Posted on 10/28/2002 8:53:37 AM PST by Lady Jag
World News |
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10/28/2002 |
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![]() ![]() WASHINGTON -- The mysterious gas Russian forces pumped into a theater to end a hostage crisis was an opiate -- a chemical related to morphine, Pentagon officials said Monday. The Bush administration, meanwhile, refused to criticize Russian special forces for using the gas, which killed 116 of the hostages as well as the hostage takers. "The president abhors the loss of life, but he understands that it is the terrorists" who are responsible for the tragedy, Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer said Monday as the president traveled to New Mexico. Military officials said the U.S. embassy in Moscow had determined that the gas used by the Russians was some sort of opium derivative. Such substances not only kill pain and dull the senses but also can cause coma and death by shutting down breathing and circulation. Russian authorities have refused to name the substance used, even keeping that information from doctors treating the rescued hostages. Fleischer did not endorse the tactic in remarks to reporters as Bush flew from Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, to Phoenix, then from Arizona to New Mexico. But he made clear the administration's view that blame for the deaths lay with the captors. Asked directly about the use of the gas, Fleischer wouldn't say whether the administration believed it was appropriate. "We don't know what all the facts are," he said. But, he said, "As that information is developed, the president feels very strongly that the people who caused this are the terrorists." Bush had not spoken to Russian President Vladimir Putin as of Sunday evening, Fleischer said. Fleischer said the United States still is unsure how many Americans were involved in the siege but blamed that on the difficulty of keeping track of traveling Americans and not on the Russian government. The measured White House reaction comes as Bush seeks Russia's support for a tough resolution in the United Nations on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. In Moscow, a U.S. consular officer visited an American survivor of the theater hostage crisis, a State Department official said. The identity of the female patient was not released for privacy reasons, the official said. Although she was hospitalized, the official said she was not injured. "We are still continuing to determine the whereabouts of possibly one or two other Americans," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Russian special forces troopers ended the 21/2-day takeover before dawn Saturday with a raid on the theater shortly before the hostage-takers, rebels from Russia's embattled Chechnya region, had threatened to begin killing their more than 800 captives. The Moscow Health Department said 405 former hostages, including nine children, remained hospitalized Monday after 239 were released. At least 45 remained in grave condition Monday, Deputy Prime Minister Valentina Matviyenko said Monday. All but two of the 118 hostages known to be dead were killed by the gas, not their captors. The 50 Chechen rebels holding the hostages also were killed, either by the gas or by gunshots as security services stormed the theater. (AP) |
I know that in the military, a two-to-one ratio is expected in a chemical attack--one casualty takes out three people due to decontamination and triage. If that ratio held true, it would have required 1500-2000 agents to respond instantaneously. Like many here stated, the miracle is that any came out.
Sad but true & yet funny @ the same time.
I'm sure they could in time, but I've seen Narcan used on just the idea that it might be a narcotic overdose. Results in 30 seconds, and the patient sits up going "who are you and what are you doing in my house?"
Of course 700 doses could be hard to come by in Russia, and by the time the resuers got to each of them they could already be clinicly dead.
btw- can you really trust someone who doesn't love scrapple?
I hear some people are complaining that some of the incapacitated terrorists were executed via head-shots (the soldiers on the raid didn't want them to wake up and try to kill more people and shooting them seemed to be the most expedient method of control) which also makes sense to me.
Well said. While the thought of them using gas masks and 'living long enough to kill themselves' is ironic and might make us lovers of dark humor snicker, they are inhumane, inane, insane and lamebrain enough to think it's a good idea to bring gas masks to their next suicide attack.
As for the head shots . . . they get cheers from me; it was a fine way to clean up.
I heard on the radio news that the doctors tried at least one "standard" antidote that didn't work before they (luckily? systematically?) picked one that did.
It's pretty sad that this statement even has to be made.
No, they needed oxygen. Narcan would reverse the narcotic itself but not the brain damage from previous hypoxia. If you haven't been breathing for 30 minutes you have an intra-cranial problem, no matter what shut your breathing down in the first place.
When the first rescue workers reached the hostages they probably started breathing them, rather than reversing the narcotic. At least, I hope.
I have no memory of this, but she told me that she came home to find me sitting on the front lawn in my underwear.
I hate it when that happens! Seriesly, drug response is so varied, I can't imagine trying to calculate the "right" dose in this instance.
Well ventilating 130 people correctly at once requires 260 people. First thing is move them to a better environment, then o2 and narcan. If their stupor is reversed and they weren't dead, they would breath on their own even if somewhat brain damaged. Either the way this type of Mass Casualty Incident is beyond preparing for unless you are the Military, and even then it takes alot of time for the triage and treatment.
I saw a slideshow of the aftermath and they had loaded unconscious people onto buses and toted them to the hospital slumped over and all.. I guess if you were breathing you went, if you didn't you got a toetag.
Russian hospitals rarely have even basic drugs on hand. Serious shortage in funding. One of the lingering after effects of communism.
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