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RESCUING HOSTAGESWITH
AN ANESTHETIC
GAS.
FENTANYL:RUSSIAN
SQUAD'SWEAPONTO
RESOLVETHE
CRISIS
On the evening of 23rd October
2002, around
50
armed Chechen rebels
broke into a
Moscow
theater and
held
700 odd audience, actors
and
theater
staff at hostage. Early
in
the morning
of
October 26th, Russian
Squads
raided
the theater and
released
a
mysterious anesthetic gas
into
the
Theater. Unfortunately, 100 odd hos-
tages died,
let alone a number
of
rebels.
The
Russian Government had
also
refused
to
name
the main ingredient
-
only
when
blood
of
surviving victims
was taken
that
fentanyl was
found
remaining;
the
lives
of
some victims
were
thus
saved with
the
specific anti-
dote
naloxone.
According to
an
article
by an
Associate
Professor of Anesthe-
sia
at
the
First
Hospital
of
the
Sun
Yet
Sen
University
of
Medical Sciences,
fentanyl is akin to opiates;
like
these,
overdoses
suppress
breathing;
weight
for weight,
it
is
100
times stronger than
even morphine; clinically, fentanyl
(in
very minute doses)
is a
common medi-
cation given
by
anesthetists
for
surgery.
However,
fentanyl is
a
liquid
al
room
temperatures and
is
normally
iniected
into
the
patient. The
fact
that
the
Russian Squads could release fentanyl
as
a
gas
means
that
Russia
had
succeeded
to
"vaporize" fentanyl
-
a
potential weapon
for
tenorists. Contrary
to
regular use of anesthetics with strict
fasting, aspiration
of
vomitus
probably
choked
hostages to death.
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