Suicidal Man's Toxic Vomit Sickens 54 In Japanese Hospital - Asahi Shinbun

KUMAMOTO--A suicidal farmer who consumed a highly volatile agrochemical vomited the substance at a hospital here Wednesday night, generating poisonous chlorine gas that sickened 54 people, including doctors, nurses and patients. The 34-year-old farmer from Koshi, Kumamoto Prefecture, later died at the Japanese Red Cross Kumamoto Hospital.

At 10:50 p.m. Wednesday, doctors at the hospital's emergency center inserted a tube down the man's nasal cavity to siphon out the pesticide, according to the hospital. He suddenly threw up.

Fumes from the vomit sickened about 30 doctors, nurses and other hospital workers at the emergency center. Patients being treated or in the waiting room, including three children aged between 1 and 3, and their attendants were also poisoned by the gas. Ten of those sickened received medical treatment.

Five suffered from breathing difficulties and other symptoms and were sent to different hospitals in the city. They included a 72-year-old woman treated for pneumonia at the emergency center, the farmer's 60-year-old mother and 36-year-old wife, and a female intern attending the farmer.

EDIT

http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200805220245.html

If the man would have lived the poison would have crippled him for life. And while I am very disappointed with how the farmer did it. (Why not try something great like trying to swim across the ocean or brave nature or climb mountains?) I do not agree with the actions they took...


Also when toxic substances were used it was the responsibility of the hospital to isolate the person. It was lucky more people did not die...

... but I asked a nursing friend of mine this question a few years
ago and got the following answer (albeit paraphrased from memory):

"When a person is brought in by ambulance suffering from poisoning
(for example), the A&E staff response is to address *that* problem
not start entering into moral/ethical/philosophical discussions
about the possible causes and interactions with the "rights of the
individual". The time for the latter questions is after the patient
has either stabilised or died. Our job is to treat a sick person,
not to get caught up in a detective story about the possible reasons
behind the event as such a delay could not only prove fatal to the
patient but could also be based on inaccurate information."

(My emphasis)

Her personal view was that a suicidal person should ensure that the
method they use (together with the location and the timing) should
be such that there is no "risk" of being brought into a hospital if
people are going to debate "right to choose" arguments.

I wouldn't fault the Japanese A&E staff for this event but, as ever,
YMMV.

:shrug: