Death from paraquat after subcutaneous injection.

Gramoxone is a commercial formulation of a herbicide containing the di-metho sulphate salt of paraquat (1,1'-dimethyl-4, 4'-dipyridilium). Bullivant (1966) reported that up to July 1964 one case of paraquat poisoning had occurred in a child in Ireland. He described two additional cases in men in 1966. The first was that of a 28-year-old man who drank half a glass of 20% paraquat solution; a day later gastrointestinal symptoms appeared, followed by signs of hepatorenal damage. He died of severe respiratory failure. The second case was that of a man aged 23 who drank a mouthful of paraquat and vomited immediately. In this case also signs of mild hepatorenal damage appeared, and he too died of respiratory failure. The purpose of this paper is to present an additional case of paraquat poisoning, this time by subcutaneous injection. Suicide in such an unusual way has not to our knowledge been described in medical literature.