Toxic Splatter
Suicidal Japanese farmer hurls his gutful of pesticides, sprays the medics and sickens 54 people with toxic fumes before departing this vale of tears. Revolting, yet fascinating. His chloropicrin chunder took down docs, nurses and patients rooms away. Yomiuri Shimbun:
Fifty-four people were sickened at a hospital by toxic fumes from the vomit of a man who apparently attempted suicide by swallowing pesticide Wednesday night, police said.
The toxic gas, believed to be a vaporized form of liquid pesticide, came from a 34-year-old farmer from Koshi, Kumamoto Prefecture, who was undergoing treatment at the Japanese Red Cross Kumamoto Hospital emergency room in Kumamoto at about 11 p.m.
Doctors, nurses, visiting patients and their families who inhaled the toxic fumes suffered pain in their eyes and throat. Ten of them were admitted to the Red Cross hospital and other hospitals. One of the 10, a 72-year-old woman, suffered breathing difficulty and was in serious condition Thursday.
The man was later confirmed dead from pesticide poisoning.
According to the police, rescue workers and the hospital, the pesticide was chloropicrin, a substance designated as toxic under law.
At about 10 p.m. Wednesday, the farmer’s wife placed an emergency call, reporting her husband had collapsed after swallowing pesticide. Rescue workers found the man near the entrance to his house. There was distinctive pungent odor at the scene, and the man was sent to the emergency room at the hospital.
The man vomited while having his stomach pumped, and odorous toxic gas spread through the emergency room. Thirty-one hospital staff members, including doctors, and 23 outpatients and their families were sickened. About 20 of them were in treatment rooms, and others were in the waiting lounge.
Hospital staff who were not sickened evacuated the sickened people to the lobby and provided intravenous drips and oxygen.
The 10 hospitalized people included the doctor who treated the man, the man’s 36-year-old wife and his 60-year-old mother.
The woman listed in serious condition was about 10 meters away from the man at the time of the incident. She had gone to the hospital for treatment of kidney failure and pneumonia.
Among 44 people who suffered minor health problems were two 1-year-old babies and two 3-year-old children.
…
Seishi I, head of the emergency center, said Thursday the hospital was not informed of the correct name of the pesticide when it admitted the man. Because rescue workers said it was picrin, not chloropicrin, the hospital staff could not find the proper treatment guidelines on the Japan Poison Information Center network.
“If we had known what kind of pesticide it was, we could have evacuated other patients in advance,” the emergency room head said.
Either that or pump his stomach in the parking lot.
Topics: Japan
Posted by Jules Crittenden at 11:56 pm on Thursday, May 22, 2008
3 Responses to “Toxic Splatter”
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May 23rd, 2008 at 2:33 am
I’ve had that feeling from eating sushi.
May 23rd, 2008 at 12:46 pm
Jeff: That is a feature, not a bug.
May 23rd, 2008 at 2:34 pm
Maybe he was Godzilla’s lovechild?