RIVERSIDE, Calif. -- The "mystery fumes" that felled emergency room attendants as they treated a dying cancer patient last February were most likely the result of a bizarre chain of chemical reactions in the patient's blood that produced an agent that has been used in chemical warfare, officials say.
The potentially lethal toxin, which caused six people to be hospitalized, was created by an unusual confluence of chemical reactions that began inside the body of Gloria Ramirez, according to chemists at the renown Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
"There are some emergency room personnel who could be very lucky to be alive," said Riverside County Coroner Scotty Hill, who released the report yesterday.
The findings, which scientists say may still be amended after peer review, appears to resolve a baffling medical mystery that generated worldwide notoriety.
While such an episode has not been previously documented, scientists now worry that it could occur again because it probably was prompted by the use of a popular home remedy for aches and pains.
If the scenario actually occurred, the Lawrence Livermore report stated, it "might be a condition for more widespread concern" in other hospitals around the country.
County officials said they no longer believe the attendants in the Riverside General Hospital emergency room succumbed to mass hysteria the night of Feb. 19, as the state Department of Health Services previously concluded.
Dr. Julie Gorchynski, the most seriously injured of the victims and who sustained permanent knee damage, said she found the fumes explanation plausible.
"At least it puts the mass-hysteria [conclusion] to rest. That wasn't doing much for my reputation," she said. "I always knew it was a chemical exposure to something. . . ."
But the attorney for the Ramirez family -- which, like Dr. Gorchynski and other emergency room doctors, has sued the county -- said he remained skeptical.
"The coroner's office is still saying she died of cervical cancer, but now they're saying she created a chemical warfare agent that didn't hurt her," said lawyer Ron Schwartz. "That doesn't make sense to me."