.
Ah ! An interesting mystery, no ?
It did provide the substance for an entertaining evening-- and the theory that he was murder'd was on the top of the list.
As the evening went on we Sherlocks came to a much tamer conclusion, however. And here's what we concluded (we had not much more information than was presented in that article.)
Ok, here goes---
Rodney Marks was known to be a heavy drinker- a described 'binge drinker' by his associates- and in our book he was thus an alcoholic. Alcoholics give terrible accountings, for a myriad of reasons, on the amounts and frequency of their alcohol consumption. I have a friend who is a recovered alcoholic who now works as a substance counselor.... she will say that these people are horrible historians- for what ever reasons- and Rodney may well have forgotten he 'had a drink' more recently than 2 days previous (and at least 150ml at that.) The doctor who treated him seems to have not delved into this further..... but as any good physician knows, a good history is paramount to a correct diagnosis. But that aside, the acute abdominal pains, vomiting and especially the visual disturbances all pointed to some sort of poisoning.
The-then current station doctor was in on this discussion---
"Was there no inquiry about Mark's occupational exposure to certain chemical agents ?"
.....(Duh !-- my comment) --
"...this poor guy worked with solvents.... !!!"
Mark's workshop was described as cluttered with bottle of various liquids- many solvents and alcohols used to clean the telescopes. It was our contention he mistakenly 'took a hit' off what he mistakenly thought was ethanol but in fact was methyl alcohol. +150ml's of Methanol would work fast and would have been consistent with the interval between the onset of symptoms and his death.
We ask the station doctor what could have been done if this methanol poisoning was diagnosis'd early.....
".....Here at this station, not much. There is a drug used as 'antidote' but we don't have it --- dialysis is used in acute cases- impossible here, .....but surprisingly drinking large qualities of regular alcohol is a traditional treatment *"
Our conclusion...... Poor Rodney Marks accidentally poisoned himself. Whether a quick intervention by the station's doctor could have saved him is questionable--but it was mis-diagnosed with tragic consequences.*
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Keeping, or trying to stay on the topic of radio-- has anyone ever thought about such things when on "DX-pedtions", or working off in some far flung corner of the world ?.....I did. My team always took along 'body bags".... though we never discussed what were in 'those footlockers.'
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Another little aside, it was the methanol poisoning that killed thousands and blinded even more during Prohibition that was a major factor in the law's repeal.
"Don't drink wood alcohol !"
Lauri
*competition for alcohol dehydrogenase in the breakdown of the methanol to formaldehyde allowing time for the kidneys to excrete it un-alter'd . (Fomepizole is the antidotal drug, btw)
** I am not being holier than thou about this. I once accidental filled a kerosene lamp with a mixture of kerosene and gasoline---from an unmarked can- (another story.....groan)--I was lucky I didn't blow up a cabin in a fire-y holocaust.
"Oh My, Lauri ! That lamp is burning ever
so Bright !"..................
