Gloria Ramirez was admitted to riverside general hospital, February 19, 1994 around 8:15pm (Ryan, Bergara). She was reportedly talking slow and incoherently, rapidly breathing, and her blood pressure was dropping quickly. Maureen Welch, a respiratory therapist on duty that night, reports the only weird thing about Ramirez was her age, that usually people with these symptoms were elderly (Richard Stone, Discovery magazine). She was a 31-year-old woman who had recently been diagnosed with cervical cancer.

Ramirez had an “oily sheen”, a “fruity garlicky” smell coming from her, and the medical staff found crystals in her blood. Everyone was baffled by these random conditions but before they could look further into it, the staff started dropping like flies. They would report feeling dizzy, passing out and apnea. Welch reports, “I remember hearing someone scream. Then I woke up. I couldn’t control the movement of my limbs.”

Medical resident Julie Gorchynski was maybe in the worst condition of all. She stayed in intensive care, experienced hepatitis, pancreatitis, and avascular Necrosis (a medical condition where there’s not enough blood flowing to bone tissue so it begins to die), using crutches for months after hospitalization.