Dxm News:"father Enters Plea In Children's Deaths"

[rfgdxm]

Below is how I posted this to Usenet. I wish to make some other comments here, and have to be very careful how I choose my words. A father's freedom is on the line in court. From the report below, it appears the authorities are blaming DXM. *My* website is the one that documents DXM deaths. Looks like here officially we have 2 more. The problem now is how do I report this? At the moment I have significant doubts about whether it was DXM that caused these deaths. Thus, putting on my scientist hat that involves being skeptical, and not accepting anything a coroner says is true, it is reasonable to have doubts. Coroners are not infallible.

However, as a journalist covering this, this means that I am not really objective. If the guy who runs the site that comes up #1 for "dextromethorphan" on Google goes around casting doubts, that itself could be news. I really don't want to comment much at this point, and would prefer to gather more information on this. When this was an ongoing criminal investigation without charges being filed, I may have had difficulty getting the autopsy report, etc. However, now that there is an active prosecution, things have changed. The Internet is obviously a publication medium. My website is accessible globally to anyone with Internet access. I don't know whether coroner's reports are public record in this state. In some states they aren't. I already had to use once the fact I have a highly visible website about DXM to get around state laws with a coroner to get information about a death that involved DXM. One way or another, I should be able to get the official coroner's findings.

As such, at this point all I wish to say publicly is that I am not convinced these deaths were due to DXM. I will examine the facts as objectively as I can. However, I am not willing to accept the fact a prosecutor thinks DXM was the cause of death as gospel truth.

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Below is how I posted of this to Usenet:

VERY interesting case here. I actually discussed this with a reporter
from Colorado way back. I said I found it extremely unlikely he could
have got a fatal dose of DXM in the form of cough syrup into these kids
to kill them. The reporter actually got someone high up at the Rocky
Mountain Poison Center to say exactly the same thing I did. Nothing
resembling a normal dose of DXM cough syrup was likely to kill. He'd
probably have had to been force feeding these kids bottles of the stuff.

He did plead innocent. I may dig through my e-mail archives to find
the e-mail of that reporter. I see all kinds of reasonable doubt here.

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/26933...313/detail.html

TheDenverChannel.com
Father Enters Plea In Children's Cough-Syrup Deaths
Coroner: Brother, Sister Given Fatal Medicine Dose
POSTED: 11:22 a.m. MST December 9, 2003


LITTLETON, Colo. -- An Aurora, Colo., father entered a not guilty plea
Tuesday to charges he gave his two children a fatal dose of cough syrup
last year.

Robert Raffie Henderson, 29 (pictured, left), appeared in an Arapahoe
County court to enter his plea. He is charged with two counts of child
abuse resulting in death and two counts of second-degree assault.

In August 2002, police were called to the Henderson's home where they
found the bodies of his children.

Five-year-old Killian and 4-year-old Rhapsody Henderson apparently took
a large dose of a store-brand liquid cold medicine, similar to Nyquil,
before they took their afternoon nap on Aug. 8.

They never woke up.

At first Henderson denied he gave the kids cough medicine, then later
admitted he did, police said.

Nyquil and equivalent over-the-counter brands use Dextromethorphan,
which affects the brain and is found in many over-the-counter cough
syrups. It can be deadly in large quantities, but doctors said it likely
would take several times the recommended dose to kill an otherwise
healthy child.

[Dwean22]

I think that this quite amazing that they are saying the death was caused by DXM when if fact i bet it will come to find out that DXM was in there system but the leathal dose was acctully another ingredient in the syrup i mean the kids would have to drink more than a 4 oz and keep it down to die from dxm and i just dont see that happening.....

[rfgdxm]

I do have the blood and liver tox results for both kids a reporter sent me when this first broke. Clearly all that was found was consistent with a NyQuil generic.

From an old Denver post story:

"Based on the level of drugs in the children's systems, a forensic toxicologist at the University of Colorado calculated that Rhapsody had been given 0.568 ounces of the liquid medicine and Killian had been given 0.624 ounces."

Unless there is new evidence, that doesn't seem likely fatal to me. Kids get into the medicine cabinet all the time. If 2/3 of an ounce of NyQuil commonly killed kids, then where are all the news reports of these deaths? Things just aren't adding up here.

You guys also shouldn't forget that this was NyQuil... not Robitussin Maximum Srength or one of it's generic equivelants. This means that it also contains Acetemenophen (sp?), Pseudoephedrine (sp?), and guaifenesin (sp?). I guarantee if they drank NyQuil and died it wouldn't be the Dextromethorphan that killed them but more likely one of those other ingredients.

[_Swey_]

They should do a little more research on the subject if it was NyQuil It was most likely not DXM that killed him but the Acetemenophen. This is just another incodent to make things harder for us dexers