The ‘Toxic Lady’ of Riverside

·35 min·2 clips

Twenty-three of the 37 ER staff reported burning faces, breathing trouble, headache, nausea, vomiting, and tremors.

1. Unsolved Mysteries focuses on Gloria Ramirez and the Riverside General Hospital case in Riverside, California. 2. Dorothy and Drita host the episode and frame the story as a strange hospital incident that immediately drew attention. 3. The episode asks what was happening to Gloria Ramirez, and whether the ER staff illness came from a chemical exposure or another explanation. 4. Gloria Ramirez was 31 years old, had two children, and arrived on February 19, 1994 with irregular heartbeat and shortness of breath. 5. She was hooked up to a ventilator and given an intravenous infusion on the way to Riverside General Hospital. 6. The hosts say she had late-stage cervical cancer and was dying when she reached the emergency room. 7. Staff noticed an oily sheen on her body, a fruity garlic-like smell, and blood that smelled like ammonia. 8. Susan Cain handed the blood sample to Julia Grushensky, who noticed strange manila-colored particles in it. 9. Grushensky fainted, left the trauma bay, and later reported muscle spasms and apnea after waking up. 10. A third nurse also fainted, and the ER evacuated patients to the parking lot while doctors sealed the area. 11. The episode says 23 of the 37 ER staff developed symptoms including burning faces, headache, nausea, vomiting, uncontrollable tremors, and trouble breathing. 12. Gloria Ramirez was pronounced dead after about 40 minutes in the Riverside emergency room. 13. The hosts say a hazmat team removed her body and that her autopsy required hazmat suits a week later. 14. California's Department of Health and Human Services sent two investigators, and the hospital search looked for chemical leaks and sewer gas. 15. The investigators did not conclude that toxic fumes caused the staff symptoms, and the episode says their explanation was an episode of mass hysteria. 16. Dorothy and Drita push back hard on that label, saying the staff were clinical professionals and that the conclusion felt denigrating. 17. The coroner performed three autopsies, then asked Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to help examine the case. 18. Patrick Grant and the lab used a mass spectrometer and found painkillers plus dimethylsulfone, then discussed DMSO and dimethyl sulfate. 19. The tone is argumentative and skeptical, with the hosts repeatedly challenging the mass hysteria explanation and the product approval process. 20. Listeners who like forensic mysteries and medical explanations will get the most from this episode, while people avoiding long debate about pharmaceuticals may skip it.

As heard by us

A hospital mystery that stays strange because the evidence never settles cleanly.

Gloria Ramirez is framed as a 31-year-old mother of two who arrives at Riverside General Hospital on February 19, 1994 with an irregular heartbeat and shortness of breath, already very sick with late-stage cervical cancer.

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Why you'd press play

You want the Riverside hospital mystery, not a neat retelling.

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