Case 1 A 57-year-old male with a past medical history of depression traveled to San Diego and checked into a hotel. After a missed golf tee time and multiple unanswered telephone calls the following day, hotel management entered the room and found the victim deceased on the bed. Around him was a suicide note, a drinking glass with a viscous orange liquid in it, a partly filled bottle of orange juice, and two empty 50 mL bottles of veterinary pentobarbital sodium.
Case 2 A 57-year-old Australian male checked into a San Diego time-share facility the same day of his arrival into the United States. Multiple attempts by facility personnel to contact the victim went unanswered over the following 7 days and despite a "Do Not Disturb" sign, authorities entered the unit and found the victim deceased. Next to him was an empty drinking glass with a straw, a partly filled bottle of apple juice, an empty 100 mL bottle of pentobarbital sodium, and a business card for a veterinary pharmacy in Tijuana, Mexico.
all the three cases the pentobarbital was mixed with juice before ingestion which could be due to the authors' acknowledgment that the drug has a bitter aftertaste. Also of note, the person in our third case co-ingested the antiemetic metoclopramide that is specifically discussed in the text to "ensure that vomiting does not occur." Antiemetics were not detected in either Case 1 or Case 2.
also interesting (how could she survive - maybe 100ml is not enough):
Case 3 A 20-year-old pregnant female with a history of depression and borderline personality disorder was found comatose in
her apartment by paramedics. Two empty bottles of veterinary pentobarbital sodium (Sedalphorte®, Salud y Bienestar, México D.F., México. 63 mg/ml in 100 ml vials) and one of metoclopramide were found in her apartment. She was intubated in the emergency department and was treated supportively. Serial blood pentobarbital concentrations measured by GC–MS were 24.4 mg/L (Day 1), 25.8 mg/L (Day 2), and 7.1 mg/dL (Day 3). The presence of acetaminophen, ethanol, salicylates, and drugs of abuse in her system was excluded. She was treated for aspiration pneumonia, was subsequently extubated after 3 days, and made a complete recovery. She revealed that she had used the book The Peaceful Pill Handbook3 to guide her acquisition and use of the pentobarbital and metoclopramide, which she obtained on a visit to Mexico.
