On March 22, 2006 Alice Silverberg was admitted to Maimonides Hospital Center in Brooklyn. Up to that point, she was an active 78 year old woman in generally good health but with a prolapsed uterus which brought her to the hospital for an elective vaginal hysterectomy.

Anamaria Guzman, M.D., attempted to anesthetize Ms. Silverberg

Anna Gloria Rivera was born in 1988 and within three months she was diagnosed with asthma (a chronic inflammatory disease of the airways). Growing up, she used a nebulizer with Albuterol to alleviate her symptoms but from time to time suffered from asthma attacks that would sometimes end up with emergency room treatment before