Ekaterina Fedyaeva who was allegedly embalmed alive in a shocking medical blunder would have suffered ruptured organs, violent convulsions and circulation failure, experts say.
The 27-year-old was supposedly put on a formalin drip – a solution containing formaldehyde – instead of saline at hospital in Ulyanovsky, western Russia.
The formaldehyde – normally used to preserve corpses - would have quickly ruptured Ekaterina’s red blood cells , according to Dr Christopher Hoyle, a toxicologist at University of Colorado Hospital.
This would have stopped oxygen being sent throughout her body.
According to experts, this would have led to a huge influx of acid into Ekaterina’s body.
The formic acid, a dangerous chemical sprayed out by some venomous ants, would have slowly eroded the woman’s organs, experts say.
Each of Ekaterina’s organs then would have failed one by one, Dr Hoyle added.
Speaking to Live Science, Dr Lewis Nelson, chairman of emergency medicine at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School added, “[Formic acid] is very dangerous to all living tissues and would disrupt the function of nearly every living organ. If this case indeed happened, the outcome of death is fully predictable.”.
Eventually, Ekaterina suffered fierce convulsions heart stopped beating and she died some two days after she was allegedly injected with the wrong fluid.
Medics reportedly used 52 drugs in a desperate attempt to save Ekaterina.
She was buried on April 7. A criminal investigation has started into her death.
