Hello all
I’ve seen quite a few films in my time in which the premise is that someone is injected with poison and, unless the antidote is administered within 24 hrs they will die. The usual basis is that they are fit and well right up till about 23 and a half hours before they collapse.
Now obviously there is a great deal of Hollywoodification in this, but does it have any basis in fact? Is there any poison which will kill within a certain time period, living someone virtually fit for a long while and one that can be then readily countered with an antidote?
Thanks in advance
Daniel
There are very fast acting poison gases which bring on immediate asphyxiation. [Don’t ask what]
Slow acting poisons as from a rattlesnake bite.
Cumulative poisons such a mercury vapor, arsenic in small doses, and similar substances.
An acetaminophen overdose kind of fits the bill. Symptoms are apparently minimal until after a fatal amount of damage is done to the liver. However, I think the treatment window might be shorter (8 hours seems to be what I found on the web), and death isn’t instant after the treatment deadline’s reached.
No. Along with exploding cars, real-time satellite imagery that can read newspaper headlines, and definitive matching of carpet fibers or bullet striations, this is pure Hollywoodism.
There are certain mycotoxins (toxins produced by fungi) that can have a delayed effect, from hours to weeks, with no symptoms. However, it is impossible to predict reactivity down to the hour or minute, nor can the toxins be reliably neutralized after digestion by a simple antidote. For instance, orellanine, a nephrotoxin (causes renal failure), generally causes symptoms 2-3 weeks after ingestion, by which time kidney failure is already in occurrence. There is no antidote; treatment generally consists of anti-oxidant therapy and nutritional support, and in extreme cases, a kidney transplant.
Poisoning by inhaling monomethylhydrazine (used as a propellant in rocket engines and a solvent in some industrial processes) often doesn’t show symptoms for hours or days, until liver failure occurs. Once this happens, the failure is typically complete, requiring a liver transplant.
Many toxins, particularly heavy metal toxins (arsenic, lead, mercury) are cumulative and can be effectively treated by chelation therapy, but their effects in small quantities are long term, and in larger quantities are typically untreatable (the body can’t extract them fast enough to prevent damage).
On the other hand, there is this trick you can do by implanting two microexplosive capsules in the carotid arteries. Not a small explosion, about the size of a pinhead, just enough to pop open both arteries…but we can neutralize them in the last fifteen minutes with x-rays…
“Call me Snake.”
Stranger
I’m definitely not an expert, but it might be possible to swallow some kind of capsule that takes some time to break down in the stomach and includes the poison at the last stage of breakdown.
I’m not an expert either, but it seems like such a timed-release capsule would be difficult to administer. Ninja tricks, perhaps.
For future Hollywoodifiers, nanoparticle drugs look like a good prospect. The subject of this article is triggered to drop its drugs by IR light (turn any ordinary heat lamp into a convenient death ray!), but a simple delay in release is probably plausible.
Some great information. Thanks for your replies guys.