Fentanyl Research Paper

Born on April 13, 1961 Robert William Fisher was born to a single mother in Brooklyn, New York. The struggles of a single parent caused Robert to experience a troubled childhood, which trickled over to his adulthood. Trying develop a better life for his family, he became a surgical technician, which paid for his schooling to become a respiratory therapist. Even with the support of his wife, life became difficult due to substance abuse. The drug of choice was crack cocaine, classified as a tertiary amine, which has three carbon atoms bonded directly to the nitrogen atom and general formula is R3N (Johll pg. 242, 2007). Smoking crack cocaine was a strong addiction, which needed professional help. Finding a new career as a firefighter was

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid, which in high dosages can result in a decrease respiratory rate, hypertension and bradycardia that can lead to death if untreated (Olson et. al, 2010). Robert having worked in a hospital as a respiratory therapist gave him an opportunity as to how and when the medication could be stolen without detection. While his family slept, he went into the home and injected his wife and two children with lethal doses of Fentanyl. The two story traditional Victorian house exploded and engulfed in flames to eliminate evidence. After the charred bodies were recovered from the fire, tissue samples were obtained to identify each victim, using DNA, which is the molecule responsible for transmitting all hereditary information passed on from one generation to the next (Johll pg. 409, 2007). To determine the cause of death, an autopsy was performed and tissue samples from each victim. Among the evidence recovered after the fire was a single syringe, which was fully intact and sent for analysis. The analysis of the syringe yielded the presence of fentanyl, which was detected using of a gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy, which detected the presence of fentanyl (Johll pg. 314, 2007). The autopsy determined that the victims were dead before the explosion evident from the lack of smoke