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Comment by GigabyteCoin | Hacker News Reader

So all Kim Jong-Nam had to do to survive was walk into a washroom and wipe his face clean with soap and water?

He would have greatly increased his chances. Assuming that the agent used was run of the mill V/G agent and not a specialty delivery variety.

In reality atropine and pralidoxime(antidote sorta) administration would have most likely saved him, but it would be very unlikely for a medical professional to deduce that the threat was cholinesterase inhibition(nerve agent poisoning).

I also doubt that airports have this on hand in many parts of the world. Maybe in the US where fears are stoked about a chemical attack.

Atropine is commonly used to treat other medical conditions. I would expect any modern emergency medical service to have it on hand (though perhaps not in the quantities necessary... we would need to use all the Atropine on multiple ambulances to treat one patient in this condition).

When I was in the army they taught us that the atropine was the antidote to the pralidoxime (or 2-PAM chloride as we called it).

No, they essentially work to solve the same problem in different ways.

To use a very clumsy analogy, imagine nerve agents like VX are slamming on the brakes of your body. Atropine makes your body less sensitive to the effect of "brakes". 2-PAM takes the foot off the brake.

They covered his mouth and nose, so it's quite likely he also inhaled some.

Bleach, you should really use bleach. It breaks it down instead of just mechanically rinsing it away.

The news in Japan is saying that they wiped it in his eyes, so washing may not have helped.

Wouldn't have hurt, though...

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