PurplFrawg
Administrator
In the old days, I think they used pentothal (for unconsciousness), pancuronium (to prevent muscle movement-looks cleaner) followed by potassium (to stop the heart). They would use orders of magnitude greater than normal doses of each drug to ensure effectiveness. Pretty effective overall.
If you agree with a typical dosage of 500 mg of pentothal and 10 mg of pancuronium for a 200 pound adult, the original TDC dosage when the first lethal injections started were 10 times that dose. 5 grams of pentothal and 100 mg of pancuronium did the trick, and from what I read, it worked well. I don't know how many m/Eq of potassium were given, but I suspect it was in a ratio similar to the others.