Posted on 05/21/2002 1:11:31 PM PDT by Barbie Doll
Teen Reported Brain Dead From Prom-Night Excess Email story to a friend SANTA ANA -- An 18-year-old Foothill High School student has been declared brain dead after taking the stimulant Ecstasy, the hallucinogen ketamine and alcohol on her senior prom night, it was reported Tuesday.
Cathy Isford was taken to Western Medical Center in Santa Ana on Sunday morning, a few hours after the prom. She remained in a coma and was declared brain dead by Sunday evening, the Orange County Register reported.
She will remain on life support for at least another day, the newspaper reported this morning.
Before the prom, the girl told her sister Star that she planed to take a mix of Ecstasy and "Special K," or ketamine, a hallucinogen widely used as an animal tranquilizer.
"She wanted to make it a perfect night," Star Isford, 27, told The Register, adding that she tried to stop her sister from taking the drugs.
"I told her be careful, watch what you do. (But) you can't tell somebody her age what to do," she said.
Police said Cathy became comatose after an apparent overdose brought on by a combination of Ecstasy, ketamine and alcohol.
Cathy Isford, who had planned to become an elementary school teacher, attended the prom with her fiance, Rene Rojas, 26. She snapped pictures of her friends as they danced at Joe's Garage, an auto museum at the Tustin Auto Center, her best friend, Sara Gulley, 18, told The Register.
Then Cathy Isford and Rojas and Gulley and her boyfriend, Jeremy Thomas, 19, went to a hotel in Santa Ana for a small post-prom party. Gulley thinks that Isford took the drugs en route to the hotel or once they arrived there, The Register reported.
"I begged her not to take it," Gulley said, adding that none of the others took drugs.
Your kidding T-G...you know those things will kill ya ;-(
I am willing to go further and speuclate that she was sold a DXM pill as X.
Why not? It's my favorite kind!
Sounds like she was already brain-dead before she took the drugs.
Sad, sad, self-inflicted tragedy.
Primarily sold in pills as false Ecstasy.
In the 1970’s, PMA was used recreationally at low doses. It began to be passed off as MDA, a more sought after substance. Since average MDA dosages range significantly higher than those of PMA, several deaths resulted from this practice. PMA virtually disappeared from the recreational drug market for years until MDMA began to rise in popularity under the street name, Ecstasy. PMA began to appear as an adulterant in some Ecstasy tablets. Due to this, PMA has again been implicated in several deaths.
MDMA dosages range significantly higher than those of PMA. At even slightly increased doses, around 60-80 mg, PMA can become extremely dangerous, causing increased blood temperature and blood pressure. In recent cases, PMA has been sold as ecstasy, in pressed pill form indistinguishable from ecstasy and at unknown dosages.
Para-methoxy-amphetamine (C10H15NO) is more commonly known as PMA or 4-MA. While chemically related to the other amphetamines, including MDMA, PMA is one of the more dangerous of these substances for recreational use.
Despite some rumors, PMA is very unlikely to be a bi-product of MDMA synthesis. While a small quantity is produced legally for research purposes, most is produced in illicit laboratories. It appears in Ecstasy tablets as a result of deliberate misrepresentation somewhere in the chain of black market distribution.
PMA is typically found in the form of pills, or rarely, powder, and is probably usually represented as other substances. At dosages less than 50 mg, PMA produces effects that may vaguely resemble those expected from MDE or MDA. At even slightly higher doses, 60-80 mg or higher, blood pressure, pulse rate, and body temperature may climb rapidly. At no dose does it mimic MDMA’s unique tendency to produce euphoria and a sense of connection with others.
Taken alone, at a very low dose, PMA produces increased energy and visual distortions and hallucinations. Some users have reported an alcohol-like sense of intoxication. It can produce dilated pupils, erratic eye movements, and nausea, just as MDMA and its analogs cause in some users. Body temperature is elevated and pulse rate climbs somewhat. When combined with other substances or at higher doses, PMA can cause convulsions, hyperthermia (overheating), cardiac arrest, kidney failure or coma. These conditions could conceivably lead to death.
When pressed into pill form, PMA is indistinguishable from MDMA by sight or taste. Adulterant screening kits can test for Ecstasy tablets that contain adulterant substances, such as PMA. There is no way for a user to determine the dosage of such pill.
Though PMA may be purchased and sold by dealers who genuinely believe that their product is a less hazardous substance, such as MDMA, it is still considered especially risky to purchase any substance from a dealer the user does not know well.
Increasing the dosage rapidly increases potential for disastrous consequences. Taking multiple, untested, pills at one time increases the possibility of overdosing on an adulterant substance such as PMA
PMA is especially dangerous in combination with other amphetamine related compounds, alcohol, cocaine, and prescription medications, including Prozac. These and other combinations can compound the danger and the likelihood of overdose.
The only way to eliminate risk is to abstain from taking illicit substances. Since some people will not abstain, it is important that they have access to information that can help them stay healthy.
12 Pack, yes, but I stayed away from the fatties because the seeds would pop and send sparks that would burn a hole in my silk shirt ...
Signed,
Class of '77
The biggest danger posed by E in the close, sweaty environs of a club or rave is heat-stroke. The drug causes body temperature to raise anyway, and if the user then dances for hours it rises even more. Literally, pints of body fluid can be sweated out, and a sudden huge rise in body temperature can lead to blood clotting in places where it shouldn't, often the lungs. Air is blocked, leading to convulsions, coma and death. Why this happens in some people after a seemingly small amount and not others who have consumed more is unknown, although a theory is that those who die are missing an enzyme called cytochrome P450246 which breaks down ecstasy in the body.
To paraphrase H.I. McDonough, it's a tough world for the stupid things...
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