Ancient Egyptian women used it for dilating their pupils, while ancient Greeks used it as an anesthetic Atropine is still used in both those contexts today. Getty ImagesĪfter the 2013 Syria attack, Smithsonian called Atropine the "simplest treatment" for nerve agents, and explained that humans have been using Atropine for a variety of purposes for centuries. This combo shows a file photo (L) taken on of a man believed to be Kim Jong-Nam, son of the late-North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il, and a file photo (R) of his half-brother, current North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un. But if there is, we've heard of people using 30, 40 milligrams." "Mostly the problem is there's not enough in the hospital. "You're really just limited by whatever amount that you have," Khare said. Khare said the standard practice is to inject 1 milligram, wait about three minutes, then another milligram, and so forth. The more severe the poisoning, the more Atropine you need, and it's very hard to administer too much antidote. The way Atropine works also gives us an idea of why Kim Jong-nam was carrying so much of it.
ATROPINE ANTIDOTE FOR FULL
That window is as brief as it is not because Atropine wouldn't be effective at drying the body out after that point, but because once poisoned, the victim's lungs almost immediately become too full of secretions to breathe-you can only go a few minutes without air. "You definitely want to stab yourself with it, and then give yourself more and more, depending on how much nerve gas you were poisoned with." "If it's a high dose, lethal, you have probably a minute to two minutes to understand that you've been poisoned and then get the Atropine and stab yourself with it," Khare said. The fact that he wasn't able to do so therefore suggests that he was attacked with a heavy dose. If Kim Jong-nam had been attacked with a relatively low amount of VX, he might have had 20 to 30 minutes to administer his supply of Atropine.
"Almost immediately," according to Khare, means more than a few seconds, but not much more. Although a cocktail of drugs can serve as an antidote, VX acts so quickly that victims would have to be injected with the antidote almost immediately to have a chance at survival." "A fraction of a drop of VX, absorbed through the skin, can fatally disrupt the nervous system.
ATROPINE ANTIDOTE FOR CODE
Army code name, it is a clear, colorless liquid with the consistency of motor oil," read the CFR statement. The actual cause of death after someone's exposed to a nerve agent like VX, Khare said, is that they rapidly accumulate so much secretion in their lungs that they can't breathe.Īccording to a explainer by the Council on Foreign Relations, VX is the deadliest nerve agent ever created, and the only new one of consequence since World War II. "Atropine does the opposite of that it dries everything up."īut dehydration isn't what kills people who suffer organophosphate poisoning. Rahul Khare, founder and emergency physician at Innovative Express Care, told Newsweek. "Salivation, tears, urinating on yourself, sweating, diarrhea, throwing up.all of that's going to happen," Dr. When the body is attacked with a nerve agent, it's forced to increase secretion-by a lot. Soldiers from the United States Army's 10th Mountain Division train for Nuclear, Chemical and Biological attacks using auto-injectors containing Atropine and Pralidoxime Chloride. As Time reported, North Korea is currently in possession of around 2,500 to 5,000 tons of chemical weapons, including VX. Nerve gases are chemical weapons, the kind responsible for, among others, the 2013 attack in Syria that killed more than 1,400 civilians. Kim Jong-nam, who traveled under the alias Kim Chol, died after assassins wiped a cloth treated with VX nerve gas across his face at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on February 13.Ītropine is a medication that, when injected, can treat organophosphate poisoning, which is caused by nerve agents and insecticides. On November 30, the Malaysian High Court heard testimony that Kim Jong-nam was carrying 12 bottles of Atropine at the time of his death, according to reports, including the Washington Post. But what is Atropine, and why, when he'd so clearly prepared to do so, wasn't Kim Jong-nam able to use it? When Kim Jong-nam, half-brother of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, was assassinated with a nerve gas in Malaysia earlier this year, he was carrying a dozen bottles of the antidote, Atropine, in his backpack.
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