is life so hard....

It was this post call morning... I was covering for the ICU and ED. There was this 911 call and the ambulance sent in this patient who was shortness of breath. I was wandering around the counter and saw this ambulance arrived. I went out with the ED nurse and the EMT brought someone down from the ambulance. An almost naked male. The adult around 30+ years of age, was wearing a shorts only - uncommon outfit for winter. Eventhough the southern winter is much more warmer than the north but in the morning it would be roughly 20 degree C. I asked the EMT for the history while helping to move the patient into the ED. The EMT told me he was found beside his car. He had parked his car "nicely" along the roadside and lay on the ground just beside his car. The EMT also showed me an inhaler. The patient was wheezing loudly - you can hear his wheezed without using stethescope. With the inhaler found at the scene, the patient is most probably having an severe asthma attack. He is confused though. The SpO2 was 99% and he was not cyanosed. He had passed stool on his shorts - very uncommon findings for an asthma patient who is still breathing. I ordered a neb and asked for an IV line with parenteral solumedrol. I wanted to give him a trial before I intubate him. I asked the EMT again about the shirts or pants he was wearing and the EMT told me they did not notice any around. I went back to the patient and he was drowsy and some yellowish liquid was noted around his oral angle. While I was auscultating, one of the nurse told me she smelled something like agricultural chemical. I had a bad nose especially in the winter. I took a good sniff and noticed there was this smell which is unusual. I pinched the patient hard and asked him if he had drunk any chemicals - the patient nodded. I didn't bother to ask the name and brand of the chemical, he was too dyspneic and drowsy to answer me....I then took him to the active resuscitation area and intubated him under sedation. His pupil had later started to shrink and pin point pupil was noted. I then contacted the local police station and asked them to have a look in the car. A suicidal note was recovered later but no bottle was found. I called up his mother and told them. He had lived 150+km away and worked around our area. We informed his mother and confirmed he is asthma status but his mother denied any factor leading to his suicidal act. The rest of the story was simple - ICU care, extubated the day after, and transferred to his hometown...
After he was alert and recovered from SOB, his physician had asked him about the chenical he use. He wrote down a name but we was unable to find the brand name. There was lots of such chemical in the market; the local manufacture had self packed such chemical and no registration was done. This patient was lucky, atropine was given based on his symptom..
The suicidal rate had been climbing since the past 2 years - lots of peoples facing finacial constratin and opted for suicide. Some even take their children along...a tragedy in such an advance society....