Syringe Used in Fumes Case Has Been Lost : Mystery: Critical evidence in the investigation of the death of Gloria Ramirez was apparently incinerated within hours of the emergency room incident, officials say.

The syringe used to draw blood from Gloria Ramirez, critical evidence in the investigation of the mystery fumes that overwhelmed emergency room attendants at Riverside General Hospital two months ago, apparently was incinerated within hours of the incident, county officials now acknowledge.

The emergency room was evacuated after those tending to Ramirez smelled the syringe containing her blood and complained that it smelled foul and contained crystals or other unusual particles.

Riverside County spokesman Tom DeSantis said, however, that the blood had already been transferred to vials before the emergency room was abandoned. The blood was later retrieved by the Riverside Fire Department’s hazardous-materials crew and turned over to the county coroner’s office for testing and analysis.

It did not occur to the Fire Department crew to retrieve the biomedical waste container that apparently contained the syringe, however. Nor was the Fire Department instructed to do so by the head emergency room physician who helped direct the initial investigation and cleanup efforts, Fire Capt. Gerry Mungerson said Thursday.

The loss of the syringe “doesn’t make the investigators’ job any easier,” DeSantis said.

For weeks, DeSantis had dodged questions about whether the syringe was recovered and analyzed, saying that he could neither confirm nor deny that it was in the hands of investigators. Late Wednesday, DeSantis said, he found out from investigators that the syringe was presumed lost.

He said that as a matter of standard hospital procedure, as soon as blood is drawn into a syringe, the blood is transferred to vials and the syringe is thrown away in a biomedical waste container, called a sharps container.

DeSantis said no witnesses to the Feb. 19 event can recall anything other than the standard procedure being followed that night--even as the medical crew became ill after Ramirez’s blood was drawn into the syringe. DeSantis said it is presumed that the syringe was still--as procedure dictates--discarded in the sharps container even as people began to collapse.

Every few hours, he said, biomedical waste deposited in the containers is routinely incinerated at the hospital, and that was the apparent fate of the syringe after the hospital returned to normal several hours later.

Mungerson, one of two captains directing the city Fire Department’s hazardous-materials team at the hospital that night, said his crew retrieved virtually everything from around where Ramirez was treated, including towels, cotton swabs and the vials of blood.

Mungerson said he directed his crew on the basis of consultation with county health officials and Dr. Humberto Ochoa, who heads the emergency room staff but was himself unaffected by the incident.

“The main thing we were worried about was getting the blood,” Mungerson said. “The doctor didn’t mention (the sharps container). It’s hindsight now. We were dealing with a medical environment that we weren’t used to.

“We try to train for every possible situation as best we can,” he said. “There are lots of protocols and procedures, and we utilize any people on site who can contribute. I guess they can’t think of everything, either. I hope it doesn’t cause a problem.”