A woman in Russia has died after being injected with a drug used to embalm dead bodies. Ekaterina Fedyaeva had undergone surgery to remove ovarian cysts. Medical personnel should have administered saline, but instead injected her with formalin, which contains formaldehyde. Formalin is super toxic and apparently, a single ounce of it can kill an adult.
Staff at the hospital realized the mistake two minutes after it was administered to Fedyaeva - but it was too late. They tried washing the formalin out of her system, but by that time it had already started working through her body. She was then brought to Moscow’s A.I. Burnazyan Federal Medical and Biophysical Center where she was given drugs to combat the formalin, but her organs had already begun to shut down.
Rashid Abdullov, the minister of health, family, and social well being, has sent his “sincere condolences” to the woman’s family. He says the reason for the mix-up was that the staff failed to read the name on the vial. “This is a terrible tragedy,” Abdullov says. "We will provide all the necessary assistance to the family. All the guilty officials have already been held accountable, the investigating authorities continue to work." The staffer that administered the formalin has been fired.
Source: The Washington Post