Bad Fish

1. Present the “Doctor’s Notes” portion of the case with a description of the following terms or concepts:

• diaphoresis: the secretion of moisture through the pores of the skin; sweating

• motordysfunction: an irregular or impaired muscle, nerve, or center that causes or produces movement

• paresthesias
: an irregular feeling of numbness, itching, burning, pins-and-needles like sensation in hands, toes, fingers, etc.

• cyanotic: bluish discoloration of the skin or mucus membranes due to lack of oxygen in the blood system.


• hypoventilating: reduced ventilation occurs in the lungs which causes levels of oxygen to decrease and carbon dioxide levels to increase.


• bradycardia: slow heart rate; heart does not pump efficient amount of oxygen


• gastriclavage: the procedure of emptying out the contents of one’s stomach; stomach pumping


• oxygensaturation: the measuring of oxygen-saturated hemoglobin to the total amount of hemoglobin

2. How many different elements are contained in a molecule of tetrodotoxin? What are the names of these elements?

- There are four different elements contained in a molecule of tetrodotoxin. The names of these three elements are carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen.

3. What type of chemical bonds are found in this molecule? Describe the structure of those bonds.

- The type of bond found in this molecule is a covalent bond. Covalent bonds are bonds that share electrons.

4. As mentioned in the case description, tetrodotoxin is a molecule that blocks voltage-gated sodium ion channels. Describe the structure of a sodium ion.

- The structure of a sodium ion is an atom that has 11 protons in the nucleus, and ten electrons in orbit. The orbital shells consists of the first shell containing two electrons and the second having eight.