http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2011/02/doctors_scientists_led_heroic.html
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When Wang first arrived at the hospital on Jan. 14, Wang was experiencing "flu-like" symptoms, Sewitch said.
Thallium poisoning typically includes loss of hair, thickened skin, severe gastrointestinal pain and loss of feeling in the extremities. Wang didn’t present many of those symptoms until a few days after his arrival, Marcus said.
At that point a nurse recalled cases of thallium poisoning in China in the 1990s and suggested Wang’s urine be tested, Sewitch said. No lab in New Jersey was capable of performing the test, so Wang’s urine sample was sent out of state.
Twenty-four hours later, the diagnosis of thallium poisoning was confirmed and Marcus was notified.
"If someone at the hospital had not guessed it might be thallium and tested for it, it might have gone undetected," Marcus said.
With time running out, Marcus suggested to a pharmacist at the Princeton hospital that she contact chemical supply companies in the area to try and obtain a less pure dose of Prussian Blue, which is also used to dye clothes as well as microscopic specimens in biological research.
A dose of the non-medical grade was found in a matter of hours and rushed to Princeton the medical center, but Marcus and the other doctors realized they had no idea how much of it to administer.
Still traveling through snow and ice, Marcus suggested diluting the bright blue powder in water and simply doubling the recommended dose.
Nearly two hours after leaving his home, Marcus arrived in Princeton. The non-medical grade Prussian Blue had been administered through a gastric tube, but Wang had showed no response.
In the meantime, Marcus had contacted a federal facility near Albany, N.Y., that had the purer form of the antidote, and an SUV was dispatched to Princeton. When it finally arrived five hours later, Wang was near death.
The antidote would be useless. Marcus, along with a number of doctors and nurses, stood beside Wang’s bed, unable to do anything more.
Sometime around 3 p.m. on Jan. 26, as several detectives stood nearby, Wang’s heart monitor flatlined.
"There was remarkable cooperation between the hospital, poison control, the police, the state health department, the Centers for Disease Control and the nuclear energy department in Tennessee — all to get this antidote to the hospital in snow in a matter of a few hours," Marcus said. "Unfortunately it was too late."
