To prevent a struggle against the tubes and machine, the baby is paralyzed with muscle-relaxing drugs.

Frustration with widely advised traditional medical solutions like orthopedic surgery or muscle-relaxing drugs has created a growing industry of self-care.

Dr. Coppolino, charged with killing his wife with a muscle-relaxing drug, was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison; he was granted parole in 1979.

Daniele Bovet, the Swiss-born Nobel Prize-winning pharmacologist who discovered the first antihistamine and created important muscle-relaxing drugs from curare, died Wednesday in Rome.

Two particular drugs are often cited for causing malignant hyperthermia: the anesthetic halothane and a muscle-relaxing drug called succinylcholine that is often administered as part of surgery or before electroshock therapy.