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She-lived-through-a-NIGHTMARE · Crime and Horror

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Speaker 1: Today, I'm going to share three stories about real people who,
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Speaker 1: at some point in their lives made choices that at
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Speaker 1: the time seems sort of insignificant, but over time those
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Speaker 1: choices would drastically not only change their lives, but in
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Speaker 1: some cases the lives of millions and millions.
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Speaker 2: Of other people as well.
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Speaker 1: But before we get into today's stories, if you're a
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Speaker 1: fan of the strange, dark, and mysterious delivered in story format,
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Speaker 1: we do in the upload once a week. So if
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Speaker 2: Also, please subscribe to our channel.
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Speaker 1: our weekly uploads. Okay, let's get into today's stories. In
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Speaker 1: the spring of nineteen eighty six, a twenty two year
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Speaker 1: old man named Will walked across the campus of the
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Speaker 1: University of Missouri. Will was just a few months away
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Speaker 1: from graduating from that university with a bachelor's degree in journalism,
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Speaker 1: but recently he was starting to feel like he actually
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Speaker 1: didn't want to be a journalist. After all, he didn't
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Speaker 1: have any real passion for journalism. However, he did have
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Speaker 1: passion for Hollywood movies. Will had lived in Missouri his
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Speaker 1: whole life, and now he was, you know, going to
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Speaker 1: college in Missouri as well, so he was pretty sheltered,
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Speaker 1: hadn't really gone anywhere. So for him, movies had sort
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Speaker 1: of been like this magical portal into a different world.
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Speaker 2: You know. Hollywood would show him all these amazing places and.
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Speaker 1: People, and so that was his escape. He loved Hollywood movies.
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Speaker 1: And so with Will's senior year coming to a close
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Speaker 1: in just a few months, with you know, real life
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Speaker 1: right there on the horizon, Will sort of had this
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Speaker 1: big revelation that he simply didn't want to be a journalist,
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Speaker 1: and in fact, what he was going to do is
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Speaker 1: just rop out of college literally weeks away from his degree,
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Speaker 1: and moved to California to Hollywood to actually pursue being
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Speaker 1: an actor in Hollywood movies. But despite Will's incredible enthusiasm
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Speaker 1: and naivete, when he got to Los Angeles, you know,
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Speaker 1: to Hollywood, he realized that he was not the only
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Speaker 1: young person with this big dream. There were loads of
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Speaker 1: aspiring actors and actresses who loved Hollywood and wanted to
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Speaker 1: break in that were here basically competing for all the
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Speaker 1: same roles in all the same films. Now this didn't
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Speaker 1: deter Will, I mean he wasn't totally shocked. Of course,
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Speaker 1: people wanted to be big movie stars and come out
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Speaker 1: here and try their hand, and so he went out
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Speaker 1: and auditioned constantly. He didn't care what movie it was,
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Speaker 1: He just he wanted to be in one. But he
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Speaker 1: just was not getting the work. Nobody was picking him up.
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Speaker 1: He was auditioning and being rejected over and over and
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Speaker 1: over again. And Will was okay with that. He figured, Okay,
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Speaker 1: I'll get better and eventually get cast for some thing.
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Speaker 1: But the problem was his finances. It was expensive to
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Speaker 1: live in Los Angeles, and there really weren't all that
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Speaker 1: many jobs available, I mean during the day. Will really
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Speaker 1: wanted to focus on just auditioning constantly, and so the
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Speaker 1: only work he could reasonably take was sort of side gigs.
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Speaker 2: That he could work late at night or early in
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Speaker 2: the morning.
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Speaker 1: Except again, there's so many people trying to do what
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Speaker 1: Will is doing, you know, aspiring actors and actresses, that
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Speaker 1: basically all the side gigs in LA were sort of
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Speaker 1: already taken, and so the only ones that were available
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Speaker 1: to Will were like the bottom of the barrels side gigs,
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Speaker 1: the ones nobody wanted.
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Speaker 2: But you know, Will was determined and he was.
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Speaker 1: Okay taking whatever was available, and so he ultimately got
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Speaker 1: two jobs. He worked as a mascot for a fast
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Speaker 1: food chicken restaurant, where he basically would stand outside in
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Speaker 1: a chicken suit and try to encourage people to go
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Speaker 1: into the restaurant. And then at night he would work
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Speaker 1: as a limo driver, but for a very specific group
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Speaker 1: of people. He was a limo driver for strippers who
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Speaker 1: would go mostly to bachelor parties, and it was Will's
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Speaker 1: job to drive them to and from these parties and
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Speaker 1: then also to go in with them and you know,
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Speaker 1: sort of be the DJ play some music for them.
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Speaker 2: And then at the end of the night he was in.
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Speaker 1: Charge of picking up all the money and clothes that
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Speaker 1: were kind of strewn about from the event and packaging
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Speaker 1: it all up, putting everybody in everything back in the limo,
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Speaker 1: and driving them back home again. Now, at first, Will
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Speaker 1: just sort of accepted that this was his life, because
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Speaker 1: eventually it was not going to be his life. He
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Speaker 1: was going to break into Hollywood and he wouldn't have
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Speaker 1: to wear the chicken suit or drive the strippers around anymore.
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Speaker 1: He could just be an actor and he could do
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Speaker 1: the thing he really wanted to do. But pretty quickly
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Speaker 1: will realized that the opportunity to break.
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Speaker 2: In just wasn't really happening.
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Speaker 1: But what was really happening is he was spending a
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Speaker 1: lot of his time being the chicken suit guy and
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Speaker 1: driving strippers around, you know, because he had to pay
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Speaker 1: his bills, and these jobs didn't pay very much, and
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Speaker 1: so he had to kind of encroach on the daytime
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Speaker 1: hours and work more hours during that time that he
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Speaker 1: would like to be auditioning just to pay his bills.
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Speaker 1: And then when he would audition, he just continued not
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Speaker 1: to get cast, and so before long it just sort
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Speaker 1: of felt like he was working these two kind of
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Speaker 1: awful jobs all the time, barely sleeping, so that he
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Speaker 1: could just get rejected over and over and over again
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Speaker 1: and not break into Hollywood. It was depressing, and ultimately
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Speaker 1: what he decided to.
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Speaker 2: Do was, you know what, I'm going to quit one
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Speaker 2: of my jobs.
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Speaker 1: He decided he would quit the limo stripper job and
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Speaker 1: just do the chicken suit job to buy a little
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Speaker 1: bit more time during the day so he could audition
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Speaker 1: a little bit more and for a little while he
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Speaker 1: would just put all of his effort into that and
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Speaker 1: hopefully land a big spot. And if he didn't, well,
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Speaker 1: then his big dream likely was not going to pan
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Speaker 1: out and he'd have to move back home. But on
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Speaker 1: Will's final shift as a stripper driver, one of the
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Speaker 1: strippers actually said something to him that totally changed his life.
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Speaker 1: He was driving him around on their way to bachelor parties,
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Speaker 1: doing this and that, and at some point Will struck
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Speaker 1: up a conversation with this woman. You know, she was
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Speaker 1: a stripper, but during the day, she too was trying
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Speaker 1: to become an actress. Stripping was her side gig to
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Speaker 1: make enough money to live in La to try to
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Speaker 1: break into the industry.
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Speaker 2: You know, it wasn't going great for her.
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Speaker 1: But you know she was enthusiastic and committed the same
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Speaker 1: way Will was. And over the course of this conversation,
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Speaker 1: she told Will that, you know, in addition to auditioning
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Speaker 1: and you know, working when you had to, you should
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Speaker 1: also take this particular acting class.
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Speaker 2: There's this one great class.
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Speaker 1: That all the biggest and best aspiring actors and actresses
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Speaker 1: are taking and lots of very successful actors and actresses
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Speaker 1: have taken like this is the one to get into.
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Speaker 1: You really ought to divert some of your time during
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Speaker 1: the day to going to this class and for will
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Speaker 1: you know. He appreciated the input, but he's thinking, like,
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Speaker 1: that's not really going to help me right now. I
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Speaker 1: don't need to learn how to act. That's going to
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Speaker 1: take way too long. Like I don't need that. I
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Speaker 1: need I need action. I need to audition. I need
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Speaker 1: to just be given a role and then my training
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Speaker 1: will be on the job. I'll learn by.
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Speaker 2: Acting, not by training to act.
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Speaker 1: However, he's also thinking to himself as he's driving around
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Speaker 1: all night and she's talking about how great this class
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Speaker 1: is that he's like, you know what, at the same time,
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Speaker 1: though my auditions have not gone well, nothing's really going well,
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Speaker 1: and so maybe I'll just go to this class once.
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Speaker 2: I mean, she's gonna be there, she wants me to go.
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Speaker 2: I'll go with her. I'll go one time, you know,
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Speaker 2: maybe maybe it'll be good for me.
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Speaker 1: And so he agrees to go, and so not long
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Speaker 1: after this final shift where he has this sort of
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Speaker 1: pivotal interaction with the stripper, he goes to the acting
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Speaker 1: class and you.
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Speaker 2: Know, the stripper is there and she's so excited to see.
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Speaker 1: Him, and you know, he makes his way in and
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Speaker 1: he sits down, and at some point during the class,
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Speaker 1: the instructor says, Okay, we're gonna pair you up with
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Speaker 1: other people in the class, and you're going to act
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Speaker 1: out a scene in front of everybody else. And so
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Speaker 1: Will he randomly gets paired up with this other actor
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Speaker 1: who in fact had a real audition that night. The
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Speaker 1: scene they were going to act out was actually going
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Speaker 1: to be done in front of actual agency reps who
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Speaker 1: had come to this class.
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Speaker 2: They were there.
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Speaker 1: Literally to see this other actor do this particular scene.
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Speaker 1: Will was just being asked to basically play support and
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Speaker 1: allow this other actor.
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Speaker 2: To do their scene and hopefully get the part. And
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Speaker 2: Will knows this.
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Speaker 1: He's like going into this with Okay, I'm gonna read
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Speaker 1: these lines and you're gonna kind of be the one
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Speaker 1: really auditioning here, and.
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Speaker 2: It'll be in front of the whole class.
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Speaker 1: It'll be you know, both cool to see a real
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Speaker 1: audition and good exposure to the folks that are in
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Speaker 1: the class. And so they do this scene and Will,
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Speaker 1: who really is just trying to play a good supporting person.
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Speaker 1: Here is so unbelievably talented. He's so into the scene,
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Speaker 1: his emotions come through so beautifully that he completely overshadows
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Speaker 1: the other actor, like he completely destroys them and comes
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Speaker 1: out looking like the star that really he thought he was.
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Speaker 1: The agency reps were so blown away by it they
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Speaker 1: actually didn't cast the other actor who was supposed to
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Speaker 1: be auditioning for this role. They basically said, no, we're
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Speaker 1: not interested in you. We're gonna cast Will in this role.
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Speaker 1: Will basically stole the role from this other actor, and
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Speaker 1: this moment would end up being so talked about and
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Speaker 1: so iconic that this virtual nobody stole the show and
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Speaker 1: landed this role that people began talking about Will in Hollywood,
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Speaker 1: and wouldn't you know it, it led to his big break.
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Speaker 1: Will began getting cast left and right as the lead
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Speaker 1: actor the starring role.
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Speaker 2: In Hollywood hit after Hollywood hit. Today.
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Speaker 1: Will is one of the most famous and celebrated movie
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Speaker 1: stars who have ever lived. He's won everything from Academy
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Speaker 1: Awards in Golden Globes to People Magazine's Sexiest Man Alive.
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Speaker 1: Will is his first name, but he's better known by
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Speaker 1: his middle name Brad brad Pitt. In early April of
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Speaker 1: nineteen forty five, a fifteen year old girl named Edda
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Speaker 1: curled up on a pile of blankets inside the basement
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Speaker 1: of her aunt's house in Velp, which is a small
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Speaker 1: town in the Netherlands. Eda's stomach hurts so badly and
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Speaker 1: she felt weaker than she ever had in her whole life.
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Speaker 1: And this was because she was quite literally on the
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Speaker 1: brink of starving to death. Edda was five foot six
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Speaker 1: inches tall, but her weight had plummeted to just eighty
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Speaker 1: eight pounds. She couldn't walk, she couldn't stand, and she
10:34
Speaker 1: could barely speak. She was probably within a couple of
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Speaker 1: days of actually dying. And despite the fact that, you know,
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Speaker 1: her aunt and her mother were right down there with
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Speaker 1: her in the basement, along with some other refugees that
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Speaker 1: her family was housing in the basement with them, nobody
10:48
Speaker 1: had food to give her, and so as much as
10:50
Speaker 1: they wanted to help her, they couldn't. And on top
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Speaker 1: of that, making this already terrible situation even worse. You know, Eda,
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Speaker 1: her family and the refugees had literally been trapped down
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Speaker 1: here in this basement. You know, for months because it
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Speaker 1: was way too dangerous to go outside. It's part of
11:07
Speaker 1: the reason they couldn't get food. Going outside was a
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Speaker 1: death sentence in and of itself, because World War Two
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Speaker 1: was raging right outside. Bombs are being dropped, people are
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Speaker 1: being shot, the explosions left and right. I mean they're
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Speaker 1: totally trapped. So the country where Eda lived, the Netherlands,
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Speaker 1: had been under Nazi occupation for almost five years at
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Speaker 1: this point. When the Nazis had first taken over, Eda
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Speaker 1: had been this strong, very energetic girl with dreams of
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Speaker 1: becoming a professional ballet dancer. She'd been so young when
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Speaker 1: the occupation began that she hadn't fully understood what was
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Speaker 1: even happening. But then Eda's uncle, who was a prominent
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Speaker 1: anti Nazi activist, had been captured and executed by the Nazis,
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Speaker 1: and this really spurred Eeda into action. I mean, she
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Speaker 1: saw how serious this really was and she was not
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Speaker 1: just going to stand idly by, and so she had
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Speaker 1: spent several years working with an anti Nazi group called
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Speaker 1: the Dutch was existence, doing things like, you know, performing
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Speaker 1: ballet at secret fundraising events to try to raise money
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Speaker 1: for this anti Nazi movement, and also smuggling resistance newspapers
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Speaker 1: all over the country.
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Speaker 2: She'd even convinced her family.
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Speaker 1: To take in refugees and hide them from the Nazis,
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Speaker 1: even though she knew that if she and her family
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Speaker 1: were caught, they would all be killed. And all of
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Speaker 1: this had given Da a real sense of purpose, you know,
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Speaker 1: she felt like she was actually doing something tangible to
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Speaker 1: fight the Nazis. However, about nine months earlier, the Nazis
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Speaker 1: had cut off supply lines into the Netherlands, and since
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Speaker 1: then the entire country had been completely devastated. People had
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Speaker 1: basically no food, they had zero access to medicine, running water,
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Speaker 1: or electricity, and so Eda, like many other people in
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Speaker 1: this country, had begun to starve, and she'd gotten so
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Speaker 1: sick and so weak that as she was starving, she
12:51
Speaker 1: couldn't do any work with the resistance at all anymore.
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Speaker 1: All she could do was literally just lie in this
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Speaker 1: basement and effectively wait to die. And that particular day,
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Speaker 1: as she listened to the sound planes, gunshots and sirens
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Speaker 1: going off outside at a prayed to God for help,
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Speaker 1: but the only response she got was a high pitched
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Speaker 1: whistling sound, then a deafening blast the floor shook, glass shattered,
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Speaker 1: and everything went black. Sometime later, we don't know exactly
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Speaker 1: how long, probably days, Ata came too, and unbelievably, as
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Speaker 1: she looked around, you know, despite effectively her basement being
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Speaker 1: the target of a bombing run, she looked around and
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Speaker 1: saw the basement structural integrity had effectively held up, and
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Speaker 1: her loved ones and the refugees and she were all
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Speaker 1: still alive. But you know, at a she was not like,
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Speaker 1: oh great, everything's fine now. It was more like, okay,
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Speaker 1: you know, the Nazis are getting closer, and if they've
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Speaker 1: bombed us just now, you know, I'm bound to be
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Speaker 1: bombed again, or I'm gonna starve to death, like the
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Speaker 1: end is right on top of us.
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Speaker 2: But as she kind of looked around.
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Speaker 1: And continued to take stock up the situation, she realized
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Speaker 1: something was very different. Over the last several weeks and months,
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Speaker 1: the constant bombardment of bombs and guns and sirens and
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Speaker 1: chaos outside was near constant. But right now, even though
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Speaker 1: they've just recently been bombed and barely survived, like the
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Speaker 1: Nazis must be right on top of us.
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Speaker 2: Despite that, she's listening.
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Speaker 1: And she can't hear anything outside. There's no explosions, no gunfire, nothing,
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Speaker 1: It's quiet. Eda and her family were much more confused
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Speaker 1: than anything else. But eventually they worked up the courage
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Speaker 1: and you know, with the help of her mother literally
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Speaker 1: carrying Eda, the group of them along with the refugees,
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Speaker 1: walked out of the basement to see what was going
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Speaker 1: on outside.
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Speaker 2: And when they got up there, what they.
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Speaker 1: Found where the streets were full of Allied soldiers and
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Speaker 1: they saw Dutch people crying and hugging, saying it was
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Speaker 1: all over. And that's when Eda, her family, and the
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Speaker 1: remaining refugees that were with them realized the Allied soldiers
14:58
Speaker 1: had liberated their city for the first time in nearly
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Speaker 1: five years. They were now free from Nazi occupation. If
15:05
Speaker 1: that bomb had struck more directly on their basement, or
15:10
Speaker 1: if the war had simply gone on for even just
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Speaker 1: one more day, Eda could have very easily died in
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Speaker 1: that basement. Instead, she survived, against all odds, she survived.
15:21
Speaker 1: Shortly after coming out of the basement. The Allied powers
15:25
Speaker 1: didn't just liberate that city where Eda lived, They fully
15:29
Speaker 1: eradicated the Nazis across Europe.
15:31
Speaker 2: The Allies on and World War.
15:34
Speaker 1: II finally ended, and Eda, who basically shouldn't be alive
15:37
Speaker 1: at this point, went on to have this unbelievable post
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Speaker 1: war life. Before the war, Eda had dreamed of becoming
15:45
Speaker 1: a professional ballet dancer, but during the war she had
15:49
Speaker 1: suffered all these injuries and really had been affected by malnutrition,
15:53
Speaker 1: and it left her with long term health problems that
15:56
Speaker 1: effectively made dancing full time not a possibility. Instead, she
16:00
Speaker 1: began modeling and acting, and eventually she moved to Hollywood,
16:04
Speaker 1: and in nineteen fifty three, so eight years after nearly
16:08
Speaker 1: being blown up by the Nazis and starved to death
16:10
Speaker 1: by the Nazis, Eda starred in a movie called Roman Holiday,
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Speaker 1: and she actually won an Academy Award.
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Speaker 2: For her performance.
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Speaker 1: Even though World War Two had taken a lot from
16:20
Speaker 1: Eda and her family, I mean, it had nearly killed her,
16:22
Speaker 1: and it also took away her dream of being a
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Speaker 1: ballet dancer. Despite that, experiencing the war so intimately like
16:29
Speaker 1: she had, like she had been forced to, it had
16:31
Speaker 1: instilled this incredible poise and discipline and a real quiet
16:35
Speaker 1: strength in her that would make her one of the
16:38
Speaker 1: most successful actresses.
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Speaker 2: Of all time.
16:41
Speaker 1: Eda was actually just her nickname and when she started
16:44
Speaker 1: making it big in Hollywood, she abandoned it and began
16:47
Speaker 1: going by her full name, Audrey Hepburn. One morning in
17:10
Speaker 1: the summer of eighteen eighty nine, a thirty six year
17:12
Speaker 1: old surgeon named William Halstead and his head nurse, twenty
17:16
Speaker 1: seven year old Caroline Hampton, stood in an operating room
17:19
Speaker 1: prep area in the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland.
17:23
Speaker 1: Doctor Halsted was the surgeon in chief of this hospital,
17:26
Speaker 1: and that morning he and Caroline were getting ready for
17:28
Speaker 1: a surgery. Now, doctor Halsted had already washed up and
17:31
Speaker 1: was prepped, and now he was watching Caroline very closely
17:36
Speaker 1: to make sure she followed his hygiene requirements exactly. Caroline
17:40
Speaker 1: stood in front of a row of sinks that were
17:43
Speaker 1: all filled with different cleaning agents. She started by washing
17:47
Speaker 1: her hands with scalding hot water and medical grade antibacterial soap.
17:52
Speaker 1: Then she cleaned her nails with brushes and files. Then
17:56
Speaker 1: she dipped her hands in acid, and then she find
18:00
Speaker 1: finished with a five minute soak in a highly corrosive
18:02
Speaker 1: liquid called mercury bichloride. Doctor Halstead ran a really tight ship, specifically.
18:09
Speaker 2: When it came to hand washing.
18:10
Speaker 1: This was the process he believed was the safest. And
18:14
Speaker 1: doctor Halsted's theory that basically nuking your hands with cleaning
18:18
Speaker 1: agents before doing anything in the medical field actually made
18:21
Speaker 1: him sort of unique at the time because this was
18:24
Speaker 1: eighteen eighty nine and hand washing was just not very common,
18:29
Speaker 1: not even in hospitals. Germ theory, which is the idea
18:32
Speaker 1: that illnesses can spread by germs, germs that we can't see,
18:36
Speaker 1: and they're all over us, on our hands in particular,
18:38
Speaker 1: and so we have to kill the germs to prevent
18:40
Speaker 1: the spread of illness, right that theory. Germ theory was
18:45
Speaker 1: very new at the time, and truthfully, a lot of
18:47
Speaker 1: doctors at the time didn't believe in germ theory, which
18:51
Speaker 1: meant they didn't do things which we would now consider
18:53
Speaker 1: standard hygiene practice in hospitals, like you know, basic hand
18:57
Speaker 1: washing and regularly disinfecting tools and surfaces. And doctor Halstead
19:02
Speaker 1: was a huge proponent of germ theory and aggressive hand washing,
19:07
Speaker 1: and so he had instituted this whole multi step awful
19:10
Speaker 1: hand washing routine for his whole surgical team at Johns Hopkins,
19:14
Speaker 1: and the results had actually been fantastic. He had one
19:17
Speaker 1: of the lowest surgical mortality rates in the whole country.
19:20
Speaker 1: But despite that, people still sort of thought doctor Halsted
19:24
Speaker 1: was crazy, including his own staff, who you know, complained
19:27
Speaker 1: about these highly corrosive cleaning materials that they were rubbing
19:30
Speaker 1: all over their hands all the time, like even if
19:33
Speaker 1: even if this worked, like this was kind of awful.
19:35
Speaker 1: But despite that, doctor Halsted was not about to change
19:38
Speaker 1: his protocol.
19:39
Speaker 2: He knew it worked even if it hurt.
19:41
Speaker 1: But that particular day, as doctor Halstead and Caroline sat
19:46
Speaker 1: there letting their hands air dry after dipping them repeatedly
19:49
Speaker 1: in acid, he couldn't help but notice when he looked.
19:52
Speaker 2: Over at Caroline that her hands and her.
19:54
Speaker 1: Forearms looked really bad, like they were blistered and just
19:59
Speaker 1: totally damn imaged from clearly doing this process all the time.
20:02
Speaker 1: And you know, doctor Halstead, he just sort of felt
20:04
Speaker 1: bad about it. And the reason he felt bad about
20:07
Speaker 1: it was sort of twofold one. Caroline never complained, even
20:12
Speaker 1: though obviously every day when she would do this procedure
20:15
Speaker 1: that he is forcing on her, she was hurting herself
20:18
Speaker 1: in the process, but she never complained, and so that's
20:20
Speaker 1: actually why he had elevated her to head nurse because
20:22
Speaker 1: he thought she had such grit and determination and she
20:25
Speaker 1: believed in the process, and so he had made her
20:27
Speaker 1: head nurse. But the other and more prominent reason why
20:31
Speaker 1: doctor Halstead felt sort of bad about Caroline, in particular
20:35
Speaker 1: in the condition of her hands and forearms, was because
20:37
Speaker 1: Doctor Halstead was secretly totally infatuated with Caroline. Now, he
20:43
Speaker 1: had never told her that. This was something he kept
20:45
Speaker 1: completely inside because he one thought he was too old
20:48
Speaker 1: for her, and two he just kind of assumed that
20:51
Speaker 1: she would never be interested in him. So he just
20:53
Speaker 1: carried this intense love of Caroline and was very protective
20:57
Speaker 1: of Caroline.
20:58
Speaker 2: But she didn't really know.
20:59
Speaker 1: And so oh that was why when he looked over
21:02
Speaker 1: and saw her clearly in pain but not complaining that
21:05
Speaker 1: because of his love for her, Doctor Halstead really for
21:09
Speaker 1: the first time began to question his big hygiene process.
21:14
Speaker 1: He knew it worked, but at what cost. His beloved
21:17
Speaker 1: Caroline was suffering because of him, and worse, he was
21:20
Speaker 1: sort of trapped. He would love to tell her that
21:23
Speaker 1: she didn't have to do that.
21:24
Speaker 2: Let your skin heal. I'm so sorry, Caroline.
21:26
Speaker 1: But if he did that, if he made an exception
21:29
Speaker 1: for her, and said, you know, don't follow this process anymore.
21:33
Speaker 1: People would find out and it would totally undermine his credibility.
21:37
Speaker 2: His whole thing is.
21:38
Speaker 1: He's like, everyone must follow this process to stop the
21:40
Speaker 1: spread of germs and stop the spread of illnesses. Hey,
21:43
Speaker 1: everybody's gotta do this. And so if he didn't make her,
21:45
Speaker 1: what does that say about him? And so, as he's
21:47
Speaker 1: sitting there watching Caroline dutifully get ready for surgery, doctor
21:52
Speaker 1: Halstead for the first time really began seriously considering if
21:56
Speaker 1: there was any way, any sort of workaround that Abe
22:00
Speaker 1: could lessen the pain for Caroline just because he loved her.
22:04
Speaker 2: That was it. It wasn't a safety thing. It was
22:06
Speaker 2: just because he loved Caroline.
22:08
Speaker 1: But despite putting some real thought and energy into trying
22:11
Speaker 1: to come up with something to lessen the burden on Caroline,
22:15
Speaker 1: he just couldn't find a solution. All his solutions involved
22:19
Speaker 1: her not following the process, which she couldn't do. Fast
22:22
Speaker 1: forward to early eighteen ninety, so about a year after
22:26
Speaker 1: doctor Halstead first really began considering how can he help
22:30
Speaker 1: Caroline not hurt her hands anymore? So about a year
22:33
Speaker 1: after that began to be a thing for him, and
22:36
Speaker 1: he's in his office and he's looking at his desk,
22:38
Speaker 1: and on his desk is this small package and he
22:41
Speaker 1: hasn't opened it yet, but he's so excited. He's also
22:44
Speaker 1: kind of nervous, but he feels like, this is it,
22:47
Speaker 1: this is the thing I've been waiting for. So over
22:50
Speaker 1: the past year, doctor Halstead had continued to iterate on
22:53
Speaker 1: how can I help Caroline, how can I keep her
22:56
Speaker 1: from hurting herself?
22:57
Speaker 2: And eventually he had this huge epiphany.
23:00
Speaker 1: He came up with this sort of outside the box
23:03
Speaker 1: concept and he pitched it to a company and said, hey,
23:05
Speaker 1: can you help me make these? And now sitting in
23:08
Speaker 1: front of him on the desk was effectively the prototype
23:11
Speaker 1: of this strange thing he had come up with, which
23:14
Speaker 1: again was just to help his love Caroline. And so
23:19
Speaker 1: doctor Halstead took a deep breath, he walked over and
23:22
Speaker 1: he ripped open the package and inside were these two
23:26
Speaker 1: strange looking objects, and he picked them up, and without
23:29
Speaker 1: any hesitation, doctor Halstead took the two objects. He left
23:33
Speaker 1: his office, hustled down the hallway to the oer prep
23:35
Speaker 1: room where he finds Caroline and she's getting ready to
23:38
Speaker 1: wash her hands, you know, for an upcoming surgery. And
23:41
Speaker 1: he stops her and says here, and he hands with
23:43
Speaker 1: the two objects, and he says, don't wash your hands,
23:47
Speaker 1: just use these, And with a confused look, you know,
23:49
Speaker 1: with their bloody and blistered hands.
23:51
Speaker 2: She took the two objects and said okay.
23:54
Speaker 1: One week later and already Caroline's hands and forearms were
23:58
Speaker 1: healing up beautifully. And also doctor Halstead, over the course
24:02
Speaker 1: of this week, was so excited about his prototype and
24:05
Speaker 1: the progress that he was clearly seeing in Caroline's skin condition,
24:09
Speaker 1: that he finally worked up the nerve to tell Caroline
24:11
Speaker 1: how much he loved her. Caroline would actually tell him that,
24:14
Speaker 1: you know, believe it or not, I'm in love with
24:16
Speaker 1: you too, And before long doctor Halstead proposed to.
24:19
Speaker 2: Caroline and they got married.
24:21
Speaker 1: However, it was not their love that sort of was
24:24
Speaker 1: remembered for generations to come. Instead, the only reason we
24:28
Speaker 1: know about these two is because of that prototype that
24:31
Speaker 1: doctor Halstead came up with what he gave to Caroline
24:33
Speaker 1: that ultimately saved her skin. It was the perfect workaround
24:38
Speaker 1: to his hygiene hand washing process. In fact, these objects
24:41
Speaker 1: that he created were so effective that he and everybody
24:45
Speaker 1: else basically in medicine across the world began to use
24:49
Speaker 1: these brand new tools, and so it is almost entirely
24:53
Speaker 1: because of one man's love for a woman that we
24:56
Speaker 1: now have arguably the most used medical tool in the world.
25:01
Speaker 1: Doctor Halstead inadvertently created the world's first ever rubber surgical gloves.
25:13
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for watching. Let me know what
25:15
Speaker 1: you thought of today's episode in the comments. And remember,
25:18
Speaker 1: we have hundreds of videos for you to binge right now.
25:21
Speaker 1: But if you're looking for a recommendation for me of
25:24
Speaker 1: that one video that's worth your time, well it's this
25:27
Speaker 1: one right here, So give it a watch, all right,
25:30
Speaker 1: Until next time, see ya,