and try not to make the same mistake again.
@@Rexwizord I don't think I referenced a catalyst, only that the descriptions of certain chemical processes was inaccurate (specifically that all the dimethyl sulfur compounds in the video contained the same number of carbons and adding more couldn't change one into another). If you mean catalyst in a colloquial sense, no problem. If you mean in a chemical sense, energy nor mechanical devices are a catalyst, being catalysts are substances, not a mechanical device or any form of energy.
he said the unfound chemical was dimethyl sulfate right? if so, that chemical has a half life of less than 5 minutes, so depending on how long that chemical was in her body, it could have been gone by the point of the test
Did the authorities forensically search her home? Understandably, a dying patent might reach out (in desperation) to some very strange stuff. My empathy goes out to all concerned.
I remember this case because I have used DMSO since the age of 12 when I tore a ligament in my knee. My surgeon was the team doctor for Stanford's football team. He gave me DMSO and had me use it multiple times daily to heal my knee. In one month I was off crutches. Ii healed in less than 3 months. I continued to use it on my arthritic horse's legs. It was magical how it helped my horse. Over the years when I had serious injuries I would use it , but only topically. It would always give me garlic breath. I researched it as an adult and it is used internally as well for serious bladder problems. DMSO is sold in health food stores and is still used by veternarians and some medical people. It reduces inflammation and its effect was discovered accidentally by people who worked with it and saw their arthrutis improve. I believe this woman likely used it in conjunction with something else as if you mix it with something else, it takes the other substance into your bloodstream. The one definite side effect of using it is the garlic breath. It is used internally in the bladder for interstitial cystitis.
I was thinking she may have spilled something on the area she used DMSO or something. A cleaning solution or something. It wouldn't show up in a lab result bc of the absorption/metabolic process. But it could have reacted within her body to become something volatile like ammonia.
I always liked Chemistry, but I tried it in secondary and it required Maths. Lots of Maths. I ended up with a neutron with 34 electrons. So I dropped it after that lol 😆 but its still a fascinating subject!! 😊👍
problems with your theory: - medical stuff know ketosis. and ketoacidosis. - the amount of ammonia needed for a 'burning sensation' and all the other syptoms, just by breathing in some air near the patient, would meant that the patient had enough ammonia in her blood to basically disolve her... but in all seriousness, ammonia is pretty effectively transformed by the body into urea. Kidney failure would result in high amounts of urea.
but didnt the forensic pathologists originally conclude that she died of kidney failure? so doesnt that check out? maybe the body did convert a lot of it to urea but it built up too much and some remained as ammonia and then her kidney failed from the urea? just wondering. i agree it seems a little unlikely that there that much ammonia airborne that it could make medical staff pass out.
@@skye6949I was gonna say wrong but technically you're right. It's not caused by someone yawning around another person. By by another person witnessing the yawn.
Mass Hysteria by itself just sounds absurd in this case. Why would an experienced staff suddenly have symptoms brought on by empathy for a woman in her thirties rather than one in her twenties, or a teenager or child? Why suddenly this one random person? Ridiculous. This is the one theory which I find not the least bit credible; highly insufficient to explain the facts of the case. Ammonia exposure plus the staff being quite overworked, stressed, and hungry/dehydrated is obviously a recipe for symptoms such as they experienced. Women tend to be smaller on average and thus more susceptible to ammonia inhalation. Plus there's socialization: "Does this smell like ammonia to you?" = many female staff members affected.
The fact he went on about this theory without instant dismissal - extremely disappointing. Having "sympathy" for a myth about women is NOT a way to support us. Women are smaller, have less blood in the body, eat less, and generally take lower doses of medication. We're much more likely to be effected by a chemical before men. (Just like children are, before women.) Just because the canaries go down first in the coal mine - does not mean the canaries are hysterical. It means they're more sensitive - and you better wake up to danger. (This is how exactly the men were saved. They'd have gone down eventually too without swift evacuation.)
All mass hysteria cases are difficult to explain. Doesn't mean it didn't happen though, and it certainly seems likely that it's at least partially responsible for this and a host of other things.
This happened the year my daughter was born, we lived only twenty miles from this hospital and I was home all day and very interested in this story. What bothered me most about it was they seemed to want to hush EVERYTHING up from day ONE. I even called a newspaper reporter from a Riverside county paper a few months after it happened, he had done some investigation on the case and he was shut out completely. It has always bothered me. The hospital is in a run down neighborhood and does not have a stellar reputation. I seem to recall the FBI snooping around for a while as well. Mass hysteria...PLEASE PEOPLE!
my wife and I had a cat die of kidney failure (well we put her down, poor baby, only 4 years old and utterly miserable). You could smell her entire body because she could not pee out her toxicity.
My first wife was dying of rapid renal failure and beginning to swell up and look grotesque but she didn't become a toxic lady; blood was regularly taken etc... the ammonia smell was ominous, unpleasant, sad...but did not make anyone pass out
really interesting, thanks! - I don’t believe hysteria, and that’s bc after I became ill in 2009, I had many many doctors tell me that I wasn’t sick, it was psychological, I was just fat, and I was a hypochondriac. Finally I found a doctor who took me seriously and ran a bunch of tests and diagnosed me with a 1 in 1 million rare disorder. Since that one doctor took me seriously, I got the “Not Crazy” stamp on my file, and all subsequent doctors took me seriously, and I’ve subsequently gotten 4 more diagnoses (that cluster together). Objective proof, blood tests and nervous system tests prove these disorders, and the treatment works. The main disease was in my blood the entire time, but my blood tests were always “perfect” because nobody ever tested for that specific auto-antibody. “Nothing there” usually means “nobody looked in the right place.” When there’s a mystery involving a man, the reaction is: Huh that’s mysterious. When there’s a mystery involving a woman, it’s: Oh yeah that b* is crazy.
What was the blood disorder, if you don’t mind sharing and what we’re your symptoms? This could potentially help someone. Thank you so much. I’m so happy for you, as you at last got the diagnosis but I’m so sorry what you went through! It took me seven years to have my diagnosis of gallstones and it was too late to save my gallbladder as it was all infected, I could’ve easily died in the days preceding the surgery! Since then I’m on the morphine six times a day!
I am in nursing school and in the beginning when you were telling the story the first thing that popped into my head was ketoacidosis. All of the signs and symptoms match up perfectly with it.
I was just about to say if gout exists than have a little to much ammonia to the point of nearing the official kill amount of ammonia will do anybody in requiring a gas mask. Farmers fall to the same deadly gas
Came for the story because it fascinates me and has since I was a teen (My mom refuses to mix medications/herbal remedies without express medical permission. When I asked why, she pointed me to the story of the “garlic lady”), stayed for the callout on the sexism behind mass hysteria.
Yes, your mom is right. Don't mix anything herbal/medical without your doctor knowing because they could interact or could even counteract each other. It's not worth the risk (especially since many herbal remedies are not regulated and you don't really know what you are getting or what dose).
How is this a small channel? I've watched a few videos now and the quality of the editing, commentary and analysis is phenomenal! The way you present this case is engaging and informative. I hope you get more views soon, you deserve it! 😊
when you said she had a fruity smell in her mouth early in the video I remembered ketones but forgot the name for them, and then when you said she had kidney failure and that build up waste products everything clicked. very interesting story!
This literally sounds like an SCP story but whats even scarier, is that this actually freaking HAPPENED. Its one heck of a chemical anomaly that remains unsolved to this day.
Good video, but I have one point of contention. Having worked with equines that have been treated with large amounts of DMSO, I can tell you that you absolutely CAN smell that stomach turning chemical/garlic odor before you come into physical contact with the substance. Your nose will tell you a horse is on a DMSO treatment regimen the moment you walk into the barn. A veterinarian explained that DMSO is a solvent that permeates tissue, so as it is carried through the body the lungs emit and aerosolize the compound as a the horse exhales. I am a layperson, so I don't profess to understand how this works, that being said, I know you can smell DSMO. It gives me the heaves!
I spent 9 months as a dialysis technician and my first thought was the toxic buildup in her tissue explaining basically everything from Gloria. The toxic waste is stored in intramuscular fluid and the bodies cells primarily, while also flowing in the bloodstream. ESRD (end stage renal disease) causes massive fluid buildups in the bodies that primarily pools to the legs and feet, when doing dialysis removing water is the majority of the treatment, it is no less important than removing the wastes like phosphorus and nitrogen. During treatment we monitor changes in blood volume to estimate how much water we have removed. This is done by testing conductivity of the waste water and works because of a coincidence where sodium and urea have almost the same molecular volume so they are assumed to have equal diffusion across the dialyzer membrane (dialyzer is the filter used to remove toxic waste from the blood, it is pressurized to remove the toxins via reverse osmosis). I am simply pointing that out because the wastes and water is not just in the blood, there isn't nearly enough room for all of that in the blood and she could have also had some of that liquid waste buildup seeping through her skin or coming out in sweat. It is extremely important to note that a regular nurse or doctor does NOT have training and knowledge in kidney failure, it is a highly specialized part of medical care and there is not any school program for it. All the training I got came from the company I worked for, and every employee had to do it, from tech to nurse, nutritionist, all the way up to the doctors. We were all lumped together in the same in company classes. Hospitals are also equipped with specialists for kidney related issues, and they are contracted through a kidney care company like mine and not employed by the hospital itself. I am pointing this out because it would be expected for a general ER doctor and nurses to not know what was going on, other than her simply having kidney failure (they wouldn't know the intimate details of what chronic end stage kidney failure entails, they would only be familiar with basic acute kidney failure so that they could recognize it then send that person to a specialist). For the average kidney failure person they would not know they had kidney failure, they would go into the hospital, very sick and dying and not knowing why. Doctors would figure it out based on a blood test, put in a catheter, then send them to kidney care technicians in hospital, and discharge them to a kidney care clinic (like where I worked). There were constant issues with communication between hospital care takers and our clinic, they would do things that while fine for a normal patient, could kill a patient with kidney failure and hospital staff had no idea. For example if someone had diabetes it is common to give them something like orange juice to raise blood sugar if it was low. This however could kill a patient who has both diabetes and kidney failure (which is extremely common as most kidney failure is caused by untreated or improperly treated diabetes) this happens because the juice is high in potassium which their body cannot filter out. Anyways on to hysteria, given that it is expected that the doctors/nurses would be mystified by this (which people seem to have been thinking otherwise), it is absolutely reasonable to anticipate the hysteria, in the manner you described in your theory version, for a couple staff after seeing a doctor pass out. And I say that as someone who is prior military and majored in neuroscience in school. Even trained professionals can mentally break down and can do so in what would otherwise be ordinary experiences. Seeing leadership pass out would have caused them massive distress, couple that with lack of food and confusion, I would honestly expect at least one person to drop in that situation, considering the number of staff involved. The same would happen in the military in a synonymous situation. Sorry for the long comment, I wasn't expecting it to be so long but I thought you would appreciate the input, although you seem fairly versed in the science involved.
I actually wondered exactly WHY professional doctors and nurses would be unable to recognize kidney failure symptoms. I still not not believe the mass hysteria though. I think it was physical reactions for sure.
I used to use pure DMSO in the lab, and it really does have a weird garlicky smell. You can smell it from the otherside of the room when someone opens a bottle. And, yes, it's not toxic in and of itself, but it is used to deliver dissolved chemicals to the body because it is very good at penetrating the skin. I believe it's used as a solent to introduce chemicals into the body and is used in some chemotherapy methods. Just my two cents.
Finally! Someone who goes into the chemistry or reasons behind this event. Everyone else who I have found that covered this gave it 5 minutes, told a creepy story and left it at that. Without bothering to delve into the reasons behind it
I do agree with the ammonia theory, but has anyone looked into the cream combined with ammonia and the effects of that? I think it's both the cream and ammonia causing a reaction like bleach and ammonia
Thank you so much for covering this in such depth. I've seen several other RUclipsrs cover this subject and nowhere do they mention she had cancer - which is a pretty damn big thing!
Conversion disorder from what I've heard is often used as diagnosis when they dont actually know what's wrong. I think I seen 30- 50% of sufferers are misdiagnosed. I would guess part of why more women are diagnosed with this is because women are often not actually listened to by doctors. They probably have autoimmune diseases and are just diagnosed with conversion disorder cause the dr cant see a reason for symptoms and go "ah, it's all in your head." This little rant is not related to the video only cause it was brought up and I have a theory on why more women are diagnosed.
EXACTLY. when they say "statistically more women experience conversion disorder", what i hear is "women are more likely to be DIAGNOSED with conversion disorder".
I was misdiagnosed with four different things including conversion disorder. Turns out, i have neurological Lyme disease and a bunch of co-infections. My symptoms have been neurological for almost 4 years now and the bacteria has to be in the body for about 5 years to become neurological- so- what i find, is that doctors will often just think inside their specialty and generalize complex symptoms to fit a condition they can diagnose regardless of if that is the actual cause or not. In the last few years, I had been to over 10 specialists to no avail. Also, the Lyme tests they use in offices don’t work! They had don’t 4 on me and all had false negatives. Why is this? Because they only detect the bacteria for Lyme (rather than that and/or some if the co-infections) and because it will only show a positive for Lyme 3 weeks after infection and no further. As a reminder, at that point i would have had Lyme for a minimum of 5 years. Even now I’m still chronically ill, although now i have a PICC line and IV and oral antibiotics. Moral of the story: people should keep looking for answers even after a idiopathic diagnosis, as often times the real cause can be found eventually.
I feel like when stuff like this happens professionals need to look more into this so that we can take the necessary procautions to avoid this ever happening again.
Dude these videos are such high quality, i couldn't believe when i saw that you only had 13k subscribers. Keep doing these videos and youll get to the top.
Just a thought, but once a person has died the body begins decomposing. How long did it take for them to ready themselves for the autopsy? Refrigeration slows down decomp but doesn't stop it completely. A living chemistry set (a person's body) is a very different thing from a dead decomposing body where bacteria on and in the body is releasing gas and no oxygen is being carried through the blood to tissues. I think the decomp could easily have hidden something in plain sight or muddied the results enough to just confound those doing the autopsy. In some cases, being dead even for an hour could keep a toxicology report from being completely accurate depending on what is going on and what they're looking for. If they can even guess what they're looking for. Being alive allowed the chemical culprit to thrive in her body albeit for a short time until her death. After her death the chemical composition could have changed to something seemingly benign that no one would have looked twice at unless they knew specifically what they were looking at when seeing the toxicology report. Not everything shows up on a toxicology report. Specialized testing is expensive and discouraged. They went after the wrong thing, blew their wad on the wrong test, and supervisors weren't going to keep throwing money into the investigation when no one but the patient died. Bottom line - 1 life lost and it wasn't hospital staff. The hospital needs to be open to make money. Sweep it under the rug and back to business. Never mind that the staff suffered symptoms. Hospital reputation over everything else. Clearly, I'm feeling cynical at 3 am. Insomnia does that to me sometimes. Sorry about that. I'm going to check out some pet videos. Hope y'all have a better night than me.
My Mother was diagnosed with terminal Liver Cancer, around a week before her death, I could literally smell the stench of death as it consumed her. It is a unforgettable, unforgiving odor that, once you smell it, it's no mistaking what it is.
This is so true. My dad had terminal cancer in his face. The worse he got the stronger the smell became. I don’t think I’ve ever had such a sensory experience that has stuck with me quite like that smell. I will never forget when I visited him about a month before he died, the smell was overwhelming. I still almost get a sort of phantom smell, it literally send chills through me every time. Unfortunately I don’t think I will every be able to fully forget that smell. Also, I’m so so sorry you also had to experience that. If nothing else I’m thankful that both of our parents can be at peace from that suffering now.
@@littlefella2449 Thank you for your kind words. I to am sorry for what you experienced with your dad. Although the smell of dying can be horrid, I am so thankful for the opportunity to spend those last days with her.
You can't smell "death" until after a person dies and the body begins to decompose. What you were smelling was the increase in toxins in her body because her liver failed to filter them.
I think you're overplaying the mass hysteria angle, nurses sometimes pass out and more so when exposed to ammonia on an empty stomach with others nauseous or vomiting around them, they are human and it was a bad day in the OR. But I subscribed, very good work and I see you did everything yourself!
Thanks. I wasn't trying to imply nurses or women are weak which is why I added the part about how people faint quite easily when you've been on your feet for 10 hours and haven't eaten. And yes ...I do pretty much everything myself, when I do hire someone to help or someone offers it I always credit them unless asked not to.
My wife is an ICU nurse and she has the worst eating habits. They work for entire 12 hour shifts without a break sometimes. Glucose levels get low fast.
I actually do buy the possibility of the DMSO theory, but not because of Dimethyl Sulfone or Dimethyl Sulfate. There's one more compound that fits the bill a lot better: DMS, or Dimethyl Sulfide. DMS is one of the metabolites of DMSO, so if someone were to consume or be exposed to a large amount of DMSO, much of it would turn into DMS. Unlike Dimethyl Sulfone, DMS, which has a boiling point the same temperature as blood, is excreted via the breath, as a vapour, which is why DMS exposure actually /does/ cause the breath to smell like garlic. DMS vapour exposure's common symptoms are: nausea, vomiting, skin irritation, breathing difficulties, and even loss of consciousness. Reading over the case it honestly sounds like the original people investigating weren't even aware of this. The available information says they literally looked through the Merck index to try to track down a possible similar compound, and settled on Dimethyl Sulfate because most but not all of the symptoms fit.
That transition from the dark camp fire to the blinding white powerpoint page definitely caused a "burning sensation in the face". It still kinda hurts... Thanks for that. :(
I work with someone with really bad breath who is on a Keto diet and she just stinks in general so this explains a lot. She was recently diagnosed with cancer and she’s been on the Keto diet a long time I just think it’s very dangerous to keep your body in ketosis like that.
The Keto diet is not healthy as a long term diet. Humans are NOT meant to be in ketosis for extended period of time. While it works for people with some health issues, it generally is not recommended.
My first thought was severe diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA). Explains the Cheyne-Stokes breathing and fruity breath, as well as the rapid heart rate. I think the rest was probably just mass hysteria.
I’ve watched more of the video now, and I think this likely has a combination of explanations. While people often search for the simplest reasons, the human body is rarely so straightforward. Great video 👍🏼
Her blood glucose levels would have been checked and would have been very elevated with DKA as well as presence of ketones, this was never mentioned :/
Fascinating stuff. One thing that I would ask, that maybe you could answer - the chemo that the woman was having, if she was indeed receiving any. Could the chemicals used in chemotherapy, mixed with the toxic build up in her body have had any effect? Not that this would be necessary of course for your theory (which I consider to be brilliant, frankly) to be true, its just something that occurs to me. Brilliant work.
I've been thinking about this case for a long time now. Can we take a minute to think about this? When Gloria's blood was removed there were beige or tan particles/crystals/flakes in her blood. One of the staff members who was infected, Dr. Gorchynski, also had the same particles in her blood when she was examined at another hospital. Her symptoms included trouble breathing, double vision, full body tremors that were notably painful. Another nurse claimed to experience having trouble with her hearing and aphasia. I forget her name, but I don't think it's known if the same thing was found in her blood. The blood samples revealed that there was a reduced amount of cholinesterase in the blood. That is something that happens when someone is exposed to pesticides. If you look at the symptoms of organophosphate poisoning, it does kinda line up with the symptoms presented. But not 100%. The things that stood out to me were the double vision explained by Doctor Gorchynski, and the other nurse's symptoms. Everybody's different and does react to things in their own way tho, so having some uncommon side effects isn't too crazy of a theory. So, let me wrap this up. My theory is that Gloria had been exposed to Parathion methyl, also known as O,O-Dimethyl O-4-nitrophenyl phosphorothioate. Either that or somehow a chemical reaction in her body was quite literally producing it or something very similar to it. Parathion methyl can cause heart problems, kidney failure, and SWEAT. When exposed to your skin, Parathion methyl can seep through into your blood stream. She could have been all sweaty and covered in pesticides, causing a garlicy, smell. The renal failure could cause the ammonia smell. I'm not sure how long the chemical is traceable. They could have very well not detected anything after the toxic exposure happened if it had a short halflife. Also, there could have been a huge cover up as to how she got poisoned in the first place, so they tried to make people believe it was mass hysteria, and when that wasnt accepted, they had to make up this crazy DMSO to Dimethyl sulfate. If anybody can prove this theory wrong please correct me
I remember this happening. DMSO2 IS A CHEMICAL. At the Veterans Administration Hospital we worked with DMSO3 with LOTS OF HEAVY VENTILATION. This woman had this in her blood system. The blood draw added an oxygen atom, making it DMSO4- NERVE GAS!!!
I think you're spot on with your hypothesis! The mass hysteria theory never sat well with me; but then I could never work out why it was only a few of the people who worked on her that suffered those strange effects. Your theory pretty much covers all the questions I had. Bravo!
This is THE single most detailed & informative video documentary I've seen with regard to this case. You've done an amazing job explaining chemical reactions to those who may not have a comprehensive chemistry background. I now have a much better & more thorough understanding of the events surrounding this poor woman's death. Still, the fact that there's been no official, actual, concrete explanation provided as to a cause...is mindboggling. For all intents & purposes, however, I think your explanation sounds the most reasonable. Appreciate your work. You just earned a new subscriber.
Like yourself I have a medical background. I spent 25 years working in theatre. 5 years as a scrub nurse and 20 years as an anaesthetic nurse (I live in Scotland, my job title here is different to the one in the USA) I’ve been in several situations where things happen, but the only one’s I see fainting have been medical student’s not prepared to see what a real body is like when opened up for surgery. As a training nurse I soon learned I had to eat breakfast or I’d become ill and feel awful. I can totally agreee with your theory of Keytone Accidosis. Though I was taught that keytones smelled like pear drops ( hard candy sweet). I agree about the Doc’s underlying condition. Cheyne Stoking breathing is someone who’s is dying breathes.
I nearly didnt click, because I'm already familiar with this case. Glad I did, because i got more insight into it. Im still not sure what to believe what happened, but that's why it's still (unofficially) unsolved. Really appreciate the history on hysteria 😊
I think it's good to try and explore cases like these a little and look at why people come to the conclusions they do, the hysteria history was really necessary discussion when you're a male official accusing a group of women of being "hysterical"
@@PeakedInterest definitely understand why the women got offended. Ruling everything unexplainable in women as hysteria really sucks. Was the male official even a medical official or did he just make that statement without any medical knowledge?
@@PeakedInterest The videos were pretty paranormal focused, so I suspect the cancer element would have "ruined" the creepy feel they must have been aiming for. Looking forward to more content from you!
Thanks, most of these stories are pretty interesting in their own right so I don't think you really need to put a spin on it, it also feels a little disrespectful to misreport the suffering of another person, but that's probably why I'm a smaller channel than these others.
You're so right about the Ketones. As I T1 diabetic, before I was diagnosed and really sick, I had very high ketones! Fruity taste in the mouth, blood becoming acidic! Really well researched!
You do really nice deep dives on interesting topics, keep up the great work! I don't see much to improve on, you're going to grow big sooner or later. :) Looking forward to future videos!
Holy shit if I were one of those doctors and one of my friends dropped I would actually laugh uncontrollably, look at everyone cracking up with tears in my eyes “It’s airborne” and proceed to die lmao
@@maria-melek well if I was a doctor of course and wasn’t allowed to go anywhere. But my humor is like a strong cup of coffee. Honestly I probably would laugh my ass off for a few seconds about it
Firstly, Women , especially in the 80’s made up nearly 85% of the medical workforce, although that percentage is female saturated &reflects 4 levels of nursing care and admin staff however in this case we know she also had at least one female doctor. So im not sure what their goal in addressing it was/is. Secondly, saying, only Women (insert statement here) is only remarkable if you are going to tell us how many females and how many males worked on/near her. If there were 30 female workers and 2 males it does not surprise me Women were the only ones effected. You add in the first nurse became ill within minutes I would be curious to know if an actual doctor ever touched her or if it was only nurses as they don’t get the option to not handle a patient .
I love the different styles to the first and second half. Super informative, I’m finding fairly easy to follow, and understand. Would absolutely love to see more of this style content. Though I can appreciate the amount of time and effort that must go into each one!
Your channel is inspiring and criminally underrated. I hope to start back at my own channel soon, doing written scripted content in an attempt to try my hand at more analytical and discussion oriented content, so seeing another small(ish) channel doing something of this high quality really inspires me. I hope to see more of this type of content, these sorts of mystery videos are my go-to late night binge content. And you do it exceptionally well.
Thank you that's one of the biggest compliments I've ever received, please feel free to send an email or message on Twitter or Facebook it you want any help or advice. Im always happy to help out smaller channels
@@PeakedInterest Hey man, im just saying the truth honestly. And thank you, I love connecting with channels that I respect so that'd be petty awesome I wont lie.
So then why doesn't everyone who dies of kidney failure or suffers ketoacidosis exhibit these symptoms or effects? There has to be another variable in there to explain why only her body seemed to produce such potent toxins that it sickened nearby people. Great video though
I really like how this video is more in depth on the matter rather than telling it as a story and then tell their theory and quickly brush it off like old news. This video is alot more research and documents a lot more detail to figure out the who, what, what where, when and why.
“Each time, [conversion disorder] is more pronounced on women than men. Nobody knows why”. My friend, you answered the “why” within the statement itself!
I don't have a theory, but I wonder if her chemo might have been platinum based. If so, platinum is used as a catalyst in a huge number of chemical reactions. Perhaps it, and the many catalysts human bodies make teamed up to make something harmful out of DMSO or something else and then broke it down after death into something innocuous. BTW, we used to use DMSO on our horses for minor injuries. When I applied it, I felt like I was tasting and smelling something foul that wasn't garlic like. For some reason when I was a little kid I sniffed a vacuum cleaner hose and that particular hose would be a 95% match for DMSO taste/smell. Kind of plasticy and something else not garlic. I think the reason transdermal patches may contain DMSO is it was supposed to be good at carrying other chemicals through the skin. I've heard that taking too much selenium can cause a garlic taste (and maybe smell) and toxicity. There was a research paper, perhaps in the 1980's, that suggested a link between high selenium levels in drinking water and lower cancer rates. I think the book "Life Extension" in the '80's mentioned it. Maybe she was taking too much it in hope of treating her cancer. Anyway, this was an interesting and well done video, thanks.
I think you are on to something. There is no discussion of her chemo regimen or the last time she received it. We also do not know what drugs she was taking. Prescribed or illegal. The hysteria angle is complete BS. Always a possibility that they did find the cause of all this, but are covering it up for reasons we dont know...
Hysteria and one or maybe two of the medical personnel I might could understand but definitely no way would 24 medical personnel have been affected by Hysteria. With their training and experience it is highly unlikely that any had experienced any sort of Hysteria. That theory is the biggest load of bull crap I have ever heard, and I should know. I, a female, spent over 30 years working in pathology, working mainly with other females, often performing autopsies, and none of us ever had any sort of Hysteria over a case.
That's idiotic. Imagine saying that just because you do well in high-stress situations you can never develop mental illness. A conversion disorder is a DISORDER. Doesn't matter how healthy, well adjusted or accustomed to the job you are. It can still affect you in the right circumstances.
The entire video I was thinking the same thing as his theory, as I am in kidney failure and on dialysis, getting a transplant in a week, I know how harsh meds are to the kidneys, I’m sure chemo likely slowly destroyed them and the fact that her urinary tract was blocked makes me think she had been building up toxins unknowingly for a while and then started to go septic and by the time she was at the hospital it seemed like she had gone septic and their really wasn’t anything anyone could do.
I do believe that the correct answer is the one provided by the lab. Despite it not having left chemical traces during testing, the quantity of dmsa needed to have a reaction is incredibly small. It's a very potent nerve agent and the fact that the symptoms they exprienced was so "mild" for a lack of a better term, shows they were expose to an incredibly small dose. Ammonia poisoning on the other, would have definitely left traces in their systems as you need a much more significant dose to get the symptoms they had. The other thing that makes the first theory likely is that the trigger was not the blood vial itself but the use of the defibrilators. Electricity is often used to bond or seperate chemicals together. So due to the cocktail of medications, the pure oxygen she was given and then the electricity all created an unfortunate chain of event. The 2 people closest to Ramirez after she was given defibrilation were the 2 people the most affected, which is consistent as the dose of dmsa they would have received would be greater than the other people in the room who only experienced very mild symptoms in comparison. And while this is nothing short of an anti-miracle, it's still the most likely and interesting theory.
I remember reading about this case in the newspaper. It was a short article buried on the 8th or 9th page but I was fascinated, even though details were sparse. The next day the follow up article was even shorter but did identify the victim as Gloria Ramirez. I never found another piece of written information. It was like it never happened. Then about 10 years later, Unsolved Mysteries did a segment which was mostly a recap without much new information. Still, I was fascinated. At that time the internet was in it's infancy so a search of available information provided nothing new. Thank you for creating this episode as this story still fascinates me. The answers lie within Gloria's tissues, I'm certain of that. I'm hoping that there are surviving samples stored for safe-keeping until the truth is discovered. Such a bizarre incident! Add to that the staff were diagnosed with hysteria and things take a very sharp turn into conspiracy town. Thinking out loud here but I wonder if any of the researchers created computer models of her tissues.
This happened in my hometown but were pretty far from La but in the inland empire
Really? I'd be interested to get your perspective as a native. Which narrative did people ascribe to and do you think I'm accurate with my analysis?
Yep! I’ve watched and looked up that case so much since it did happen in my hometown, I’m fascinated by it and your breakdown by far has been the best explanation I could find to really break down what could have happened and how. Mind you I was just a baby when all this happened but it’s definitely a very known famous case here in lame old riverside lol I think your very accurate and for a long time people just thought it was a phenomenon that couldn’t be explained.
It was my favourite kind of case really, one that with a bit of science and medicine was solvable. Really had to revise my organic chemistry to get to the answer though
@@PeakedInterest yes definitely such an interesting case and you did sooo damn good with that breakdown, I found your channel looking for more information on the Dutch ladies that went “missing” and came across that second video. 👌🏼
There is also the video about the poor Japanese guy which is very similar to those two but with less mystery involved.
I'll also be covering many more since people keep.sending me things to look into lol
One of the saddest parts about this case was that Gloria’s children were subsequently bullied at school as a result of the sensationalized news stories about their dead mother. Other kids spread rumors that they came from a filthy household, that their mother was a meth addict, that their mother was a mutant, that their family was dangerous, etc. I can’t imagine losing your mother at a young age in such a horrific way, only to be teased and ostracized for it.
Wow, that's terrible. This side of the story hasn't had much light shed on it.
Welcome to highschool I guess
How do I find this information?
That's so extra sad, I hope they're alright
Somebody replied to the pinned comment stating they ended up in Riverside General after being stabbed. Overall, it really sounds like a wonderful place to raise a family...
Although children are often horrible to each other the world over I suppose. How sad for her children to have been put through that.
Not only did psychiatrists once believe hysteria only affected females, they believed that it was CAUSED BY female anatomy, namely the uterus. The word "hysteria" comes from the Greek word "hustera," meaning "womb." It is from this root word that we also get "hysterectomy." It was once believed that hysterectomy was a legitimate treatment for hysteria.
To add, many believed the uterus actually moved around a woman's body, and this "wandering womb" caused the mental issues.
They also believed it consisted of 8 chambers
The first vibrator was invented to treat hysteria (when giving women orgasms was considered an effective treatment)!
@@annamayrand5483 "Once these women orgasm, maybe they'll stop being so crazy!" - Some doctor, probably.
hysterical!
You know you're in a bad situation when anyone even near you pukes, vomits, and goes into convulsions within minutes.
Yes, it wouldn't really inspire confidence would it?
You know you#re in a really bad situation if it's the medical staff that's having the symptoms.
Yeah its usually the first thing people do when they see me
true
Isnt puking and vomiting the same thing..?
I was in the ER that night. I was working as a EMT just starting my career. To get to the ER via ambulance was down a ramp to the ER doors. people where running up the ramp as I was outside doing paperwork. I have zero idea if anything toxic was going on with Gloria but the air in the ER was pungent and gritty. That's the only way I can think to describe it. I suffered no side affects but clearly remember that night. Your analysis is spot on, well done.
That's crazy you were there wow
Did you have adrenaline flowing that night, by any chance?
@@basamaro1 That's a good question. seeing as it was my 1st year in EMS, I probably did have it. It was a crazy night before the events in the ER. They demolished the entire hospital and put a business park on top of it, sad really.
You were an EMT, but can't even properly spell? Well, either you're a liar, or the medical system in the USA is on third world level, when they have to resort to hiring folks who can't even spell simple every day words. Even more frightening is you spell like that NOW - meaning years after your "career started", as you put it.
@@chickenlover657 Why you gotta do him like that?
Please remember that this was a real person that went through this horrific event. Rest in peace Gloria. Your ordeal is over.
Ohh thanks for clarifying. I thought it was not a real person and a pretty nice event. Good thing you made this comment or else I'd look pretty stupid.
Oh yeah I could’ve sworn he was just talking about a Garth Ennis comic thanks for that correction
yall leave them alone, damn smh
fuckin tearing em apart
So sad I feel awful for her
I "love" how you said to treat her like a real person and everyone starts giving you crap like you aren't.
Thanks for being the voice of empathy, friend, not everyone gets it. ❤
This case has always fascinated me but I feel so bad for Gloria. Had to suffer through and die from cancer and is remembered for this.
I remember when this case happened and it was pretty scary to think a bio. weapon had been released in the city of Riverside where I lived hospital staff was very scared and wore masks
@@angelduran3141 lol imagine being called a bio weapon. That's a pretty cool way to go out xD
@@peachparee7647 that'd be me after eating a can of beans.
@@spvillano 😂😂😂
Theres a lot more people that died way worse but ok
I'm curious as to why the ambulance team was unaffected when transporting Gloria. Surely they'd gotten an IV and such started...
probably hadn't fully metabolized yet by that point.
he did say that the chemical didnt turn to the second form until the oxygen mask had been administered, then the deadly form after a while of the chemical breaking down and binding with carbon within her
Or even just they wasn't suspicious enough to smell sniff or deeply inhale anything from a close proximity. An oxygen mask would help to 'mask' odor from her mouth also maybe?. Plus there would be more fresh air turbulence in and out of a vehicle.
@@danhudson4614 that makes absolutely no sense...
@@jessieqk12 The nurse and doctor said they sniffed the blood sample and odour from the mouth. The Ambulance crew would maybe put in an iv but they wouldn't have extracted or sniffed anything. They would hook her up to the equipment using gloves and be gone. There's more fresh air inside an Ambulance a 😷 over her mouth would help dissipate a toxic odour while potentially creating the chemical reaction..assuming that's what happened. If it was the blood the ambulance crew would not have smelt it at all. The nurse smelt the extracted sample of blood the Doctor held it to her face to notice the white particles and odd colour, probably inhaling to notice a smell too either way it was close enough to her face.. assuming it WAS toxic.
Ah yes, classic "hysteria" causing seizures and necrosis.
Hate when that happens
Its so ironic for the scientific/medical community to use such a non-scientific term/theory which basically meaningless and translates to "we dont have a fckn clue what occurred."
@@muppetb.lansing8374 yeah it’s pretty much just medical talk for ”you know how women get”
@@muppetb.lansing8374 When you look at things like the dancing plagues that were contributed to mass hysteria, “I don’t have a fucking clue” is a pretty accurate description
@@ethpling165 we can't actually prove that any of it happened, and even if it did, there is a way more logical explanation than mass hysteria. honestly, i think mass hysteria is a bunch of bull and it was also used to disregard women entirely.
there was another case of "dancing plague" in spain long ago, where people would dance as remedy when they were bitten by venomous spiders. because they would dance themselves into exhaustion that would kill them, it reinforced this idea that you had to continue dancing to survive once bitten. that is how they learned, as untrue as it may be. considering this happened a few times, it was probably common knowledge to people to dance to survive the bite, or whatever else may have troubled them.
in other words, i don't think these people were subject to hysteria or true madness- although, with the medical knowledge we have now it's easier to write it off as "they were just crazy" when in reality, they experienced a huge lack of medical phenomena and resources, and were left to find their own "remedies" in a time of desperation and confusion.
I just can't quite buy the mass hysteria theory when these doctors are faced with critical emergencies on a daily basis including severe trauma victims and don't all collapse into heart arrhythmic unconscious states. I definitely think the ketoacidiosis theory holds weight, but I somehow also think this would have been considered and ruled out by the medical professionals. Though things do get overlooked so it's possible.
Maybe ketoacidosis isn't common for an ordinary cancer patient? However, cancer patients are known to sometimes pursue weird diets in a desperate attempt to beat the cancer when contemporary orthodox medical care doesn't do it. I had a friend who perished of cancer who near the end was trying kale juice. Perhaps a combination of things, including medical fumbles and staff under harmful stress. I'd like to know how that hospital rated among hospitals at that time for accuracy of medical care.
Exactly. The mass hysteria was likely used in a sexist way to brush off the females' experience in the situation.
Wouldn't a surplus of ketones be present in the blood as for it to be ketoacidosis?
The hysteria theory was definitely very flawed. they're doctors...there's no way an entire staff team would be that deeply affected by a patient having a heart attack. they've seen a whole lot worse; it just doesn't make sense. and it sounds like a lousy, lazy-ass way to explain what happened
yeah the hysteria theory is a lead of bs, especially since modern phycologists theorize it doesn't even exist.
As soon as you said "blocked urinary tract" I said "ketoacidosis with excessive ammonia present in blood " so same theory as you; just needed the one piece that was missing.
Seemed logical to me
I want chubby emu episode on this topic. But unfortunately there is not enough materials for him to make a video :(
@@aaclovern9804 I read "present in the blood" in the original comment and instantly thought of him
Possibility of "Blocked urinary tract" would have been evaluated with ALL the medical
workups and exams before the actual chemotherapy.
@@nancyalywahby2784 it would have been written off as soon as a catheter was inserted
Your theory explained a lot, and is very convincing! However, I can't help but wonder if Gloria might have tried some sort of alternative Cancer treatment. A lot of people who can't afford traditional treatment or feel as if their chances of survival are low resort to more unconventional measures. Is it possible that Gloria was self medicating? Were there any experimental treatments that used similar ingredients to meth? Could Gloria have been using meth for palliative care, knowing that she was going to die? She probably wouldn't have told anyone. And if she was buying drugs to ease her suffering, its not unlikely she got a "bad batch" either mixed with or missing specific chemicals. Just a thought, though! As always, great research and presentation.
I did check and there aren't any experimental or alternative treatments but there's is a little research regarding DMSO use to shrink certain types of tumours
Meth ? Would cause everybody in the same room to faint ?
@@PeakedInterest , some sort of mustard gas? -Just a thought from a sleep deprived teen...
EDIT: wait, one of the chemicals that in an old class of mine (IDK what it was called but another student thought was something to clean the table with) "smelled like ammonia." but made me feel a burning sensation in my face, lightheaded, I had trouble breathing.
EDIT 2: It was used to keep finished artwork from smudging. (it was supposed to be used outside, not in large amounts inside to a point where it was a greasy mess)
@@SalusKitty I don't know the specific chemicals but the spray you used in art class is called fixative. It can be nasty, has a strong odor and unless you have good ventilation needs to be used outside. I use it to fix my pastel and charcoal drawings.
@@DominicNJ73 Fascinating! I wonder if Gloria had an art hobby.
That statement made by the state had my blood boiling. ‘Mass hysteria’ should never be attributed to something like this among trained medical professionals, female or not. I’m glad they fought it.
What happend to her?
I mean, if it's mostly women then of course they would. Like the mass hysteria that women had that needed to be treated by a Dr using a vibrator. Ugh
My mother used DMSO for carpel tunnel pain in the 70's. It DEFINITELY leaves a noticable garlic smell to the breath.
Why this DMSO smells lime garlic. ??
Why this DMSO smells lime garlic. ??
@@carlakalla7606 get some. try it. it's a safe experience.
Yikes!
Wonder if it works?
I remember My dad getting a prescription for something, and it turned into Aspirin in his stomach causing him to be in the hospital for about 8 days. He was allergic to Aspirin. The thing that made Me angry about it was the doctor knew He was allergic to aspirin prior to prescribing this drug.
Imagine what could happen to people who aren't allergic. Aspirin is a blood thinner, which is why dentists ask if you took any before tinkering at your teeth. They don't want you to bleed out.
@@HappyBeezerStudios he wasn't even bleeding lol
It is complicated… if there was a prodrug of aspirin, I agree it should have been avoided, but because I don’t know the drug, I can’t really give you an objective statement.
@@HappyBeezerStudios It does happen, but it alone is usually not that potent. Usually the drug to be more worried about is warfarin.
@@wiwaxiasilver827 Yeah, and I can't remember what it was. But My dad told me the doctors at the hospital said it turned into aspirin in his stomach. But thanks.
I arrived at a location about the same time EMS arrived. A middle aged man was unresponsive. After they worked on him I assisted loading him and he projectile vomited like a volcano. It was black, mixed with blood and got on us. Immediately we all felt a burning sensation, eye irritation and breathing issues. Another deputy met me in the hospital and told me they found a bottle of commercial grade pipe acid. Still have slight scars 20 years later.
That's a genuinely crazy story. Sounds like something id cover on this channel
I’m glad you’re ok. Besides the scarring. Thank you for helping that man.
Wow 😳 that's some crazy stuff! I'm glad you're doing alright
I know I'm late but do you know what happened to the man that vomited? I hope he made it out okay
I remember when this happened. This was a very confusing story and the news programs NEVER followed up. Thank you for this. That poor woman's family was vilified and they had to plead for privacy while they dealt with her death.
I know this is old but why were the vilified?
@@astridvvv9662
Because it’s easy.
came from the most radioactive man video, then watched the dutch girls video & now onto this. you have a new subscriber, your videos are truly on the same field as dateline & 60 minutes. i’m so impressed by the quality of your videos, you deserve so many more subscribers & views to compensate for all the hard work you put into these videos! it does not go unnoticed & unappreciated by us! can’t wait to see more from you in the future
Thank you so much, I genuinely appreciate that. I'll do my best not to disappoint
i came from the radioactive man video and had similar thoughts! i very much appreciate the high quality of your videos *subscribe
@cha cha thanks for the vote of confidence.
Interesting this is my order of the video’s too
Lmao bro I did the exact same as you, yea good shit. Never knew this channel till today
I had heard variations of this woman's story but never got the details that I wanted. This video is an unexpected godsend!! You, my good sir, have earned my subscription.
Thank you, I shall respect and treasure it.
mine, too
My mother in-law worked for a doctor during this incident and it was known fact that some drug activity was going on behind closed doors. Gloria also went across the border for treatment for her cancer and became and sick when she came back and her family called for a ambulance. The hospital was closed and demolished shorty after this investigation. My mother in-law and a lot of her friends were told not to talk about anything about drugs. Also Gloria was buried in a sealed infectious bag.
Wow why does no one shed light on this. Especially her going across border for treatment
@@Kachamorich21
Because then it gets turned into someone somewhere making it about putting down another country.
This makes the most sense. I suffered ketoacidosis as a child (I was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes at age 2.5 and P-ANCA, a rare kidney disorder not at all related to the diabetes, at age 8). Apparently I had grey, oily skin, fruity-smelling breath, problems urinating and a blood glucose level of over 1000. Although my A1C has gone from 12 to 7 in the past 2 yrs, I still experience strange, fruity-smelling or garlic-tasting breath when my BG is over 300. I've had chemotherapy and am on chemo medication because of my rare kidney disease. I never had weird symptoms like what was explained in the video. So yeah, I think you're spot-on.
I went into DKA just before I was first diagnosed at 18. my blood glucose was around 30mmol/l. I was told I had a pear drop smell and I'd lost a load of weight
This video must be the only one on this case that is actually detailed and not full of paranormal bs. Great job, got yourself a new subscriber. I really enjoyed the video on the dutch girls going missing in panama too, very informative!
Thank you, I'll try not to disappoint
i agree but please do not promote spiritual bigotry. Thanks
"Spiritual bigotry"??? Yeah, imagine not believing in something, how awful... /s
If you haven't watched it before, his video on Hiatchi Ouchi (the most radioactive man) is also great
@@Oliver-ob8pc pretty sure they're saying spiritual bigotry as in dismissing peoples beliefs as "bs" mostly implies
I really appreciate you calling out the sexist roots of “hysteria.” Honestly psychology was such a joke in its infancy (buut I mean, what field of study wasn’t tho? lol)
It seemed appropriate due to the subject and I didn't want any aspersion cast
Psychology was not just sexist, but just plain fucking weird in it’s infancy. Just basically a bunch of crackpot theories about the brain made by a literal crackhead.
Still by no means perfect.
I know I instantly get my hackles up when someone even skirts close to suggesting something is psychosomatic, or "hysterical" due to the historical misogyny involved. Honestly I wish it was discussed more; we're all, as humans, suggestible and affected by the mind controlling the body--just look at chronic pain conditions! I just think medical professionals need to be more aware in communication, and that the general public needs to understand that, if it's your reality, it's real. Some people's pain is triggered by the mind, but there's no difference in the suffering of that person, and good harm reduction approaches don't treat physical pain only.
well women are more likely to get hysteric and thats not false
State: “MAsS HysTeRIa”
Good thing that woman sued.
hmm let me just develop some hepatitis god forbid I as a doctor observe everyone collapsing around me
But thats what happened, its the only conclusion that passes the test
It's probaby not the case, but let's not pretend that that isn't a possibility.
Sounds like an overly broad brush... maybe the weird symptoms of the woman did get to the other ladies there, in addition to the ammonia exposure she caused to some of those gathered there. It might speak to how stressful the medical care environment is. You want to tend to someone who is in serious medical trouble, and you don't even eat??? Something is being pressed to the breaking point for no good reason.
@@SeekingTheLoveThatGodMeans7648 it's not uncommon for people and nurses to not eat because of how long their shifts are. This is not really rare. Especially if you are called in to take up a patient, and the care goes on for hours there's no real room to eat there.
Hospitals are very chaotic, I wouldn't find all of them collectively forgetting to eat or not having time to eat as particular unusual
Amine isn't a chemical but a functional group. You do not call something specifically ester, nor hydroxyl as they are all ubiquitous functional groups. It would be like calling an animal with feet, a foot.
Thanks for the correction.
OTOH, submarine atmosphere control equipment includes CO2 scrubbers that use monoethanolamine, but we sub sailors normally just referred to it as ‘amine’, even those of us with chemistry backgrounds.
Thank you! I remember this case as I live nearby. The last I heard of it was the official mass hysteria dx, and I just didn't buy into that at all. I was a radiographer, accustomed to sights, smells and sounds of trauma rooms and I could not imagine that many trauma personnel passing out hysterically. This was a very good, and fascinating, presentation.
Thanks, I'm a former radiographer too
I lived a few miles away from the hospital when this happened. I also never believed the mass hysteria explanation.
As someone who spilled 100% DMSO outside a fume hood (lab setting) I can confirm that it does smell like garlic..... However I did not pass out cleaning it up😎
Because you didn’t spill dimethyl sulphate.
What I find irritating is the narrator saying, multiple times, that Dimethyl sulfone got extra CARBON atoms to form dimethyl sulfate. DMSO, dimethyl sulfone AND dimethyl sulfate all have the same number of carbon atoms. Each has progressively more oxygen atoms, but the C content are the same.
@Glenn Murray I'm not a chemist and thought I'd read enough to understand, clearly I was mistaken. sometimes errors happen all I can do is learn from it and try not to make the same mistake again.
@@Radagast97 the catalyst was clearly the defibrillator.
@@Rexwizord I don't think I referenced a catalyst, only that the descriptions of certain chemical processes was inaccurate (specifically that all the dimethyl sulfur compounds in the video contained the same number of carbons and adding more couldn't change one into another).
If you mean catalyst in a colloquial sense, no problem. If you mean in a chemical sense, energy nor mechanical devices are a catalyst, being catalysts are substances, not a mechanical device or any form of energy.
he said the unfound chemical was dimethyl sulfate right? if so, that chemical has a half life of less than 5 minutes, so depending on how long that chemical was in her body, it could have been gone by the point of the test
Find a scientific paper on it and you’ll find it doesn’t work like that.
@@E-Kat you’re telling me that I didn’t do my research correctly? Ok tell me EXACTLY what part I got wrong
Did the authorities forensically search her home? Understandably, a dying patent might reach out (in desperation) to some very strange stuff. My empathy goes out to all concerned.
I remember this case because I have used DMSO since the age of 12 when I tore a ligament in my knee. My surgeon was the team doctor for Stanford's football team. He gave me DMSO and had me use it multiple times daily to heal my knee. In one month I was off crutches. Ii healed in less than 3 months. I continued to use it on my arthritic horse's legs. It was magical how it helped my horse. Over the years when I had serious injuries I would use it , but only topically. It would always give me garlic breath. I researched it as an adult and it is used internally as well for serious bladder problems. DMSO is sold in health food stores and is still used by veternarians and some medical people. It reduces inflammation and its effect was discovered accidentally by people who worked with it and saw their arthrutis improve. I believe this woman likely used it in conjunction with something else as if you mix it with something else, it takes the other substance into your bloodstream. The one definite side effect of using it is the garlic breath. It is used internally in the bladder for interstitial cystitis.
I was thinking she may have spilled something on the area she used DMSO or something. A cleaning solution or something. It wouldn't show up in a lab result bc of the absorption/metabolic process. But it could have reacted within her body to become something volatile like ammonia.
I read dmso can also cause heart palpatations and in rare cases arrythmia as a side effect.
I remember chemistry back in highschool, everybody hated it except the drug addict
This made me laugh
LOL wow explains me to a Tee actually
I always liked Chemistry, but I tried it in secondary and it required Maths. Lots of Maths. I ended up with a neutron with 34 electrons. So I dropped it after that lol 😆 but its still a fascinating subject!! 😊👍
YEAH SCIENCE!
Hahahahaha, yes!!!
problems with your theory:
- medical stuff know ketosis. and ketoacidosis.
- the amount of ammonia needed for a 'burning sensation' and all the other syptoms, just by breathing in some air near the patient, would meant that the patient had enough ammonia in her blood to basically disolve her... but in all seriousness, ammonia is pretty effectively transformed by the body into urea. Kidney failure would result in high amounts of urea.
I was thinking of ketosis even before he mentioned it an the staff are idiots 🙄
@@bolamnieplecy6363 glad to see the pro doctor here in the youtube comment section
but didnt the forensic pathologists originally conclude that she died of kidney failure? so doesnt that check out? maybe the body did convert a lot of it to urea but it built up too much and some remained as ammonia and then her kidney failed from the urea? just wondering. i agree it seems a little unlikely that there that much ammonia airborne that it could make medical staff pass out.
damn bro super smort
What would happen if someone injected ammonia?
You neglected to give the best example out there when it comes to chain reaction: If one yawns, the rest yawns!
True
That's not even true. Most people do not yawn just because someone else around them does.
@@skye6949 Mood killer.
@@skye6949 Yes they do actually, unless you have autism or any other disorder affecting social skills.
@@skye6949I was gonna say wrong but technically you're right. It's not caused by someone yawning around another person. By by another person witnessing the yawn.
Mass Hysteria by itself just sounds absurd in this case. Why would an experienced staff suddenly have symptoms brought on by empathy for a woman in her thirties rather than one in her twenties, or a teenager or child? Why suddenly this one random person? Ridiculous. This is the one theory which I find not the least bit credible; highly insufficient to explain the facts of the case. Ammonia exposure plus the staff being quite overworked, stressed, and hungry/dehydrated is obviously a recipe for symptoms such as they experienced. Women tend to be smaller on average and thus more susceptible to ammonia inhalation. Plus there's socialization: "Does this smell like ammonia to you?" = many female staff members affected.
The fact he went on about this theory without instant dismissal - extremely disappointing. Having "sympathy" for a myth about women is NOT a way to support us.
Women are smaller, have less blood in the body, eat less, and generally take lower doses of medication. We're much more likely to be effected by a chemical before men.
(Just like children are, before women.) Just because the canaries go down first in the coal mine - does not mean the canaries are hysterical. It means they're more sensitive - and you better wake up to danger. (This is how exactly the men were saved. They'd have gone down eventually too without swift evacuation.)
All mass hysteria cases are difficult to explain. Doesn't mean it didn't happen though, and it certainly seems likely that it's at least partially responsible for this and a host of other things.
This happened the year my daughter was born, we lived only twenty miles from this hospital and I was home all day and very interested in this story.
What bothered me most about it was they seemed to want to hush EVERYTHING up from day ONE. I even called a newspaper reporter from a Riverside county paper a few months after it happened, he had done some investigation on the case and he was shut out completely. It has always bothered me. The hospital is in a run down neighborhood and does not have a stellar reputation. I seem to recall the FBI snooping around for a while as well.
Mass hysteria...PLEASE PEOPLE!
my wife and I had a cat die of kidney failure (well we put her down, poor baby, only 4 years old and utterly miserable). You could smell her entire body because she could not pee out her toxicity.
how come this channel has so little views? i could have sworn this could be one of those channels that get a million views per video.
One can hope 🤞
I didnt even notice til I saw this comment! I definitely assumed this was a channel which would have 1-3mil views per video!
RUclips doesn’t spread the good channels around as much. There aren’t that many intelligent people out here I think ?
IKR haha
Exactly.
My first wife was dying of rapid renal failure and beginning to swell up and look grotesque but she didn't become a toxic lady; blood was regularly taken etc... the ammonia smell was ominous, unpleasant, sad...but did not make anyone pass out
really interesting, thanks! - I don’t believe hysteria, and that’s bc after I became ill in 2009, I had many many doctors tell me that I wasn’t sick, it was psychological, I was just fat, and I was a hypochondriac. Finally I found a doctor who took me seriously and ran a bunch of tests and diagnosed me with a 1 in 1 million rare disorder. Since that one doctor took me seriously, I got the “Not Crazy” stamp on my file, and all subsequent doctors took me seriously, and I’ve subsequently gotten 4 more diagnoses (that cluster together). Objective proof, blood tests and nervous system tests prove these disorders, and the treatment works. The main disease was in my blood the entire time, but my blood tests were always “perfect” because nobody ever tested for that specific auto-antibody. “Nothing there” usually means “nobody looked in the right place.” When there’s a mystery involving a man, the reaction is: Huh that’s mysterious. When there’s a mystery involving a woman, it’s: Oh yeah that b* is crazy.
What was the blood disorder, if you don’t mind sharing and what we’re your symptoms?
This could potentially help someone.
Thank you so much.
I’m so happy for you, as you at last got the diagnosis but I’m so sorry what you went through!
It took me seven years to have my diagnosis of gallstones and it was too late to save my gallbladder as it was all infected, I could’ve easily died in the days preceding the surgery! Since then I’m on the morphine six times a day!
The medical industry is a very patriarchal and sexist organization. I saw some embarrassing and disgusting things while going through nursing school.
So what was the illness?
I agree and good for you for keep pushing for an answer
I am in nursing school and in the beginning when you were telling the story the first thing that popped into my head was ketoacidosis. All of the signs and symptoms match up perfectly with it.
Same for me
I was just about to say if gout exists than have a little to much ammonia to the point of nearing the official kill amount of ammonia will do anybody in requiring a gas mask. Farmers fall to the same deadly gas
As a chemist, ketoacidosis was what came to mind for me.
Came for the story because it fascinates me and has since I was a teen (My mom refuses to mix medications/herbal remedies without express medical permission. When I asked why, she pointed me to the story of the “garlic lady”), stayed for the callout on the sexism behind mass hysteria.
Yes, your mom is right. Don't mix anything herbal/medical without your doctor knowing because they could interact or could even counteract each other. It's not worth the risk (especially since many herbal remedies are not regulated and you don't really know what you are getting or what dose).
How is this a small channel? I've watched a few videos now and the quality of the editing, commentary and analysis is phenomenal! The way you present this case is engaging and informative. I hope you get more views soon, you deserve it! 😊
Thank you, I put a lot of time and effort into my videos so that really means a lot
when you said she had a fruity smell in her mouth early in the video I remembered ketones but forgot the name for them, and then when you said she had kidney failure and that build up waste products everything clicked. very interesting story!
This literally sounds like an SCP story but whats even scarier, is that this actually freaking HAPPENED.
Its one heck of a chemical anomaly that remains unsolved to this day.
Good video, but I have one point of contention. Having worked with equines that have been treated with large amounts of DMSO, I can tell you that you absolutely CAN smell that stomach turning chemical/garlic odor before you come into physical contact with the substance. Your nose will tell you a horse is on a DMSO treatment regimen the moment you walk into the barn. A veterinarian explained that DMSO is a solvent that permeates tissue, so as it is carried through the body the lungs emit and aerosolize the compound as a the horse exhales. I am a layperson, so I don't profess to understand how this works, that being said, I know you can smell DSMO. It gives me the heaves!
I don’t know how this channel isn’t bigger, it’s so interesting and well presented
Exactly my thoughts.
Yesssssssss everything about it is perfect!
He only has two notable videos. They got a lot of views, one having 1.5M views in only a few months. I would say that’s pretty big.
Algorithm mayb
I spent 9 months as a dialysis technician and my first thought was the toxic buildup in her tissue explaining basically everything from Gloria. The toxic waste is stored in intramuscular fluid and the bodies cells primarily, while also flowing in the bloodstream. ESRD (end stage renal disease) causes massive fluid buildups in the bodies that primarily pools to the legs and feet, when doing dialysis removing water is the majority of the treatment, it is no less important than removing the wastes like phosphorus and nitrogen. During treatment we monitor changes in blood volume to estimate how much water we have removed. This is done by testing conductivity of the waste water and works because of a coincidence where sodium and urea have almost the same molecular volume so they are assumed to have equal diffusion across the dialyzer membrane (dialyzer is the filter used to remove toxic waste from the blood, it is pressurized to remove the toxins via reverse osmosis). I am simply pointing that out because the wastes and water is not just in the blood, there isn't nearly enough room for all of that in the blood and she could have also had some of that liquid waste buildup seeping through her skin or coming out in sweat. It is extremely important to note that a regular nurse or doctor does NOT have training and knowledge in kidney failure, it is a highly specialized part of medical care and there is not any school program for it. All the training I got came from the company I worked for, and every employee had to do it, from tech to nurse, nutritionist, all the way up to the doctors. We were all lumped together in the same in company classes. Hospitals are also equipped with specialists for kidney related issues, and they are contracted through a kidney care company like mine and not employed by the hospital itself. I am pointing this out because it would be expected for a general ER doctor and nurses to not know what was going on, other than her simply having kidney failure (they wouldn't know the intimate details of what chronic end stage kidney failure entails, they would only be familiar with basic acute kidney failure so that they could recognize it then send that person to a specialist). For the average kidney failure person they would not know they had kidney failure, they would go into the hospital, very sick and dying and not knowing why. Doctors would figure it out based on a blood test, put in a catheter, then send them to kidney care technicians in hospital, and discharge them to a kidney care clinic (like where I worked). There were constant issues with communication between hospital care takers and our clinic, they would do things that while fine for a normal patient, could kill a patient with kidney failure and hospital staff had no idea. For example if someone had diabetes it is common to give them something like orange juice to raise blood sugar if it was low. This however could kill a patient who has both diabetes and kidney failure (which is extremely common as most kidney failure is caused by untreated or improperly treated diabetes) this happens because the juice is high in potassium which their body cannot filter out. Anyways on to hysteria, given that it is expected that the doctors/nurses would be mystified by this (which people seem to have been thinking otherwise), it is absolutely reasonable to anticipate the hysteria, in the manner you described in your theory version, for a couple staff after seeing a doctor pass out. And I say that as someone who is prior military and majored in neuroscience in school. Even trained professionals can mentally break down and can do so in what would otherwise be ordinary experiences. Seeing leadership pass out would have caused them massive distress, couple that with lack of food and confusion, I would honestly expect at least one person to drop in that situation, considering the number of staff involved. The same would happen in the military in a synonymous situation. Sorry for the long comment, I wasn't expecting it to be so long but I thought you would appreciate the input, although you seem fairly versed in the science involved.
My God dude, use the freaking paragraph key!!
Jesus christ, ever heard of the “enter” or “return”button?
Yea but how would one explain the measurable physiological effects that some experience, like decreased bone density?
I actually wondered exactly WHY professional doctors and nurses would be unable to recognize kidney failure symptoms.
I still not not believe the mass hysteria though. I think it was physical reactions for sure.
I used to use pure DMSO in the lab, and it really does have a weird garlicky smell. You can smell it from the otherside of the room when someone opens a bottle. And, yes, it's not toxic in and of itself, but it is used to deliver dissolved chemicals to the body because it is very good at penetrating the skin. I believe it's used as a solent to introduce chemicals into the body and is used in some chemotherapy methods. Just my two cents.
The garlicky smell is only evolving in the sweat of the patient using it. Nearly pure DMSO alone is odorless.
I can only imagine what Gloria went thorough if people were getting ill just from a tiny pinhole in the body!
Finally! Someone who goes into the chemistry or reasons behind this event. Everyone else who I have found that covered this gave it 5 minutes, told a creepy story and left it at that. Without bothering to delve into the reasons behind it
I do agree with the ammonia theory, but has anyone looked into the cream combined with ammonia and the effects of that? I think it's both the cream and ammonia causing a reaction like bleach and ammonia
oxidizer and corrosives combining. chemistry.
Thank you so much for covering this in such depth. I've seen several other RUclipsrs cover this subject and nowhere do they mention she had cancer - which is a pretty damn big thing!
My new favorite thing is coming upon such high-quality documentaries / storytelling type channels like yours, definitely following your page!
Thank you. That's very kind
Conversion disorder from what I've heard is often used as diagnosis when they dont actually know what's wrong. I think I seen 30- 50% of sufferers are misdiagnosed. I would guess part of why more women are diagnosed with this is because women are often not actually listened to by doctors. They probably have autoimmune diseases and are just diagnosed with conversion disorder cause the dr cant see a reason for symptoms and go "ah, it's all in your head."
This little rant is not related to the video only cause it was brought up and I have a theory on why more women are diagnosed.
EXACTLY. when they say "statistically more women experience conversion disorder", what i hear is "women are more likely to be DIAGNOSED with conversion disorder".
I was misdiagnosed with four different things including conversion disorder. Turns out, i have neurological Lyme disease and a bunch of co-infections. My symptoms have been neurological for almost 4 years now and the bacteria has to be in the body for about 5 years to become neurological- so- what i find, is that doctors will often just think inside their specialty and generalize complex symptoms to fit a condition they can diagnose regardless of if that is the actual cause or not. In the last few years, I had been to over 10 specialists to no avail. Also, the Lyme tests they use in offices don’t work! They had don’t 4 on me and all had false negatives. Why is this? Because they only detect the bacteria for Lyme (rather than that and/or some if the co-infections) and because it will only show a positive for Lyme 3 weeks after infection and no further. As a reminder, at that point i would have had Lyme for a minimum of 5 years. Even now I’m still chronically ill, although now i have a PICC line and IV and oral antibiotics. Moral of the story: people should keep looking for answers even after a idiopathic diagnosis, as often times the real cause can be found eventually.
I feel like when stuff like this happens professionals need to look more into this so that we can take the necessary procautions to avoid this ever happening again.
Dude these videos are such high quality, i couldn't believe when i saw that you only had 13k subscribers. Keep doing these videos and youll get to the top.
Thank you
I remember hearing about this story, but never the details. Just the "Toxic Lady."
Just a thought, but once a person has died the body begins decomposing. How long did it take for them to ready themselves for the autopsy? Refrigeration slows down decomp but doesn't stop it completely. A living chemistry set (a person's body) is a very different thing from a dead decomposing body where bacteria on and in the body is releasing gas and no oxygen is being carried through the blood to tissues. I think the decomp could easily have hidden something in plain sight or muddied the results enough to just confound those doing the autopsy. In some cases, being dead even for an hour could keep a toxicology report from being completely accurate depending on what is going on and what they're looking for. If they can even guess what they're looking for. Being alive allowed the chemical culprit to thrive in her body albeit for a short time until her death. After her death the chemical composition could have changed to something seemingly benign that no one would have looked twice at unless they knew specifically what they were looking at when seeing the toxicology report. Not everything shows up on a toxicology report. Specialized testing is expensive and discouraged. They went after the wrong thing, blew their wad on the wrong test, and supervisors weren't going to keep throwing money into the investigation when no one but the patient died. Bottom line - 1 life lost and it wasn't hospital staff. The hospital needs to be open to make money. Sweep it under the rug and back to business. Never mind that the staff suffered symptoms. Hospital reputation over everything else.
Clearly, I'm feeling cynical at 3 am. Insomnia does that to me sometimes. Sorry about that. I'm going to check out some pet videos. Hope y'all have a better night than me.
My Mother was diagnosed with terminal Liver Cancer, around a week before her death, I could literally smell the stench of death as it consumed her. It is a unforgettable, unforgiving odor that, once you smell it, it's no mistaking what it is.
This is so true. My dad had terminal cancer in his face. The worse he got the stronger the smell became. I don’t think I’ve ever had such a sensory experience that has stuck with me quite like that smell.
I will never forget when I visited him about a month before he died, the smell was overwhelming. I still almost get a sort of phantom smell, it literally send chills through me every time. Unfortunately I don’t think I will every be able to fully forget that smell.
Also, I’m so so sorry you also had to experience that. If nothing else I’m thankful that both of our parents can be at peace from that suffering now.
@@littlefella2449 Thank you for your kind words. I to am sorry for what you experienced with your dad. Although the smell of dying can be horrid, I am so thankful for the opportunity to spend those last days with her.
cm
You can't smell "death" until after a person dies and the body begins to decompose. What you were smelling was the increase in toxins in her body because her liver failed to filter them.
I think you're overplaying the mass hysteria angle, nurses sometimes pass out and more so when exposed to ammonia on an empty stomach with others nauseous or vomiting around them, they are human and it was a bad day in the OR. But I subscribed, very good work and I see you did everything yourself!
Thanks. I wasn't trying to imply nurses or women are weak which is why I added the part about how people faint quite easily when you've been on your feet for 10 hours and haven't eaten.
And yes ...I do pretty much everything myself, when I do hire someone to help or someone offers it I always credit them unless asked not to.
My wife is an ICU nurse and she has the worst eating habits. They work for entire 12 hour shifts without a break sometimes. Glucose levels get low fast.
How about the defibrillator? The current invoked a chemical reaction??? The bloods were not taken until after she was shocked??
Defibrilator drives a tiny anount of charge throught body, not enought to worry about electochemistry doing chemical reactions
I actually do buy the possibility of the DMSO theory, but not because of Dimethyl Sulfone or Dimethyl Sulfate. There's one more compound that fits the bill a lot better: DMS, or Dimethyl Sulfide.
DMS is one of the metabolites of DMSO, so if someone were to consume or be exposed to a large amount of DMSO, much of it would turn into DMS.
Unlike Dimethyl Sulfone, DMS, which has a boiling point the same temperature as blood, is excreted via the breath, as a vapour, which is why DMS exposure actually /does/ cause the breath to smell like garlic.
DMS vapour exposure's common symptoms are: nausea, vomiting, skin irritation, breathing difficulties, and even loss of consciousness.
Reading over the case it honestly sounds like the original people investigating weren't even aware of this. The available information says they literally looked through the Merck index to try to track down a possible similar compound, and settled on Dimethyl Sulfate because most but not all of the symptoms fit.
You would think someone would have asked her next of kin about some of this...
Oh wow
This is one of my all time favorite medical mysteries. Being on the medical staff during that night must have been crazy.
That transition from the dark camp fire to the blinding white powerpoint page definitely caused a "burning sensation in the face". It still kinda hurts... Thanks for that. :(
Sorry about that, I'll keep that in mind for the future.
@@PeakedInterest Thanks. I'll look forward to that.
No problem. Always feel free to give feedback I'll try incorporate it into future videos
Thank you for including the information about how hysteria was used to silence women back in the day. Appreciate you doing that.
huge fan of the true stories. keep it up, man!
Thanks very much. There will be more
Ive read before that electric current can cause ammonia to decompose - They defibrillated her prior to the exposure.
Thank you for being kind while telling this lady's story. ♡
I work with someone with really bad breath who is on a Keto diet and she just stinks in general so this explains a lot. She was recently diagnosed with cancer and she’s been on the Keto diet a long time I just think it’s very dangerous to keep your body in ketosis like that.
What is the smell like?
I think that’s just the keto diet smell, they smell like rotten fish
Ketosis isn't the problem. Her diet is.
The Keto diet is not healthy as a long term diet. Humans are NOT meant to be in ketosis for extended period of time. While it works for people with some health issues, it generally is not recommended.
Halitosis at it's finest!
Chemotoxicity, neurotoxity and keto acidosis could be a cascade effect 🤷♀️
Someone else pointed that out too, I think it's a good catch and very possible
My first thought was severe diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA). Explains the Cheyne-Stokes breathing and fruity breath, as well as the rapid heart rate. I think the rest was probably just mass hysteria.
Great minds
I’ve watched more of the video now, and I think this likely has a combination of explanations. While people often search for the simplest reasons, the human body is rarely so straightforward. Great video 👍🏼
Thank you
Her blood glucose levels would have been checked and would have been very elevated with DKA as well as presence of ketones, this was never mentioned :/
Mass hysteria does not lead to avascular necrosis of the hips. You know nothing.
Fascinating stuff. One thing that I would ask, that maybe you could answer - the chemo that the woman was having, if she was indeed receiving any. Could the chemicals used in chemotherapy, mixed with the toxic build up in her body have had any effect? Not that this would be necessary of course for your theory (which I consider to be brilliant, frankly) to be true, its just something that occurs to me. Brilliant work.
I've been thinking about this case for a long time now. Can we take a minute to think about this? When Gloria's blood was removed there were beige or tan particles/crystals/flakes in her blood. One of the staff members who was infected, Dr. Gorchynski, also had the same particles in her blood when she was examined at another hospital. Her symptoms included trouble breathing, double vision, full body tremors that were notably painful. Another nurse claimed to experience having trouble with her hearing and aphasia. I forget her name, but I don't think it's known if the same thing was found in her blood. The blood samples revealed that there was a reduced amount of cholinesterase in the blood. That is something that happens when someone is exposed to pesticides. If you look at the symptoms of organophosphate poisoning, it does kinda line up with the symptoms presented. But not 100%. The things that stood out to me were the double vision explained by Doctor Gorchynski, and the other nurse's symptoms. Everybody's different and does react to things in their own way tho, so having some uncommon side effects isn't too crazy of a theory. So, let me wrap this up. My theory is that Gloria had been exposed to Parathion methyl, also known as O,O-Dimethyl O-4-nitrophenyl phosphorothioate. Either that or somehow a chemical reaction in her body was quite literally producing it or something very similar to it. Parathion methyl can cause heart problems, kidney failure, and SWEAT. When exposed to your skin, Parathion methyl can seep through into your blood stream. She could have been all sweaty and covered in pesticides, causing a garlicy, smell. The renal failure could cause the ammonia smell. I'm not sure how long the chemical is traceable. They could have very well not detected anything after the toxic exposure happened if it had a short halflife. Also, there could have been a huge cover up as to how she got poisoned in the first place, so they tried to make people believe it was mass hysteria, and when that wasnt accepted, they had to make up this crazy DMSO to Dimethyl sulfate. If anybody can prove this theory wrong please correct me
I remember this happening. DMSO2 IS A CHEMICAL. At the Veterans Administration Hospital we worked with DMSO3 with LOTS OF HEAVY VENTILATION. This woman had this in her blood system. The blood draw added an oxygen atom, making it DMSO4- NERVE GAS!!!
Used in WW1
Poor Gloria.how frightening for staff.
I just realized that this channel is small, bruhhhh
It is right now. But hopefully it'll get bigger
@@PeakedInterest yeah well youtube better make you're channel grow lol
Let's hope so ha ha
@@PeakedInterest you have a great channel! keep up the great work! It will launch.😎👀⚖✔
Thanks @Maija's Tarot
I think you're spot on with your hypothesis! The mass hysteria theory never sat well with me; but then I could never work out why it was only a few of the people who worked on her that suffered those strange effects. Your theory pretty much covers all the questions I had. Bravo!
This is THE single most detailed & informative video documentary I've seen with regard to this case. You've done an amazing job explaining chemical reactions to those who may not have a comprehensive chemistry background. I now have a much better & more thorough understanding of the events surrounding this poor woman's death. Still, the fact that there's been no official, actual, concrete explanation provided as to a cause...is mindboggling. For all intents & purposes, however, I think your explanation sounds the most reasonable. Appreciate your work. You just earned a new subscriber.
Like yourself I have a medical background. I spent 25 years working in theatre. 5 years as a scrub nurse and 20 years as an anaesthetic nurse (I live in Scotland, my job title here is different to the one in the USA) I’ve been in several situations where things happen, but the only one’s I see fainting have been medical student’s not prepared to see what a real body is like when opened up for surgery. As a training nurse I soon learned I had to eat breakfast or I’d become ill and feel awful. I can totally agreee with your theory of Keytone Accidosis. Though I was taught that keytones smelled like pear drops ( hard candy sweet). I agree about the Doc’s underlying condition. Cheyne Stoking breathing is someone who’s is dying breathes.
I nearly didnt click, because I'm already familiar with this case. Glad I did, because i got more insight into it. Im still not sure what to believe what happened, but that's why it's still (unofficially) unsolved. Really appreciate the history on hysteria 😊
I think it's good to try and explore cases like these a little and look at why people come to the conclusions they do, the hysteria history was really necessary discussion when you're a male official accusing a group of women of being "hysterical"
@@PeakedInterest definitely understand why the women got offended. Ruling everything unexplainable in women as hysteria really sucks. Was the male official even a medical official or did he just make that statement without any medical knowledge?
The fact that women get offended easily is hysterical, sometimes, sometimes literally...
@@forwardsdrawkcab imagine you have real problems and people brush it off as hysteria and not examine your body...
@@dsembers8865
No, i think it does indicate something is wrong.
I never saw a youtube video this well edited in my entire life! Hope your channel grows fast, you deserve success
Thank you, there are ones with better editing than mine but I always strive to do things better or different with each video.
Just subscribed. I have watched many videos about Gloria Ramirez but just now have I found out she was a cancer patient.
Nobody else mentioned that? That was just very basic research really, I'm surprised others didn't know
@@PeakedInterest The videos were pretty paranormal focused, so I suspect the cancer element would have "ruined" the creepy feel they must have been aiming for. Looking forward to more content from you!
Thanks, most of these stories are pretty interesting in their own right so I don't think you really need to put a spin on it, it also feels a little disrespectful to misreport the suffering of another person, but that's probably why I'm a smaller channel than these others.
You're so right about the Ketones. As I T1 diabetic, before I was diagnosed and really sick, I had very high ketones! Fruity taste in the mouth, blood becoming acidic! Really well researched!
Thanks Sadie. I've done a keto diet before so when I read the case it immediately sprung out at me
This case is on my mind quite often. Glad to see an in depth analysis. It's such a bizarre case and I always wonder if there will ever be another
It was definitely a strange case and interesting to examine
You do really nice deep dives on interesting topics, keep up the great work! I don't see much to improve on, you're going to grow big sooner or later. :) Looking forward to future videos!
Thank you so much. That's very kind, but there are always ways to improve and do things differently.
Holy shit if I were one of those doctors and one of my friends dropped I would actually laugh uncontrollably, look at everyone cracking up with tears in my eyes
“It’s airborne” and proceed to die lmao
Yeah, I've seen Outbreak and The Walking Dead. That's how this crap starts.
You’d laugh?? Nah I would just run out of there and out of the hospital
@@maria-melek well if I was a doctor of course and wasn’t allowed to go anywhere. But my humor is like a strong cup of coffee. Honestly I probably would laugh my ass off for a few seconds about it
edgy
This comment SENT ME 😭😂
Firstly, Women , especially in the 80’s made up nearly 85% of the medical workforce, although that percentage is female saturated &reflects 4 levels of nursing care and admin staff however in this case we know she also had at least one female doctor. So im not sure what their goal in addressing it was/is. Secondly, saying, only Women (insert statement here) is only remarkable if you are going to tell us how many females and how many males worked on/near her. If there were 30 female workers and 2 males it does not surprise me Women were the only ones effected. You add in the first nurse became ill within minutes I would be curious to know if an actual doctor ever touched her or if it was only nurses as they don’t get the option to not handle a patient .
I love the different styles to the first and second half. Super informative, I’m finding fairly easy to follow, and understand. Would absolutely love to see more of this style content. Though I can appreciate the amount of time and effort that must go into each one!
i know this is serious but this just feels so much like an scp lmao
Yeah 🗿
Oh my gosh it does!
It does to be honest
Next thing we know the sun is red and *_come in the sun it’s nice and warm_*
@@Eosinophyllis suddenly a creepy old corpse man covered in black goo yoinks you into another dimension
@@briiickiii3356 radical Larry at it again
Your channel is inspiring and criminally underrated. I hope to start back at my own channel soon, doing written scripted content in an attempt to try my hand at more analytical and discussion oriented content, so seeing another small(ish) channel doing something of this high quality really inspires me.
I hope to see more of this type of content, these sorts of mystery videos are my go-to late night binge content. And you do it exceptionally well.
Thank you that's one of the biggest compliments I've ever received, please feel free to send an email or message on Twitter or Facebook it you want any help or advice. Im always happy to help out smaller channels
@@PeakedInterest Hey man, im just saying the truth honestly. And thank you, I love connecting with channels that I respect so that'd be petty awesome I wont lie.
Always feel free. My DMS are always open on Twitter and I answer anyone who messages.
So then why doesn't everyone who dies of kidney failure or suffers ketoacidosis exhibit these symptoms or effects? There has to be another variable in there to explain why only her body seemed to produce such potent toxins that it sickened nearby people. Great video though
Exactly the mass hysteria is typical government bs.
I think, mostly because you paused your film and 'invited us in', that this my favorite episode. Thank you for that.
I'm not sure what you mean but I am interested in what you say ?
@@PeakedInterest I think they were talking about how you explained to us directly like you were talking to us face to face
I really like how this video is more in depth on the matter rather than telling it as a story and then tell their theory and quickly brush it off like old news.
This video is alot more research and documents a lot more detail to figure out the who, what, what where, when and why.
“Each time, [conversion disorder] is more pronounced on women than men. Nobody knows why”.
My friend, you answered the “why” within the statement itself!
I don't have a theory, but I wonder if her chemo might have been platinum based. If so, platinum is used as a catalyst in a huge number of chemical reactions. Perhaps it, and the many catalysts human bodies make teamed up to make something harmful out of DMSO or something else and then broke it down after death into something innocuous.
BTW, we used to use DMSO on our horses for minor injuries. When I applied it, I felt like I was tasting and smelling something foul that wasn't garlic like. For some reason when I was a little kid I sniffed a vacuum cleaner hose and that particular hose would be a 95% match for DMSO taste/smell. Kind of plasticy and something else not garlic. I think the reason transdermal patches may contain DMSO is it was supposed to be good at carrying other chemicals through the skin.
I've heard that taking too much selenium can cause a garlic taste (and maybe smell) and toxicity. There was a research paper, perhaps in the 1980's, that suggested a link between high selenium levels in drinking water and lower cancer rates. I think the book "Life Extension" in the '80's mentioned it. Maybe she was taking too much it in hope of treating her cancer.
Anyway, this was an interesting and well done video, thanks.
You're right on transdermal patches (I think I mentioned it in the video) they're commonly DMSO patches.
Thanks for the compliment
I think you are on to something. There is no discussion of her chemo regimen or the last time she received it. We also do not know what drugs she was taking. Prescribed or illegal. The hysteria angle is complete BS. Always a possibility that they did find the cause of all this, but are covering it up for reasons we dont know...
Hysteria and one or maybe two of the medical personnel I might could understand but definitely no way would 24 medical personnel have been affected by Hysteria. With their training and experience it is highly unlikely that any had experienced any sort of Hysteria. That theory is the biggest load of bull crap I have ever heard, and I should know. I, a female, spent over 30 years working in pathology, working mainly with other females, often performing autopsies, and none of us ever had any sort of Hysteria over a case.
That's idiotic. Imagine saying that just because you do well in high-stress situations you can never develop mental illness. A conversion disorder is a DISORDER. Doesn't matter how healthy, well adjusted or accustomed to the job you are. It can still affect you in the right circumstances.
The entire video I was thinking the same thing as his theory, as I am in kidney failure and on dialysis, getting a transplant in a week, I know how harsh meds are to the kidneys, I’m sure chemo likely slowly destroyed them and the fact that her urinary tract was blocked makes me think she had been building up toxins unknowingly for a while and then started to go septic and by the time she was at the hospital it seemed like she had gone septic and their really wasn’t anything anyone could do.
I do believe that the correct answer is the one provided by the lab. Despite it not having left chemical traces during testing, the quantity of dmsa needed to have a reaction is incredibly small. It's a very potent nerve agent and the fact that the symptoms they exprienced was so "mild" for a lack of a better term, shows they were expose to an incredibly small dose. Ammonia poisoning on the other, would have definitely left traces in their systems as you need a much more significant dose to get the symptoms they had. The other thing that makes the first theory likely is that the trigger was not the blood vial itself but the use of the defibrilators. Electricity is often used to bond or seperate chemicals together. So due to the cocktail of medications, the pure oxygen she was given and then the electricity all created an unfortunate chain of event. The 2 people closest to Ramirez after she was given defibrilation were the 2 people the most affected, which is consistent as the dose of dmsa they would have received would be greater than the other people in the room who only experienced very mild symptoms in comparison. And while this is nothing short of an anti-miracle, it's still the most likely and interesting theory.
I remember reading about this case in the newspaper. It was a short article buried on the 8th or 9th page but I was fascinated, even though details were sparse. The next day the follow up article was even shorter but did identify the victim as Gloria Ramirez. I never found another piece of written information. It was like it never happened. Then about 10 years later, Unsolved Mysteries did a segment which was mostly a recap without much new information. Still, I was fascinated. At that time the internet was in it's infancy so a search of available information provided nothing new. Thank you for creating this episode as this story still fascinates me. The answers lie within Gloria's tissues, I'm certain of that. I'm hoping that there are surviving samples stored for safe-keeping until the truth is discovered. Such a bizarre incident! Add to that the staff were diagnosed with hysteria and things take a very sharp turn into conspiracy town. Thinking out loud here but I wonder if any of the researchers created computer models of her tissues.