Man Poisoned by Ricin in Hotel Room

By Alex in Health on Mar 1, 2008 at 3:26 am

Wow, this is scary: a man got poisoned by ricin while staying in a Las Vegas hotel room and is now in critical condition.

Deputy Chief Kathy Suey said the man called from the hotel asking for medical help on February 14, saying he was suffering from respiratory distress, and was transported to the hospital.

Tests confirm the substance found in the room was ricin, police said, but it remains a mystery how it got there. Suey said the man hospitalized was not a suspect and police don’t know whether the ricin was his, or if he even knew it was there.

How dangerous is ricin? Well, an amount the size of a head of a pin (about 500 microgram) is enough to kill an adult.

Link

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Scotchdrnkr
Mar 1st, 2008 at 7:25 am
This is scary.
But the other thing that worries me is the hotel manager found a gun and Castor beans (used to make ricin)and a manifesto AFTER Homeland Security searched the place.
You would think that Homeland Security would have searched the room top to bottom and inside out. Makes you wonder if Homeland security has any idea of what they are supposed to be doing.
Tim
Mar 1st, 2008 at 7:32 am
Another not so Neat post.
ted
Mar 1st, 2008 at 8:17 am
Nice quote: “Ricin has limited medical uses — it can be used to kill cancer cells and bone marrow transplants.”

Why would you want to kill a bone marrow transplant?

Not sure why Scotchdrnkr says the hotel manager found stuff after Homeland Security – the only mention I noticed in the article is that a relative found stuff after the guy went to hospital, and called authorities. Did I miss something?
Mr.Lonka
Mar 1st, 2008 at 11:40 am
Originally they found guns and an “anarchist type textbook” when they were cleaning the room out after the guy went to the hospital. That was on Tuesday, and on Thursday is when one of his supposed relatives found the ricin and brought it to the attention of the manager who then contacted the authorities. The relative seemed to maybe know what it was because he said to the manager that whatever this is I am not comfortable with it. The article also mentions that they tested a room at Excalibur to make sure there was no trace of ricin and there wasn’t. This story keeps getting more interesting. I wonder if the relative was staying at the Excalibur or something of that nature, why else would it be tested? Here is a link to the newest cnn story where they talk about the guns and textbook.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/03/01/ricin.hotel/index.html
Justin
Mar 2nd, 2008 at 1:01 am
Well this is neat-ish….

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