Today in History - February 19 | Hospital staff fall seriously ill minutes after treating woman
Soon after Gloria Ramirez arrived at a California hospital on February 19, 1994, staff treating her began to faint.
Doctors fighting to save 31-year-old Ramirez's life noticed a strong garlic smell and her very oily skin as they worked to defibrillate her.
Shortly after, three staff fainted in quick succession, and many others began feeling ill.
Ramirez was pronounced dead after 45 minutes of unsuccessful CPR and defibrillation, and her body was placed in an airtight container.
In all, 23 people in Ramirez's vicinity became ill and five were hospitalised.
Investigators deemed the event to be an incident of mass hysteria.
But an investigation from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (pictured) reached another conclusion.
The lab concluded Ramirez was taking dimethyl sulfoxide, a debunked home remedy known for its garlic smell.
When given oxygen in the ambulance, a chemical reaction led to the formation of dimethyl sulfone.
And the defibrillation turned it into dimethyl sulfate, a highly toxic chemical.
American inventor Thomas Edison was granted a patent for the phonograph on February 19, 1878.
His recordings could only be played a few times and were of terrible sound quality, but the invention marked a breakthrough in audio technology.
It was other inventors who developed the phonograph into a commercial proposition.
The year of the patent Edison had switched his attention to inventing the lightbulb.
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