Plumbing Not Source of Toxic Fumes at Hospital, Officials Say

The plumbing at Riverside General Hospital could not have leaked toxic fumes that overcame an emergency room crew treating a patient in February, authorities said Tuesday.

A review of the plumbing system eliminated any possible link between pipes in the hospital and the Feb. 19 incident in which patient Gloria Ramirez died and six doctors, nurses and attendants got sick or passed out after some noticed an ammonia-like smell.

Dennis Weiss of Hemet said last week that fumes from a sink made him vomit and drove him out of his third-floor room twice in January. Those incidents occurred before Ramirez, 31, was brought to the ground-level emergency room in cardiac distress.

Riverside County public information officer Thomas DeSantis said the county, which owns the hospital, brought in an independent specialist and other experts last week to check the plumbing, which got a clean bill of health.

The coroner’s office is still trying to determine what killed Ramirez and what made the workers sick, DeSantis said. Several staffers said fumes seemed to come from Ramirez’s body or blood, and authorities are awaiting test results from her fluids and tissues.

Her family has insisted that the problem was somewhere in the emergency room.