This happened in my hometown but were pretty far from La but in the inland empire

One of the saddest parts about this case was that Gloria’s children were subsequently bullied at school as a result of the sensationalized news stories about their dead mother. Other kids spread rumors that they came from a filthy household, that their mother was a meth addict, that their mother was a mutant, that their family was dangerous, etc. I can’t imagine losing your mother at a young age in such a horrific way, only to be teased and ostracized for it.

You know you're in a bad situation when anyone even near you pukes, vomits, and goes into convulsions within minutes.

I was in the ER that night. I was working as a EMT just starting my career. To get to the ER via ambulance was down a ramp to the ER doors. people where running up the ramp as I was outside doing paperwork. I have zero idea if anything toxic was going on with Gloria but the air in the ER was pungent and gritty. That's the only way I can think to describe it. I suffered no side affects but clearly remember that night. Your analysis is spot on, well done.

Please remember that this was a real person that went through this horrific event. Rest in peace Gloria. Your ordeal is over.

Not only did psychiatrists once believe hysteria only affected females, they believed that it was CAUSED BY female anatomy, namely the uterus. The word "hysteria" comes from the Greek word "hustera," meaning "womb." It is from this root word that we also get "hysterectomy." It was once believed that hysterectomy was a legitimate treatment for hysteria.

Ah yes, classic "hysteria" causing seizures and necrosis.

That statement made by the state had my blood boiling. ‘Mass hysteria’ should never be attributed to something like this among trained medical professionals, female or not. I’m glad they fought it.

I just can't quite buy the mass hysteria theory when these doctors are faced with critical emergencies on a daily basis including severe trauma victims and don't all collapse into heart arrhythmic unconscious states. I definitely think the ketoacidiosis theory holds weight, but I somehow also think this would have been considered and ruled out by the medical professionals. Though things do get overlooked so it's possible.

This case has always fascinated me but I feel so bad for Gloria. Had to suffer through and die from cancer and is remembered for this.

I'm curious as to why the ambulance team was unaffected when transporting Gloria. Surely they'd gotten an IV and such started...

As soon as you said "blocked urinary tract" I said "ketoacidosis with excessive ammonia present in blood " so same theory as you; just needed the one piece that was missing.

My mother used DMSO for carpel tunnel pain in the 70's. It DEFINITELY leaves a noticable garlic smell to the breath.

I remember when this happened. This was a very confusing story and the news programs NEVER followed up. Thank you for this. That poor woman's family was vilified and they had to plead for privacy while they dealt with her death.

State: “MAsS HysTeRIa” Good thing that woman sued.

I arrived at a location about the same time EMS arrived. A middle aged man was unresponsive. After they worked on him I assisted loading him and he projectile vomited like a volcano. It was black, mixed with blood and got on us. Immediately we all felt a burning sensation, eye irritation and breathing issues. Another deputy met me in the hospital and told me they found a bottle of commercial grade pipe acid. Still have slight scars 20 years later.

I remember My dad getting a prescription for something, and it turned into Aspirin in his stomach causing him to be in the hospital for about 8 days. He was allergic to Aspirin. The thing that made Me angry about it was the doctor knew He was allergic to aspirin prior to prescribing this drug.

As someone who spilled 100% DMSO outside a fume hood (lab setting) I can confirm that it does smell like garlic..... However I did not pass out cleaning it up😎

I really appreciate you calling out the sexist roots of “hysteria.” Honestly psychology was such a joke in its infancy (buut I mean, what field of study wasn’t tho? lol)

My mother in-law worked for a doctor during this incident and it was known fact that some drug activity was going on behind closed doors. Gloria also went across the border for treatment for her cancer and became and sick when she came back and her family called for a ambulance. The hospital was closed and demolished shorty after this investigation. My mother in-law and a lot of her friends were told not to talk about anything about drugs. Also Gloria was buried in a sealed infectious bag.

Amine isn't a chemical but a functional group. You do not call something specifically ester, nor hydroxyl as they are all ubiquitous functional groups. It would be like calling an animal with feet, a foot.

I had heard variations of this woman's story but never got the details that I wanted. This video is an unexpected godsend!! You, my good sir, have earned my subscription.

came from the most radioactive man video, then watched the dutch girls video & now onto this. you have a new subscriber, your videos are truly on the same field as dateline & 60 minutes. i’m so impressed by the quality of your videos, you deserve so many more subscribers & views to compensate for all the hard work you put into these videos! it does not go unnoticed & unappreciated by us! can’t wait to see more from you in the future

Did the authorities forensically search her home? Understandably, a dying patent might reach out (in desperation) to some very strange stuff. My empathy goes out to all concerned.

This makes the most sense. I suffered ketoacidosis as a child (I was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes at age 2.5 and P-ANCA, a rare kidney disorder not at all related to the diabetes, at age 8). Apparently I had grey, oily skin, fruity-smelling breath, problems urinating and a blood glucose level of over 1000. Although my A1C has gone from 12 to 7 in the past 2 yrs, I still experience strange, fruity-smelling or garlic-tasting breath when my BG is over 300. I've had chemotherapy and am on chemo medication because of my rare kidney disease. I never had weird symptoms like what was explained in the video. So yeah, I think you're spot-on.

Your theory explained a lot, and is very convincing! However, I can't help but wonder if Gloria might have tried some sort of alternative Cancer treatment. A lot of people who can't afford traditional treatment or feel as if their chances of survival are low resort to more unconventional measures. Is it possible that Gloria was self medicating? Were there any experimental treatments that used similar ingredients to meth? Could Gloria have been using meth for palliative care, knowing that she was going to die? She probably wouldn't have told anyone. And if she was buying drugs to ease her suffering, its not unlikely she got a "bad batch" either mixed with or missing specific chemicals. Just a thought, though! As always, great research and presentation.

I remember chemistry back in highschool, everybody hated it except the drug addict

I remember this case because I have used DMSO since the age of 12 when I tore a ligament in my knee. My surgeon was the team doctor for Stanford's football team. He gave me DMSO and had me use it multiple times daily to heal my knee. In one month I was off crutches. Ii healed in less than 3 months. I continued to use it on my arthritic horse's legs. It was magical how it helped my horse. Over the years when I had serious injuries I would use it , but only topically. It would always give me garlic breath. I researched it as an adult and it is used internally as well for serious bladder problems. DMSO is sold in health food stores and is still used by veternarians and some medical people. It reduces inflammation and its effect was discovered accidentally by people who worked with it and saw their arthrutis improve. I believe this woman likely used it in conjunction with something else as if you mix it with something else, it takes the other substance into your bloodstream. The one definite side effect of using it is the garlic breath. It is used internally in the bladder for interstitial cystitis.

Thank you! I remember this case as I live nearby. The last I heard of it was the official mass hysteria dx, and I just didn't buy into that at all. I was a radiographer, accustomed to sights, smells and sounds of trauma rooms and I could not imagine that many trauma personnel passing out hysterically. This was a very good, and fascinating, presentation.

This video must be the only one on this case that is actually detailed and not full of paranormal bs. Great job, got yourself a new subscriber. I really enjoyed the video on the dutch girls going missing in panama too, very informative!

he said the unfound chemical was dimethyl sulfate right? if so, that chemical has a half life of less than 5 minutes, so depending on how long that chemical was in her body, it could have been gone by the point of the test

This literally sounds like an SCP story but whats even scarier, is that this actually freaking HAPPENED. Its one heck of a chemical anomaly that remains unsolved to this day.

Mass Hysteria by itself just sounds absurd in this case. Why would an experienced staff suddenly have symptoms brought on by empathy for a woman in her thirties rather than one in her twenties, or a teenager or child? Why suddenly this one random person? Ridiculous. This is the one theory which I find not the least bit credible; highly insufficient to explain the facts of the case. Ammonia exposure plus the staff being quite overworked, stressed, and hungry/dehydrated is obviously a recipe for symptoms such as they experienced. Women tend to be smaller on average and thus more susceptible to ammonia inhalation. Plus there's socialization: "Does this smell like ammonia to you?" = many female staff members affected.

You neglected to give the best example out there when it comes to chain reaction: If one yawns, the rest yawns!

My first wife was dying of rapid renal failure and beginning to swell up and look grotesque but she didn't become a toxic lady; blood was regularly taken etc... the ammonia smell was ominous, unpleasant, sad...but did not make anyone pass out

This happened the year my daughter was born, we lived only twenty miles from this hospital and I was home all day and very interested in this story. What bothered me most about it was they seemed to want to hush EVERYTHING up from day ONE. I even called a newspaper reporter from a Riverside county paper a few months after it happened, he had done some investigation on the case and he was shut out completely. It has always bothered me. The hospital is in a run down neighborhood and does not have a stellar reputation. I seem to recall the FBI snooping around for a while as well. Mass hysteria...PLEASE PEOPLE!

my wife and I had a cat die of kidney failure (well we put her down, poor baby, only 4 years old and utterly miserable). You could smell her entire body because she could not pee out her toxicity.

how come this channel has so little views? i could have sworn this could be one of those channels that get a million views per video.

really interesting, thanks! - I don’t believe hysteria, and that’s bc after I became ill in 2009, I had many many doctors tell me that I wasn’t sick, it was psychological, I was just fat, and I was a hypochondriac. Finally I found a doctor who took me seriously and ran a bunch of tests and diagnosed me with a 1 in 1 million rare disorder. Since that one doctor took me seriously, I got the “Not Crazy” stamp on my file, and all subsequent doctors took me seriously, and I’ve subsequently gotten 4 more diagnoses (that cluster together). Objective proof, blood tests and nervous system tests prove these disorders, and the treatment works. The main disease was in my blood the entire time, but my blood tests were always “perfect” because nobody ever tested for that specific auto-antibody. “Nothing there” usually means “nobody looked in the right place.” When there’s a mystery involving a man, the reaction is: Huh that’s mysterious. When there’s a mystery involving a woman, it’s: Oh yeah that b* is crazy.

when you said she had a fruity smell in her mouth early in the video I remembered ketones but forgot the name for them, and then when you said she had kidney failure and that build up waste products everything clicked. very interesting story!

problems with your theory: - medical stuff know ketosis. and ketoacidosis. - the amount of ammonia needed for a 'burning sensation' and all the other syptoms, just by breathing in some air near the patient, would meant that the patient had enough ammonia in her blood to basically disolve her... but in all seriousness, ammonia is pretty effectively transformed by the body into urea. Kidney failure would result in high amounts of urea.

I am in nursing school and in the beginning when you were telling the story the first thing that popped into my head was ketoacidosis. All of the signs and symptoms match up perfectly with it.

Thank you so much for covering this in such depth. I've seen several other KZfaqrs cover this subject and nowhere do they mention she had cancer - which is a pretty damn big thing!

Came for the story because it fascinates me and has since I was a teen (My mom refuses to mix medications/herbal remedies without express medical permission. When I asked why, she pointed me to the story of the “garlic lady”), stayed for the callout on the sexism behind mass hysteria.

I don’t know how this channel isn’t bigger, it’s so interesting and well presented

How is this a small channel? I've watched a few videos now and the quality of the editing, commentary and analysis is phenomenal! The way you present this case is engaging and informative. I hope you get more views soon, you deserve it! 😊

My Mother was diagnosed with terminal Liver Cancer, around a week before her death, I could literally smell the stench of death as it consumed her. It is a unforgettable, unforgiving odor that, once you smell it, it's no mistaking what it is.

This is THE single most detailed & informative video documentary I've seen with regard to this case. You've done an amazing job explaining chemical reactions to those who may not have a comprehensive chemistry background. I now have a much better & more thorough understanding of the events surrounding this poor woman's death. Still, the fact that there's been no official, actual, concrete explanation provided as to a cause...is mindboggling. For all intents & purposes, however, I think your explanation sounds the most reasonable. Appreciate your work. You just earned a new subscriber.

I remember hearing about this story, but never the details. Just the "Toxic Lady."

I do agree with the ammonia theory, but has anyone looked into the cream combined with ammonia and the effects of that? I think it's both the cream and ammonia causing a reaction like bleach and ammonia

I can only imagine what Gloria went thorough if people were getting ill just from a tiny pinhole in the body!

I love the different styles to the first and second half. Super informative, I’m finding fairly easy to follow, and understand. Would absolutely love to see more of this style content. Though I can appreciate the amount of time and effort that must go into each one!

My wife is an ICU nurse and she has the worst eating habits. They work for entire 12 hour shifts without a break sometimes. Glucose levels get low fast.

huge fan of the true stories. keep it up, man!

Very well researched and presented. I’d always been curious about this case and you broke it down beautifully. Thanks for your work.

That transition from the dark camp fire to the blinding white powerpoint page definitely caused a "burning sensation in the face". It still kinda hurts... Thanks for that. :(

Dude these videos are such high quality, i couldn't believe when i saw that you only had 13k subscribers. Keep doing these videos and youll get to the top.

My new favorite thing is coming upon such high-quality documentaries / storytelling type channels like yours, definitely following your page!

I've been watching your channel for a while, and it's insane to me that you're still under 100k. the quality of your videos is so much better than anything on TV. you obviously do an incredible amount of research on these topics to get this level of detail in each video. I (and LOTS of other people) appreciate your content so much and admire your skill and intelligence.

this is really well made! No BS, no unnecessary commentary, just pure logic and analysis. I live near riverside and this case always spooked me out

You do really nice deep dives on interesting topics, keep up the great work! I don't see much to improve on, you're going to grow big sooner or later. :) Looking forward to future videos!

I feel like when stuff like this happens professionals need to look more into this so that we can take the necessary procautions to avoid this ever happening again.

Finally! Someone who goes into the chemistry or reasons behind this event. Everyone else who I have found that covered this gave it 5 minutes, told a creepy story and left it at that. Without bothering to delve into the reasons behind it

Good video, but I have one point of contention. Having worked with equines that have been treated with large amounts of DMSO, I can tell you that you absolutely CAN smell that stomach turning chemical/garlic odor before you come into physical contact with the substance. Your nose will tell you a horse is on a DMSO treatment regimen the moment you walk into the barn. A veterinarian explained that DMSO is a solvent that permeates tissue, so as it is carried through the body the lungs emit and aerosolize the compound as a the horse exhales. I am a layperson, so I don't profess to understand how this works, that being said, I know you can smell DSMO. It gives me the heaves!

I never saw a youtube video this well edited in my entire life! Hope your channel grows fast, you deserve success

Thank you for including the information about how hysteria was used to silence women back in the day. Appreciate you doing that.

Holly sh*t your channel is amazing. This content is amazing. Your ability to break down chemistry and science and being open minded and still scientific about things, is rare and I very much appreciate it. Not many people can balance that fine line without going too far in one direction. I subscribed right away after watching this. Just the delivery and depth you went into I respect a ton.

I loved how you wrapped this up at the end. Fantastic video on so many levels, thanks and subbed.

I love your channel, man. You've got some great stuff... (As soon as I get employed again, I WILL be a proud Patreon member.)

This case is on my mind quite often. Glad to see an in depth analysis. It's such a bizarre case and I always wonder if there will ever be another

I have just come from the Oushi video. I appreciate your calm and measured presentation style. It is informative, and thought provoking, I will be subscribing as it has impressed me. The lack of sensationalism or hyping up the drama is appreciated. Obviously some kind of chemical combination or interaction of the cells from cancer have produced some kind of chemical or toxic gas substance. Then it dissipated. Perhaps Gloria was exposed to some kind of chemicals over a period of time, or a form of radiation.

I spent 9 months as a dialysis technician and my first thought was the toxic buildup in her tissue explaining basically everything from Gloria. The toxic waste is stored in intramuscular fluid and the bodies cells primarily, while also flowing in the bloodstream. ESRD (end stage renal disease) causes massive fluid buildups in the bodies that primarily pools to the legs and feet, when doing dialysis removing water is the majority of the treatment, it is no less important than removing the wastes like phosphorus and nitrogen. During treatment we monitor changes in blood volume to estimate how much water we have removed. This is done by testing conductivity of the waste water and works because of a coincidence where sodium and urea have almost the same molecular volume so they are assumed to have equal diffusion across the dialyzer membrane (dialyzer is the filter used to remove toxic waste from the blood, it is pressurized to remove the toxins via reverse osmosis). I am simply pointing that out because the wastes and water is not just in the blood, there isn't nearly enough room for all of that in the blood and she could have also had some of that liquid waste buildup seeping through her skin or coming out in sweat. It is extremely important to note that a regular nurse or doctor does NOT have training and knowledge in kidney failure, it is a highly specialized part of medical care and there is not any school program for it. All the training I got came from the company I worked for, and every employee had to do it, from tech to nurse, nutritionist, all the way up to the doctors. We were all lumped together in the same in company classes. Hospitals are also equipped with specialists for kidney related issues, and they are contracted through a kidney care company like mine and not employed by the hospital itself. I am pointing this out because it would be expected for a general ER doctor and nurses to not know what was going on, other than her simply having kidney failure (they wouldn't know the intimate details of what chronic end stage kidney failure entails, they would only be familiar with basic acute kidney failure so that they could recognize it then send that person to a specialist). For the average kidney failure person they would not know they had kidney failure, they would go into the hospital, very sick and dying and not knowing why. Doctors would figure it out based on a blood test, put in a catheter, then send them to kidney care technicians in hospital, and discharge them to a kidney care clinic (like where I worked). There were constant issues with communication between hospital care takers and our clinic, they would do things that while fine for a normal patient, could kill a patient with kidney failure and hospital staff had no idea. For example if someone had diabetes it is common to give them something like orange juice to raise blood sugar if it was low. This however could kill a patient who has both diabetes and kidney failure (which is extremely common as most kidney failure is caused by untreated or improperly treated diabetes) this happens because the juice is high in potassium which their body cannot filter out. Anyways on to hysteria, given that it is expected that the doctors/nurses would be mystified by this (which people seem to have been thinking otherwise), it is absolutely reasonable to anticipate the hysteria, in the manner you described in your theory version, for a couple staff after seeing a doctor pass out. And I say that as someone who is prior military and majored in neuroscience in school. Even trained professionals can mentally break down and can do so in what would otherwise be ordinary experiences. Seeing leadership pass out would have caused them massive distress, couple that with lack of food and confusion, I would honestly expect at least one person to drop in that situation, considering the number of staff involved. The same would happen in the military in a synonymous situation. Sorry for the long comment, I wasn't expecting it to be so long but I thought you would appreciate the input, although you seem fairly versed in the science involved.

NEED MORE OF THESE! Your videos are so interesting

I used to use pure DMSO in the lab, and it really does have a weird garlicky smell. You can smell it from the otherside of the room when someone opens a bottle. And, yes, it's not toxic in and of itself, but it is used to deliver dissolved chemicals to the body because it is very good at penetrating the skin. I believe it's used as a solent to introduce chemicals into the body and is used in some chemotherapy methods. Just my two cents.

This is one of my all time favorite medical mysteries. Being on the medical staff during that night must have been crazy.

This was a fantastic video, this case fascinates me and this is one of the best videos I've seen on it. Thank you

Fascinating stuff. One thing that I would ask, that maybe you could answer - the chemo that the woman was having, if she was indeed receiving any. Could the chemicals used in chemotherapy, mixed with the toxic build up in her body have had any effect? Not that this would be necessary of course for your theory (which I consider to be brilliant, frankly) to be true, its just something that occurs to me. Brilliant work.

I've always been fascinated by this case and always wondered if ketoacidosis was involved but didn't have enough confidence in my medical knowledge to discuss the theory with anyone. After hearing your thorough explanation, I feel validated AND learned something new! You definitely have a new subscriber!

I really like how this video is more in depth on the matter rather than telling it as a story and then tell their theory and quickly brush it off like old news. This video is alot more research and documents a lot more detail to figure out the who, what, what where, when and why.

I’ve stumbled across your channel and watched numerous videos of yours. Excellent work my friend. I thoroughly enjoy your content and I will share it with my friends. Have a great new year.

Chemotoxicity, neurotoxity and keto acidosis could be a cascade effect 🤷‍♀️

Conversion disorder from what I've heard is often used as diagnosis when they dont actually know what's wrong. I think I seen 30- 50% of sufferers are misdiagnosed. I would guess part of why more women are diagnosed with this is because women are often not actually listened to by doctors. They probably have autoimmune diseases and are just diagnosed with conversion disorder cause the dr cant see a reason for symptoms and go "ah, it's all in your head." This little rant is not related to the video only cause it was brought up and I have a theory on why more women are diagnosed.

This reminds me so much of all of the medical mystery shows I watched growing up. Thank you for making this! Very interesting

Thank you for being kind while telling this lady's story. ♡

u deserve more recognition this videos are so goodd

Looks like the algorithm picked you up, as I'm sure you're aware. Congratulations. Subscribed and eagerly awaiting more content in this vein.

Ive read before that electric current can cause ammonia to decompose - They defibrillated her prior to the exposure.

Glad I found your channel. So interesting. Love the fireside sounds🔥

Im from Riverside , and this is the first I heard about this! Keep up the good work

I'm glad to have found your channel . Going to subscribe. I like the lack of paranormal. I'm a terrible perfectionist though ,and wanted to make you aware that you put Campire instead of Campfire right across the screen in case you would like to correct it. Thanks for covering these stories ! I wish you well with many more subscribers 😊

This was an amazing well put video. Definitely earned yourself a sub.

I remember reading about this case in the newspaper. It was a short article buried on the 8th or 9th page but I was fascinated, even though details were sparse. The next day the follow up article was even shorter but did identify the victim as Gloria Ramirez. I never found another piece of written information. It was like it never happened. Then about 10 years later, Unsolved Mysteries did a segment which was mostly a recap without much new information. Still, I was fascinated. At that time the internet was in it's infancy so a search of available information provided nothing new. Thank you for creating this episode as this story still fascinates me. The answers lie within Gloria's tissues, I'm certain of that. I'm hoping that there are surviving samples stored for safe-keeping until the truth is discovered. Such a bizarre incident! Add to that the staff were diagnosed with hysteria and things take a very sharp turn into conspiracy town. Thinking out loud here but I wonder if any of the researchers created computer models of her tissues.

I think you're spot on with your hypothesis! The mass hysteria theory never sat well with me; but then I could never work out why it was only a few of the people who worked on her that suffered those strange effects. Your theory pretty much covers all the questions I had. Bravo!

I actually do buy the possibility of the DMSO theory, but not because of Dimethyl Sulfone or Dimethyl Sulfate. There's one more compound that fits the bill a lot better: DMS, or Dimethyl Sulfide. DMS is one of the metabolites of DMSO, so if someone were to consume or be exposed to a large amount of DMSO, much of it would turn into DMS. Unlike Dimethyl Sulfone, DMS, which has a boiling point the same temperature as blood, is excreted via the breath, as a vapour, which is why DMS exposure actually /does/ cause the breath to smell like garlic. DMS vapour exposure's common symptoms are: nausea, vomiting, skin irritation, breathing difficulties, and even loss of consciousness. Reading over the case it honestly sounds like the original people investigating weren't even aware of this. The available information says they literally looked through the Merck index to try to track down a possible similar compound, and settled on Dimethyl Sulfate because most but not all of the symptoms fit.

you are on point, simple and elegant in your explanation ... well done

Good writing, clear easy to understand narration and nice volume balance with the sound track. I don't know if I completely subscribe to your theories about what happened but I have no better theories of my own. This is an excellent production and a most entertaining documentary. I look forward to viewing more of your work.

How about the defibrillator? The current invoked a chemical reaction??? The bloods were not taken until after she was shocked??

Poor Gloria.how frightening for staff.

I knew about this case for years It's super interesting to see your hypothesis of what could have happened to her and to the staff, I liked the video

As a long time true crime/unsolved stories buff, I am quite enjoying your true story videos. Hope you keep making more!