What chemical could you put on a rag and hold to someone's face to make them lose consciousness?… by to
This is for a work of fiction. I've heard that ether or cholorform could be used. Anything else?
Best Answer:
Toad,
When we see movies when a perp kidnaps someone by placing a moist rag over their mouths it's assumed by the average person to be chloroform, although this is not necessarily the case, especially if the intent was to keep the target alive. This is why chloroform hasn't been used as an anesthetic by the medical community for decades, since even a tad too much could prove fatal or even if the patient were to survive could easily result in long term internal organ damage.
This is why ether began to be used as a preferred anesthetic to chloroform. (BTW, ignore that ignoramus that claims that ether will only get you high as he obviously has no understanding of the drugs he's taking or in this case, inhaling) Ether used as an anesthetic inhalant, however, had problems of its own such as being highly flammable and producing very undesirable post-anesthetic side effects like nausea and vomiting such that Ether is no longer used in the medical community for this purpose. The flammability of ether gave way to use of non-flammable anesthetics such as Halothane, yet even this drug has also produced its share of unwanted side effects such as severe liver injury in some patients that led to halothane hepatitis, and malignant hypothermia in susceptible patients that would occur from repeated exposures. This led to the demise of Halothane as an acceptable inhaled anesthetic except by vets or some 3rd world countries as I explain below.
The following are the five most commonly used inhalant anesthetics that can answer your question of inducing unconsciousness when a rag is drenched in the chemical and placed over the subject's face:
Desflurane
Sevoflurane
Isoflurane
Enflurane
Halothane *
And of these, the most commonly used are isoflurane, sevoflurane, and desflurane. Their use began in the 1980's after it was discovered that Halothane Hepatitis had a 30-70% mortality rate.
* Since Halothane requires repeated exposures to induce its undesirable effects, it is still a common method of inducing coma in the medical communities of third world countries and by Veterinarians.
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