Blood investigation in a fatality involving the veterinary drug T-61

A case involving an acute fatality resulting from self-administration of about 30 mL of T-61, a euthanasia solution, consisting of a mixture of embutramide, mebezonium, and tetracaine, in a 58-year-old veterinarian is presented. Forensic investigations consisted of an external body examination, during which 5 mL of fluorinated femoral blood was collected. Embutramide and tetracaine were quantitated using gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry after extraction with chloroform/isopropanol/n-heptane (50:17:33, v/v) at pH 9.5 and separation on an HP5-MS capillary column. Mebezonium was quantitated using liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry after ion-pair extraction (saturated KI solution) with methylene chloride at pH 5.4 and separation on a 5-mm Nucleosil C18 column. Blood concentrations were 43.0, 6.5, and 0.21 mg/L for embutramide, mebezonium, and tetracaine, respectively. No other drugs, including ethanol, were detected.