Fulminant is any event or process that occurs suddenly and quickly, and is intense and severe to the point of lethality, i.e., it has an explosive character. The word comes from Latin fulmināre, to strike with lightning. It is most frequently used in medicine, and there are several diseases described by this adjective:
Some viral hemorrhagic fevers, such as Ebola, Lassa fever, and Lábrea fever, may kill in as little as two to five days. Diseases that cause rapidly-developing lung edema, such as some kinds of pneumonia, may kill in a few hours. For example, it was said of the black death (pneumonic bubonic plague) that some of its victims would die in a matter of hours after the initial symptoms appeared. Other pathologic conditions that may be fulminating in character are acute respiratory distress syndrome, asthma, acute anaphylaxis, septic shock, and disseminated intravascular coagulation.
The most rapid deaths are those provoked by massive body trauma, for example; explosion injuries, airplane crashes, falling from a significant height, or industrial machinery incidents. Other examples include Commotio cordis, a sudden cardiac arrest caused by a blunt, non-penetrating trauma to the precordium, which causes ventricular fibrillation of the heart. Cardiac arrest and stroke in certain parts of the brain, such as in the brainstem (which controls cardiovascular and respiratory system functions), and massive hemorrhage of the great arteries (such as in perforation of the walls by trauma or by sudden opening of an aneurysm of the aorta) may be very quick, death ensuing in less than one minute. Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) is still a mysterious cause of respiratory arrest in infants.
Some toxins, such as cyanide may also provoke fulminant death. Abrupt hyperkalemia provoked by intravenous injection of potassium chloride leads to fulminant death by cardiac arrest.