Before reading a report this week, I wasn't even aware that someone could be poisoned using Visine eye drops. But, apparently you can, because a 33-year-old Pennsylvania woman, Vickie Jo Mills, recently admitted that she poisoned her boyfriend for more than three years by putting Visine in his drinking water. She was apparently trying to "get his attention" by putting the Visine in his drinking water 10-12 times since June 2009.
The woman's boyfriend, Thurman Edgar Nesbitt III, suffered from many health problems over the past several years including breathing problems, high blood pressure, nausea and vomiting. Nesbitt's doctor alerted the authorities after discovering that the man had traces of tetrahydrozoline, a chemical in eye drops, in his blood. Tetrahydrozoline poisoning is related to breathing problems such as difficulty or no breathing, blurred vision, blue lips or fingernails, changes in pupil size, high and low blood pressure, rapid heartbeat, nausea, vomiting, coma, headache, irritability, nervousness, tremors and seizures.
Mills says that her intention wasn't to kill her boyfriend, but was instead to get him to pay more attention to her. She could spend the rest of her life in prison and faces 10 counts of simple assault, 10 counts of aggravated assault, and 10 counts of reckless endangerment. A follow-up test of Nesbitt at the police station showed that he had 45 grams of tetrahydrozoline in his blood, a level experts deemed "extremely high". Mills is free on $75,000 bail and will be back in court on September 17.
recently named in the 2009 edition of Best Lawyer's In America, David Mittleman has been representing seriously injured people since 1985. A partner with Church Wyble PC—a division of Grewal Law PLLC—Mr. Mittleman and his partners focus on medical malpractice, wrongful death, car accidents, slip and falls, nursing home injury, pharmacy/pharmacist negligence and disability claims.
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