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Sugar Cookie

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A Russian woman reportedly died after a routine procedure when hospital workers mistakenly injected her with a drug used to preserve dead bodies.

Ekaterina Fedyaeva, 28, underwent surgery last month at a hospital in Ulyanovsk, in western Russia, to have ovarian cysts removed, according to state-owned television station RT.

During the March 15 operation, however, medical personnel gave Fedyaeva what should have been saline, but turned out to be formalin, which contains formaldehyde, according to Russia’s Tass news agency. Formalin is highly toxic if ingested, and just one ounce can kill an adult.

Hospital staff realized the mistake two minutes later and tried to wash out the formalin, but it was too late – the embalming fluid was already making its way through her body.

“Mom, I’m dying,” Fedyaeva later told her mother, who thought she wasn’t being serious at the time, according to RT. Fedyaeva was rushed to Moscow’s A.I. Burnazyan Federal Medical and Biophysical Center where doctors administered multiple drugs in an attempt to counteract the formalin, according to Tass, but they were unable to save her.

At one point, doctors brought her to back to consciousness and Fedyaeva’s mother said she opened her eyes and whispered to her, according to RT. In the end, however, Fedyaeva’s organs started to shut down and she died Thursday.

News of the horrific death quickly spread, and headlines about a woman being “embalmed alive” soon appeared on international news sites.

The minister of health, family and social well-being in Ulyanovsk, Rashid Abdullov, expressed “sincere condolences” to Fedyaeva’s family.

Abdullov said the mix-up at the hospital happened because the medical staff “did not read the name on the vial,” according to RT.

The head physician at the hospital where Fedyaeva received the fatal dose has been fired, according to local news reports.
http://q13fox.com/2018/04/09/russian-woman-embalmed-alive-after-hospital-mix-up/
 
I saw this on the FB group and commented that this would be near impossible to do. Formalin is not kept in IV bags or vials. It's kept in large boxes with spickets, I use formalin ever single day. It's never any where in which a patient or operating room would have access to it. The OR comes to the lab to fill formalin containers for tissue placement so unless they opened the container and threw it at the woman, I just don't see how this could happen.

But, that being said, it is Russia...

I'm around specimens day in and out and you nailed it. Outside of prefilled cups and the spickets in the lab there are no other places in the facility I'm based where you will find Formalin except for when its being brought into the facility and taken out of the facility. Hell our morgue is attached to our lab.

Shit in American healthcare everyone involved in a fuck up of this magnitude would likely be fired at a minimum.
 
https://www.cdc.gov/infectioncontrol/guidelines/disinfection/sterilization/other-methods.html

Low-temperature steam with formaldehyde is used as a low-temperature sterilization method in many countries, particularly in Scandinavia, Germany, and the United Kingdom. The process involves the use of formalin, which is vaporized into a formaldehyde gas that is admitted into the sterilization chamber. A formaldehyde concentration of 8-16 mg/l is generated at an operating temperature of 70-75°C. The sterilization cycle consists of a series of stages that include an initial vacuum to remove air from the chamber and load, followed by steam admission to the chamber with the vacuum pump running to purge the chamber of air and to heat the load, followed by a series of pulses of formaldehyde gas, followed by steam. Formaldehyde is removed from the sterilizer and load by repeated alternate evacuations and flushing with steam and air. This system has some advantages, e.g., the cycle time for formaldehyde gas is faster than that for ETO and the cost per cycle is relatively low. However, ETO is more penetrating and operates at lower temperatures than do steam/formaldehyde sterilizers. Low-temperature steam formaldehyde sterilization has been found effective against vegetative bacteria, mycobacteria, B. atrophaeus and G. stearothermophilusspores and Candida albicans947-949.

Formaldehyde vapor cabinets also may be used in healthcare facilities to sterilize heat-sensitive medical equipment950. Commonly, there is no circulation of formaldehyde and no temperature and humidity controls. The release of gas from paraformaldehyde tablets (placed on the lower tray) is slow and produces a low partial pressure of gas. The microbicidal quality of this procedure is unknown951.

Reliable sterilization using formaldehyde is achieved when performed with a high concentration of gas, at a temperature between 60o and 80°C and with a relative humidity of 75 to 100%.

Studies indicate that formaldehyde is a mutagen and a potential human carcinogen, and OSHA regulates formaldehyde. The permissible exposure limit for formaldehyde in work areas is 0.75 ppm measured as a 8-hour TWA. The OSHA standard includes a 2 ppm STEL (i.e., maximum exposure allowed during a 15-minute period). As with the ETO standard, the formaldehyde standard requires that the employer conduct initial monitoring to identify employees who are exposed to formaldehyde at or above the action level or STEL. If this exposure level is maintained, employers may discontinue exposure monitoring until there is a change that could affect exposure levels or an employee reports formaldehyde-related signs and symptoms269, 578. The formaldehyde steam sterilization system has not been FDA cleared for use in healthcare facilities.


I have no clue what containers formalin comes in for Russian Healthcare facilities but I'd caution anyone to keep preconceptions (based on US standards) from keeping an open mind about how this could have occurred.

Obviously it's grossly negligent regardless, but might not be such a stretch as we're all assuming.
 
Hospital staff realized the mistake two minutes later and tried to wash out the formalin, but it was too late – the embalming fluid was already making its way through her body.

“Mom, I’m dying,” Fedyaeva later told her mother, who thought she wasn’t being serious at the time, according to RT



Holy fucking shit. She knew it was happening the whole fucking time...
 
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