Morbid Fact Du Jour For May 20, 2011
Today’s Chemically Entombed Yet Truly Morbid Fact!
Lethal injection is an execution method performed by injecting the convict with three different drugs in succession. The first drug is either sodium thiopental or sodium pentothal, which slackens the muscles, depresses the central nervous system, and induces something resembling sleep; then mancuronium bromide or Pavulon (artificial drugs similar to curare, used by Amerindians to poison arrow tips) is administrered, to attack the lungs; and finally, potassium chloride, an electrolyte that, in large doses, reverses the polarity of the heart muscles, causing failure. All three are used in common medical practice – the sodium compounds are still used in dental anesthesia; curare, greatly diluted, of course, is a homeopathic remedy for anxiety; potassium chloride is prescribed for heart fibrillation. This quasi-medicinality enables the common opinion that lethal injections are like “putting people to sleep,” a homespun wisdom first offered in 1973 by then California governor Ronald Reagan, who cited his years as “a farmer and horse raiser” in making the assertion.
Consciousness is a relative thing, however, particularly when large amounts of strong drugs are involved. Thiopental and pentothal certainly make the condemned appear to lose consciousness, but there is no way of measuring this: all three parts of the lethal cocktail are of a sufficient dose to cause death by themselves. The sodium compounds, however, may only render the condemned incapable of expressing pain and panic that a poison like Pavulon would cause anyone even remotely conscious, or the subsequent terror when the heart’s rhythm is suddenly altered. If so, death by lethal injection may not be the euthanasia of common perception but a chemical entombment, lasting anywhere from two to ten minutes.
Culled from: The Last Face You’ll Ever See: The Culture of Death Row
I think I want to start a band called Chemical Entombment. It hasn’t been taken yet, has it?
Yep, http://www.myspace.com/chemicalentombment Grindcore/Thrash band out of Chandler, AZ. Gotta love a band who does a song “I Hid Glass in Your Sandwich”! Wonder if they ever found a new drummer.
Nowadays it’s very hard to find a band name that hasn’t already been taken. But you gotta at least try. I’m speaking here to a young girl I knew online years ago who said she wanted to form a pop band with some other girls and call it Genesis. All of us on that particular message board pointed out to her that not only was Genesis already taken, it was a very famous band. She didn’t want to hear that, and so, if she ever did form a band, she will never find success with it.
About consciousness being a relative thing: a couple weeks ago I had a fibroadenoma taken out of my breast, and I was given Fentanyl and something else I don’t remember. I thought I was unconscious, but that isn’t how those particular meds work. You don’t feel anything, which I didn’t, and you don’t remember anything, which I certainly didn’t. But apparently I was talking with the doctor and nurse the whole time. Have no memory of what I might have said, but he assured me “we had a grand old time.” Which is rather worrisome if you ask me.
Of course with any kind of anesthesia-type meds, the worst part is waking up afterwards, at least for me, because I tend to be very nauseous waking up. Yuck.