Actually that’s not a bad idea. It’s a fantasy universe that includes creatures like centaurs as well as more humanoid ones, so it’s not unreasonable that such a doctor would have use for them.
Atropine, maybe?
Or a scalpel?
You want quick and sure, slow and sure, quick and not sure or slow and not sure?
A) IV KCL, a full pen of insulin, muscle relaxants
B) Barbiturates
C) Benzos, opiates
D) Warfarin, aspirin, paracetamol, alcohol, digoxin…you name it.
Me? I’d put a large bore cannula in a large vein and take the cap off and then inject a pen of insulin intra-muscularly. Really quick. Really sure. Unless you have a serious problem with needles, relatively painless. Death from a combo of hypovolaemia and hypoglycaemia.
FWIW- when doctors commit suicide it’s either with drugs used to induce anaesthesia, insulin ODs or by opening major arteries. They don’t muck about with aspirin or benzos.
All this, is, of course, in no way condoning suicide.
If your story is set in North America, call it “paracetamol”. It’s the generic name for Tylenol (acetaminophen) in Europe, but is pretty much unheard of in North America.
Actualy I’ve already done that, but thanks.
Seems like there would hardly be a need to ask a doctor for this.
How about aspirin?
Easily available in quantity at any drugstore, or even present in most home medicine cabinets in lethal quantities. Only about 30 tablets needed for poisoning, with 100 being a almost sure lethal dose.
And a comparatively easy death – dizziness, rapid breathing, coma, then death (though often a bit of vomiting at first). Still better than the alternative in your story. Main drawback might be the 3-8 hours this takes – longer than what you want for your story.
Holy Hannah! :dubious: You call that EASY? You are one tough cookie!
I’d go ahead and have my character ask how much K-lyte or K-Dur the doc is carrying, and the answer will be maybe enough for a few of them. That’s potassium in tablet or capsule form.
I assure you there are drugs that have the same effects under different names on many of the ambulances in the USA.
These drugs are used in a process called RSI (rapid sequence intubation). You are given a sedative first then paralyzed.
This procedure is a hot topic in EMS and always debated by people in the field. It does save lives but there is always the potential risk of unfortunate circumstances.
Not following here exactly… you bleed out through the cannula, and insulin speeds the process somehow?
Thank you for mentioning this because it’s exactly what I (at first) came in to say NOT to use and, therefore, it’d be great to get some clarification.
In the movie Ffolkes with Roger Moore, a plotline unfolds somewhat similar to the jist of the OP in which a crew member on the ship tries to poison one of the terrorists with Colchicine from the onboard medicine cabinet. This surprised me since I take colchicine as a gout preventative. I mentioned this to my prescribing physician and the use of it as a poison surprised her too. Looking online, I see some articles about it’s lethality in high dodes administered over time but remain curious about it’s efficacy as an immediate poison. Wiki mentions it’s highly poisonous but, again, I didn’t see an indication about dosage, whether that from a single bottle would be enough to kill someone.
Diabetics, too. Lots of insulin without lots of carbs would lower the blood sugar levels, probably by enough that the brain didn’t get the fuel it needed to continue operating.
I also hear that hydroxyl acid is readily available and has a number of ways to kill, one of the simplest of which is by asphyxiation.
When I worked with an epidemiology department once, it came up in a discussion that accidental fatalities due to acetaminophen overdose were much more common than intentional, since drinking water to get all of the pills down is one of the ways of mitigating the effects on the liver. Just FYI.
I haven’t seen the movie, but is it possible that the character just grabbed the first bottle to come to hand from the medicine cabinet? Probably most things in your cabinet would be bad, if you took the whole bottle at once.
Chronos, if I remember correctly she (crew person) was sent to the cabinet with specific instructions to get the colchicine. They added it to a bad guy’s cup of coffee in a manner suggesting it was as potent as arsenic.
The characters are in a makeshift bunker, as they’re in a city under attack and have taken shelter after their first bunker was overrun.
[bolding mine]
Can I get a cite for the bolded section? Not that I’m doubting you, but I’m anal. That’s a tidbit of information I can use as a plot point, but Wikipedia doesn’t mention it and I’d like to be sure.