The Hot Tub Mystery Case Study

The Hot Tub Mystery Case Study
Jillene Robbins
11am

Part I
1. Observations made by the paramedics were; the Underhills being under water at the bottom of the hot tub, empty bottles of wine, the water in the hot tub felt way too hot, and that the bodies had been dead for some time.
2. How hot was the hot tub? How long have the Underhills been dead for? Are they on medications? Any other health issues for the Underhills? How long has the maid been home before discovering the couple?
3. Taking Lasix, drinking wine, and being in a hot tub exceeding the recommended temperature can all have negative effects.
4. Lasix is a diuretic which helps you not retain water, and helps treat high blood pressure. As a diuretic it will dehydrate you. Adding alcohol on top of it and being in a hot tub makes the dehydration happen quicker. If the pill was being used to treat high blood pressure, its not recommended for those people to use hot tubs.
5. Mr. Underhill was taking Lasix so I’d say that his body did not take well to drinking wine, taking medication, and the extreme high temp of the hot tub. Making him dehydrated, tired, and or having a heart attack. Mrs. Underhill was not on the medication. She was drinking wine and in extreme temp hot tub which could cause a heart attack, loss of conscience, or even just the high temperature hurting the organs and ultimately killing her.

Part II
1. I think that going under the water ultimately killed the Underhills. If they had not been in water and loss conscience and or had heart attack etc. they may have regained conscience instead they were in water and therefore drowned.
2. Mr. Underhill taking Lasix and drinking wine and entering a 115 degree hot tub could have been very dehydrating to him causing in the end death.
3. Blood alcohol level measures the amount of alcohol in a person’s body, showing the amount consumed.
4. General effects of alcohol on the brain are on your movement, judgment, speech, and memory. Also can effect your heart, liver, pancreas, and cause cancer.
5. Alcohol metabolizing rate depends on size, gender, and other things. Usually the rule is 1 drink per hour.
6. The effects of a .20% BAL on a 160lb male and 120lb female would be both legally intoxicated, Confused, dazed, disoriented. Possible at this point to feel nausea and or start to vomit. Black outs are likely at this level of intoxication. Adding heat and medications intensifies these effects.

Part III
1. The body has mechanisms to alter or maintain blood pressure and blood flow. There are sensors in your body to sense the blood pressure in the walls of the arteries and send signals the the heart, arterioles, veins, and kidneys that can cause them to make the necessary changes that will either lower or increase your blood pressure.
2. Special effects of the Lasix, hot water, and alcohol on the couples blood pressure would be a major low blood pressure. All can cause your blood pressure to lower and with all three factors at once it can cause fatality.
3. If it had been possible to reverse the decreasing blood pressure the Underhills could have drank water to keep hydrated, sat out of the hot tub here and there to stop their internal temperatures from staying too hot, also by having some caffeine.
4. Taking the couple directly out of the hot tub and cooling their bodies down, hydrating, and calling for emergency help.

Essay