A History of Poisons

by Jean Henry Mead

The discovery of poisons occurred when prehistoric tribes foraged for food; an often deadly experience, or what would later be known as Russian roulette. Primitive poison experts were people to be reckoned with, and they either served as tribal sorcerers or were burned at the stake, depending on whom they practiced.

Our first written accounts of poisonings are from the Roman era over 2,000 years ago, although the Chinese, Egyptians, Sumerians and East Indians had practiced the art of poisoning for centuries. Cleopatra allegedly used her slaves and prisoners as guinea pigs while searching for the perfect suicidal poison. She tried belladonna and found that it killed quickly but was too painful for her own personal demise. She also tried an early form of strychnine but it caused facial distortions at death, so she chose instead the bite of an asp, a small African cobra, which produced a quick and painless death.

Those in some cultures were so afraid of being poisoned that they consumed gradual amounts of various poisons on a regular basis to build up their immunity to them. Dorothy L. Sayers, in her book, Strong Poisons, had her villain doing just that, as did Alexander Dumas in The Count of Monte Cristo.

Food tasters were employed by most royals. If they survived, after sampling each dish, the king would consent to eat his meal. The job must have paid well, or a steady stream of prisoners were employed against their will.

The use of poison-tipped arrows during the Renaissance period paved the way for modern pharmacology. Drugs such as atropine, digitalis and ouabain evolved from plant concoctions used for killing both people and animals. And we now know that thousands of people are killed each year with pharmaceutical prescriptions.

The Roman Borgia family of the fifteen century was a dynasty of poisoners, according to Serita Deborah Stevens in her book, Deadly Doses. If Casare Borgia were offended by something someone said, the unsuspecting person was invited to attend a party and would leave seriously ill or in the back of a mortician’s wagon. Borgia's poison of choice was arsenic, the favorite of assassins of that era.

Bernard Serturner isolated morphine from opium in 1805, but the formal study of poisons began with Claude Bernard, a physiologist, who researched the effects of curare, a South American poison the Indians used to tip their arrows. Chemical analysis could detect most mineral compounds by 1830, although not organic poisons. By 1851, a Belgian chemist discovered the technique of extracting alkaloid poisons while investigating a homicide caused by nicotine, a very deadly poison. Jean Servais Stas was the first to isolate nicotine from postmortem tissue.

The use of poison as a means of murder declined when modern methods of detection were perfected and physicians began saving many of its victims.

Hospital Killings

by Jean Henry Mead

Unnecessary hospital deaths equal that of auto accidents, breast cancer and perhaps even strokes. A recent report from Forbes lists the hazards we face while confined to a hospital bed. Between 40,000 and 100,000 patients die every year due to surgical mistakes and drug mix-ups, according to the Center for Disease Control.

Mistakes during surgical procedures include scalpels left in the patient, wrong limbs amputated, excessive bleeding and heart failure. Infected incisions are likely and can be serious because hospital germs are resistant to physician-used antibiotics. Bacteria that thrives in ventilator machines, which help patients breath, frequently cause pneumonia. If water pools in the ventilator’s hoses, bacteria can move from the stomach into the lungs.

Infections are one of the leading causes of patient deaths. One study reported that doctors only wash their hands 44% of the time. If they know they’re being watched, they wash them 61%, a good reason to present your doctor with a bottle of hand sanitizer that you can watch him use.

Dr. Brent James, executive director of Salt Lake City’s Intermountain Institute, said, “The notion that you can train doctors to completely avoid mistakes is just false.” And no one’s immune to those mistakes. In California, Dennis Quaid’s newborn twins were given blood thinners a thousand times the recommended dosage, and comedian Dana Carvey was the victim of botched bypass surgery. Fortunately, all three victims survived.

Evan Falchuk, president of Boston-based Best Doctors, said, “Doctors and nurses spend insufficient time with each patient. Many doctors are seeing between 30 and 40 patients a day.” And because patients outnumber the resources to treat them, hospitals often place people in the wrong wards with nurses and aids untrained to treat their illnesses. Placing patients in the wrong hospital wings invites the spread of airborne infections.

A study by Auburn University concluded that hospitalized patients may get the wrong drug three times out of five, and advised doing away with prescription pads and scribbled doctors' handwriting. Systems that rely on bedside computers are gradually being replaced by wireless tablets or handheld computers. Some hospitals are now using bar codes on patient’s wristbands as well as drug vials to cut down on possible mistakes, which still happen much too often.

Hospital tests can also be dangerous. The problem is that most screenings don't work that well. Many yield false-positive results, which lead to unnecessary, risky treatments. Other tests work, although the results are usually not known in time for patients to take preventative measures.

The National Cancer Institute has been conducting trials to determine whether computerized chest X-rays can reduce deaths caused from smoking by detecting early lung cancers, which are usually found too late. There is also evidence that X-rays and cat scans can cause cancers, themselves.

Evan Falchuck of Best Doctors said that although patients don’t have control of scheduled surgeries, it’s best to be your own advocate. “People want someone to wave a wand and fix the problem,” he said, but “if you’re sick, the best way to avoid getting sicker is take charge of your care.”

And I might add, several ounces of prevention are worth a pound of hospital cure. Most illnesses can be prevented by avoiding stimulants, getting 15 minutes of early or late sun daily, exercising, eating right and getting 7-9 hours of sleep. (Growing your own food would help, if you buy the right organic seeds.)