As the level of drug in the bloodstream rises, more moves into the brain and sleep becomes deeper and deeper. At this point, another area of the brain is effected; that which controls the rate of breathing. The person’s breathing slows, and eventually stops altogether.
With no oxygen entering the lungs, the person dies of ‘respiratory arrest’, where there is not enough oxygen in the circulating blood to maintain brain function. Lastly, the heart stops beating. Rarely is there any bladder or bowel motion.
It is the most peaceful of deaths to witness. With Nembutal, you always die in your sleep.
A Lethal Dose of Nembutal While there are several florid accounts of failure by people taking a full 100ml bottle of veterinary Nembutal, closer scrutiny shows a much more complex situation. Exit has examined the details and medical records of several such cases.
In the vast majority of cases, one bottle (100ml @ 60mg/ml) of veterinary Nembutal will always be satisfactory and lead to a peaceful death, usually in ~1 - 2 hours. However, there is a small group (estimated at <1%) who may exhibit a prolonged comatose phase before death (sometimes up to 24 hours). Outright ‘failures’ remain extremely rare.
Indeed, all of the
reported failures investigated by Exit were associated with early discovery and subsequent medical intervention. This emphasizes the need for careful selection of the place of death.
In some of the analyzed cases, the long comatose phase was associated with the prolonged use of anti-psychotic medication or chronic heavy alcohol use, prior to taking the barbiturate. It is presumed the induction of liver enzymes by these drugs