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IF-you-can-watch-till-the-end-you-won-t · Crime and Horror

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Speaker 1: Today, we're going to look at three medical mysteries, with
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Speaker 1: each story being more unbelievable than the last. But before
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Speaker 1: we get into those stories, if you're a fan of
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Speaker 1: the strange, dark and mysterious delivered in story format, and
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Speaker 1: you come to the right place, because that's all we do,
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Speaker 1: and we upload once a week. So if that's of
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Speaker 1: any of our weekly uploads. Okay, let's get into today's stories.
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Speaker 1: On June fourteenth, twenty eleven, forty two year old Ellie
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Speaker 1: Lobul stepped unsteadily outside of her house in Wildemar, California,
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Speaker 1: and immediately she had to lean on her round the
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Speaker 1: clock caretaker for support. This mother of three had just
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Speaker 1: moved to this part of California so she could die
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Speaker 1: in peace. For the last fifteen years, Ellie had been
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Speaker 1: battling lime disease, which is a chronic and debilitating condition
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Speaker 1: spread by ticks. But now, after those fifteen years of fighting,
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Speaker 1: Ellie just had no more energy. She could barely stand
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Speaker 1: up on her own. Her mind was kind of always
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Speaker 1: in this weird fog, and she just felt totally hopeless,
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Speaker 1: and so Ellie had recently hired an end of life
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Speaker 1: coordinator to help her plan for her death and also
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Speaker 1: to make sure nobody attempted to revive or resuscitate Ellie
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Speaker 1: if she fell unconscious. Ellie really thought she was going
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Speaker 1: to die any moment and just wanted it to happen
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Speaker 1: in peace in California, in her bed. But dying can
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Speaker 1: be complicated, and Ellie, after moving to California, had laid
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Speaker 1: in her bed for three days expecting to die, but didn't,
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Speaker 1: and so on June fourteenth, Ellie decided she would just
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Speaker 1: get up and with the help of her caretaker, she
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Speaker 1: would just go for a walk in her new town.
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Speaker 1: Every step was painful for Ellie as she clutched her
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Speaker 1: caretaker's arm, but the sun was out, the sky was blue,
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Speaker 1: and flowers were in bloom all around her, and just
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Speaker 1: for a moment, Ellie suddenly realized she was feeling something
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Speaker 1: she had not felt in a long time. She was
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Speaker 1: feeling grateful to be alive. But that feeling was very
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Speaker 1: short lived, because as she stood on this sunny sidewalk
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Speaker 1: in California, she suddenly felt something small and sharp smack
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Speaker 1: into her forehead, and Ellie she kind of looked up
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Speaker 1: and realized it was a bee. Now she was determined
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Speaker 1: not to let an insect ruin this rare instance of
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Speaker 1: happiness in her life. Ellie just kind of reached up
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Speaker 1: and tried to swat it away, but when she looked
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Speaker 1: up again, she noticed the bee was still there, and worse,
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Speaker 1: there was now an entire cloud, a swarm of bees
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Speaker 1: over her head that were descending down on her. And
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Speaker 1: as this happened, Ellie's caretaker, who saw the swarm, screamed,
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Speaker 1: let go of Ellie and ran away from her. And
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Speaker 1: so poor old Ellie, who couldn't even stand up in
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Speaker 1: her own was forced to fall to the ground and
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Speaker 1: kind of cover her head with her hands to try
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Speaker 1: to protect herself. But within seconds, these bees had descended
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Speaker 1: on her and were stinging her head, her ears, her face.
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Speaker 1: I mean, she was getting destroyed. And these were not
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Speaker 1: normal bees. These were African killer bees that were known
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Speaker 1: for stinging their victim dozens of times. And Ellie was
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Speaker 1: fiercely allergic to beastings and so instead of dying a
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Speaker 1: peaceful death in her bed, Ellie was now going to
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Speaker 1: die a viciously painful, awful public death out on the sidewalk,
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Speaker 1: all by herself. Ellie's life had started out with so
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Speaker 1: much promise. By the time she was just eighteen years old,
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Speaker 1: she had already earned her PhD in physics, and then
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Speaker 1: by nineteen ninety six, when she was twenty seven years old,
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Speaker 1: Ellie and her husband had three beautiful children, and they
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Speaker 1: had moved into their dream home in New York's Westchester County.
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Speaker 1: Her life really seemed perfect. But that same year they
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Speaker 1: moved into their dream home, Ellie suddenly noticed there was
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Speaker 1: this rash at the top of her thigh and it
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Speaker 1: kind of looked like a red bullseye, and Ellie had
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Speaker 1: chalked it up to some sort of weird spider bite
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Speaker 1: and not thought much of it, not realizing that that
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Speaker 1: bullseye marking is actually the calling card for ticks who
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Speaker 1: carry lime disease. That's what they leave behind after they
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Speaker 1: bite you. But Ellie didn't know that, and so not
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Speaker 1: long after seeing this rash, Ellie began having night sweats
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Speaker 1: and night shakes. She had these flu like symptoms that
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Speaker 1: didn't go away for months, and it left her totally
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Speaker 1: exhausted and discouraged. Doctors told her that she could have
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Speaker 1: arthritis or fibromyalgia, or MS or heart failure or some
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Speaker 1: other horrible condition, but it was ultimately a park ranger
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Speaker 1: that Ellie just happened to meet one day who recognized
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Speaker 1: that that rash she described at the top of her
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Speaker 1: leg was very likely because she had been bit by
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Speaker 1: a tick that had lime disease. And now all of
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Speaker 1: these symptoms that seemed like lime disease too. And then
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Speaker 1: when Ellie went into the doctor and said, I think
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Speaker 1: I have lime disease, they said, yup, you do, but
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Speaker 1: now the disease has progressed so far it's basically too
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Speaker 1: late for you. And so for years Ellie wasn't able
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Speaker 1: to work or really even be a mother because of
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Speaker 1: this disease. And then eventually her marriage fell apart and
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Speaker 1: ended in bitter divorce. And so this disease really had
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Speaker 1: just kind of wrecked Ellie's life. And so at the
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Speaker 1: fifteen year mark of having this disease, she decided, you
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Speaker 1: know what, enough is enough. I'm going to California and
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Speaker 1: I'm going to die on my own terms. But Ellie
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Speaker 1: had envisioned a peaceful death in her bed, not an
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Speaker 1: agonizing death caused by a barrage of African killer beastings
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Speaker 1: out on a sidewalk in some random town in California.
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Speaker 1: The attack on Ellie lasted maybe about a minute, but
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Speaker 1: it was the longest minute of Ellie's life. The pain
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Speaker 1: was just unimaginable. And then after all the bees had left,
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Speaker 1: Ellie's caretaker actually came running back over to her, scooped
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Speaker 1: her up, and began running with her back to the car.
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Speaker 1: And as Ellie was getting carried, Ellie realized her caretaker
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Speaker 1: was probably going to take her to the hospital, and
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Speaker 1: she didn't want that. You know, even though she had
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Speaker 1: had that of a nice moment before the beastings, when
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Speaker 1: she was looking around at this beautiful town and the
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Speaker 1: sun was out and the flowers were out, that wasn't
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Speaker 1: enough to inspire her to want to live. She still,
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Speaker 1: deep down did just want to die. And so she figured,
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Speaker 1: you know, with these beastings, I'm going to have an
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Speaker 1: allergic reaction any minute now, and that's going to take
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Speaker 1: me out, and I just want it to happen so
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Speaker 1: I can be done, and so Ellie made her caretake her,
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Speaker 1: drive her back to the house and put her in bed,
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Speaker 1: and then Ellie laid there waiting to die. But three
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Speaker 1: days later and Ellie had not died yet. In fact,
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Speaker 1: she actually felt the best she had felt in years.
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Speaker 1: There had been no discernible allergic reaction to all of
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Speaker 1: these beastings all over her head, and all the chronic
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Speaker 1: pain and discomfort that she normally felt all the time
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Speaker 1: from lime disease was gone. And after doing some research
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Speaker 1: about beastings and about lime disease, Ellie came across this
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Speaker 1: nineteen ninety seven study done in Australia that found the
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Speaker 1: active ingredient in some wasp and beastings was powerful to
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Speaker 1: kill the bacteria that causes lime disease. But no one
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Speaker 1: had ever really researched this because it was totally unethical
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Speaker 1: to release a swarm of bees on a critical lime
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Speaker 1: disease patient. But in Ellie's case, this happened on its own,
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Speaker 1: and it really did cure her. The beast things literally
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Speaker 1: saved her life, and since her be attack, Ellie has
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Speaker 1: become the leading advocate for b venom as a treatment
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Speaker 1: for lime disease. I am so excited to announce that
7:32
Speaker 1: we here at Ballin Studios have a brand new show
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Speaker 1: that is live right now for free on all podcast platforms.
7:41
Speaker 1: It's called Mister Ballin's Medical Mysteries, and as you might
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Speaker 1: have guessed, it's about medical mysteries. Take for example, the
7:48
Speaker 1: very first episode of the show, called Ashes to Ashes.
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Speaker 1: It's about this adult son who goes to check on
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Speaker 1: his father who lives in the woods by himself. And
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Speaker 1: when he gets to his dad's house, he goes inside
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Speaker 1: and the powers off and there's this weird, gooey substance
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Speaker 1: on everything, the furniture, the wall's food everywhere, and the sun.
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Speaker 1: He calls out for his dad, he can't see his dad.
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Speaker 1: His dad doesn't call back, and so the sun leaves
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Speaker 1: and gets help. And when help arrives, they search his
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Speaker 1: father's house and they find something in the very back
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Speaker 1: of the house that is far more bizarre and shocking
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Speaker 1: than the gooey substance on the walls. Their discovery would
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Speaker 1: quickly become one of the most talked about medical mysteries
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Speaker 1: of all time. Again, this story is called Ashes to Ashes.
8:29
Speaker 1: It's episode number one on Mister Ballin's Medical Mysteries, which
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Speaker 1: is a podcast that is new and free and available everywhere.
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Speaker 1: New episodes of mister Ballin's Medical Mysteries will come out
8:40
Speaker 1: every Tuesday. But if you have no patience and you
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Speaker 1: right now, you can listen to eight episodes of mister
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8:56
Speaker 1: everywhere for free. In the late afternoon of May one,
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Speaker 1: twenty sixteen, thirteen year old show A Bombed and his
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Speaker 1: nine year old brother, Abdul Rashid chased a soccer ball
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Speaker 1: across the dusty plain near their little rural town in Pakistan. Abdul,
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Speaker 1: who was very athletic and quick on his feet, managed
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Speaker 1: to kick the ball past the defender and then kicked
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Speaker 1: a line drive shot right at the net. But at
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Speaker 1: the last second, the goalie jumped and blocked the shot,
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Speaker 1: and so Abdul threw his hands up in exasperation. But
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Speaker 1: even though he was frustrated he missed a shot, he
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Speaker 1: was having a blast. He loved playing soccer with his
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Speaker 1: brother and the neighborhood kids, but as much fun as
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Speaker 1: he was having. Abdul at some point looked up and
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Speaker 1: he noticed the sun was starting to set behind the mountains,
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Speaker 1: and immediately when he saw that, the expression on his
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Speaker 1: face went completely deadpan. And then he looked over at
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Speaker 1: his brother show Abe, who also had noticed the sun
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Speaker 1: was setting, and by this point show Abe was already
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Speaker 1: rushing over to Abdul. He grabbed Obdu's hand, and the
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Speaker 1: two brothers, without a word to their friends, who were
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Speaker 1: just kind of standing there watching, they took off and
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Speaker 1: just hustled back towards their home. The brothers made it
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Speaker 1: to their home, but on the porch show Abe, the
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Speaker 1: older brother, just collapsed onto the ground, with his arms
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Speaker 1: and legs going totally stiff and his jaw locking up
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Speaker 1: to the point where he couldn't even speak an Obdul,
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Speaker 1: instead of trying to help, his brother, just stepped clear
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Speaker 1: over him and ran into the house and made it
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Speaker 1: to his bed, just in time for him to also collapse,
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Speaker 1: but onto the bed with his arms and legs being
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Speaker 1: just as stiff as his brothers, and his jaw also
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Speaker 1: being locked so he couldn't even speak. And then moments
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Speaker 1: later the boy's father would scoop show Abe off the porch,
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Speaker 1: carry him into the bedroom and put him in a bed,
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Speaker 1: cover him up, and then the father would rotate Abdul,
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Speaker 1: who was on his stomach over onto his back, and
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Speaker 1: he put the covers over him. And then the father
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Speaker 1: just left and got into his own bed and went
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Speaker 1: to sleep. And this was a typical night in this
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Speaker 1: family's household. The next day, a conoy of fancy cars
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Speaker 1: descended on this little village where show Abe and Abdul lived.
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Speaker 1: And in these vehicles were all these scientists from Pakistan's
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Speaker 1: Institute of Medical Sciences, and they had heard about the
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Speaker 1: boys' nightly bizarre collapses and they wanted to find out
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Speaker 1: if the condition was real. Now, if the scientists had
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Speaker 1: arrived in the village before sunrise, they would have found
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Speaker 1: Abdul and show Abe still in their beds in a
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Speaker 1: semi comatose state, unable to move. But it was almost
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Speaker 1: noon by the time the scientists arrived, and so when
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Speaker 1: they saw the two boys, they were outside goofing around
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Speaker 1: and playing, acting like everything was totally fine. In the village,
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Speaker 1: neighbors referred to Abdul and show Abe as the solar boys,
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Speaker 1: because they were only normal and active and like the
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Speaker 1: other kids during the daylight hours when the sun was up,
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Speaker 1: and then at night they would become totally paralyzed and mute. Now,
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Speaker 1: the villagers saw this happening, but they didn't really believe
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Speaker 1: it necessarily. They thought maybe the kids were making it
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Speaker 1: up to get attention, or maybe they were doing it
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Speaker 1: as like a grift to get people to donate money
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Speaker 1: to the family. But show Abe and Abdul's father completely
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Speaker 1: denied this and said they had not made any money
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Speaker 1: from what was happening to his sons, and all they
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Speaker 1: wanted to do was just figure out what was wrong
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Speaker 1: with them so they could help them. The scientists would
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Speaker 1: talk to Abdul and show Abe's father first, and he
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Speaker 1: would explain to them that really, since Abdul and show
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Speaker 1: Abe were very little, they had been suffering from these
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Speaker 1: nightly paralysis events. And so, with the family's permission, these
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Speaker 1: scientists got to work. They collected blood and urine samples,
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Speaker 1: not just from show Abe and Abdul, but from the
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Speaker 1: entire family, and then also the scientists tested Abdul and
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Speaker 1: show Abe's balance and coordination. You know, obviously, during the daytime,
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Speaker 1: and the boys both did completely fine, and then as
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Speaker 1: sunset approached, the scientists just stood there and watched as
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Speaker 1: Abdul and Shohab slowly lost control of their bodies and
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Speaker 1: became paralyzed and mute. And then throughout the night, these
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Speaker 1: scientists just came continued to watch them, and the boys
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Speaker 1: did not move at all. And then when the scientists
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Speaker 1: attempted to kind of move their limbs for them, they
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Speaker 1: were so rigid, almost like rigor mortis after you die,
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Speaker 1: that they really couldn't move their limbs at all. And
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Speaker 1: then the next morning, as the scientists were watching, the
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Speaker 1: sun came up and it was like suddenly, Obdul and
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Speaker 1: show Abe were totally back to normal. They popped out
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Speaker 1: of bed with a smile on their face, able to
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Speaker 1: move around, no problem. And so to the scientists who
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Speaker 1: watched this go on, they were left thinking, Okay, there's
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Speaker 1: no way these kids could be faking this, Like no
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Speaker 1: one could fake this. This is real. But the scientists
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Speaker 1: really didn't have any new information to pass to the
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Speaker 1: family because you know, the boy's blood and urine samples
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Speaker 1: came back completely normal and they had passed all of
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Speaker 1: their balance and coordination tests, and so it seemed like,
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Speaker 1: you know, Obdual and show Abe should be totally normal,
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Speaker 1: healthy boys, but they just weren't, and these scientists didn't
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Speaker 1: know why. Now, these scientists were not the first group
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Speaker 1: of people who had tried to solve the mystery of
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Speaker 1: the solar kits. For years, their father had been trying
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Speaker 1: to find someone who could help them, but he was
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Speaker 1: having no success. Doctors in the nearest hospital to their
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Speaker 1: village were convinced that the boys had a rare illness
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Speaker 1: that made them extremely tired only a couple of hours
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Speaker 1: after waking up in the morning, but Abdul and shoe
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Speaker 1: Abe had loads of energy all day long. It was
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Speaker 1: only when the sun came down that they became totally paralyzed,
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Speaker 1: and so the father didn't believe those doctors were really
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Speaker 1: taking this that seriously. The imam at a local mosque
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Speaker 1: was convinced the boys were possessed by demons, and so
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Speaker 1: he organized an exorcism, where a group of religious leaders
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Speaker 1: basically tapped on the boys with sticks while chanting in
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Speaker 1: rhythm and dousing them with holy water. But that didn't work,
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Speaker 1: and so the family was close to giving up on
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Speaker 1: ever finding help for their sons. But then in April
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Speaker 1: of twenty sixteen, so a month before that team of
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Speaker 1: scientists descended on the village to research the boys, a
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Speaker 1: TV news reporter from Pakistan's version of CNN came to
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Speaker 1: the village to interview the family because this reporter had
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Speaker 1: heard about this strange condition these boys had, and this
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Speaker 1: interview was seen by millions and millions of people, including
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Speaker 1: Pakistan's most esteemed and influential doctor, a man named doctor
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Speaker 1: Javed Akram, who happened to be the vice chancellor of
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Speaker 1: Pakistan's Institute of Medical Sciences. Doctor Akram had never heard
15:31
Speaker 1: of such a strange condition, and so he was the
15:34
Speaker 1: one who ordered those team of scientists to go to
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Speaker 1: the village and research this family. And after those scientists
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Speaker 1: came back and checked in with doctor Akram, it was
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Speaker 1: clear they had not had a sort of breakthrough moment
15:46
Speaker 1: with regards to what was going on with these boys,
15:49
Speaker 1: but they were very convinced that this was a real condition,
15:52
Speaker 1: and so doctor Akram decided that he and his team
15:55
Speaker 1: would just continue to study this family until they figured
15:59
Speaker 1: out what the heck was going on with these two boys.
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Speaker 1: And finally, a year later, in May of twenty seventeen,
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Speaker 1: doctor Okram believed he had figured out what was wrong
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Speaker 1: with them, and he even had a solution. But his
16:12
Speaker 1: solution was so simple that doctor Okram actually kind of
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Speaker 1: second guessed himself, thinking, you know, this is too good
16:18
Speaker 1: to be true. So the doctor decided he would run
16:21
Speaker 1: one more experiment just to test his theory and make
16:25
Speaker 1: sure he really was correct. And so doctor Acrm flew Obdul,
16:29
Speaker 1: show Abe and their father out to his institute in Islamabad,
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Speaker 1: and that night, doctor Ackrim watched as the two boys
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Speaker 1: slowly slipped into paralysis as the sun went down. But
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Speaker 1: this time, as soon as the paralysis was clearly beginning,
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Speaker 1: doctor Akram gave each of the boys a pill, and
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Speaker 1: forty minutes would go by, and suddenly Abdul, who was
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Speaker 1: totally mute and laying there, still, broke into a smile,
16:54
Speaker 1: and then he raised his right leg, and then show
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Speaker 1: Abe right next to him, he too smiled and turned
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Speaker 1: his head. And then twenty minutes after that, both boys
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Speaker 1: were up on their feet, totally fine, laughing and joking.
17:05
Speaker 1: Because they had never really done anything at night, they
17:08
Speaker 1: were always paralyzed as soon as it started to get dark.
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Speaker 1: It would turn out doctor Acrum and his team had
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Speaker 1: discovered a very strange mutation in Obdul and show Abe.
17:18
Speaker 1: Our brains naturally produce all sorts of chemicals that keep
17:22
Speaker 1: them running, and one of those chemicals is called dopamine.
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Speaker 1: Dopamine does several things, but one of those things is
17:29
Speaker 1: it controls muscle movement. The mutation that doctor Akram and
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Speaker 1: his team had discovered was that the boy's genes were
17:37
Speaker 1: mistakenly shutting off dopamine production every single night, and so
17:41
Speaker 1: that was why they were becoming totally paralyzed. This mutation
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Speaker 1: was the result of a series of complex genetic mistakes,
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Speaker 1: but the fix was actually quite simple. The pill that
17:53
Speaker 1: doctor Acrum gave Abdul and show Abe was just a
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Speaker 1: dopamine pill, and what it did is it basically just
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Speaker 1: turned the boy's bodies back on. And so doctor Ackrum
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Speaker 1: and his team had discovered quite possibly the world's rarest disease,
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Speaker 1: only afflicting one family. But fortunately they had also found
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Speaker 1: the cure two and so Abdullah show Abe from that
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Speaker 1: day forward lived totally normal lives by taking their dopamine
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Speaker 1: pills every night. On the evening of July third, nineteen
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Speaker 1: ninety two, thirty five year old George Decker was cooking
18:35
Speaker 1: in the kitchen inside of the apartment that he shared
18:38
Speaker 1: with his girlfriend in Jasper, Indiana, and as George cooked,
18:42
Speaker 1: he began to cough. At first, George thought it was
18:45
Speaker 1: just a little tickle in his throat that would go away.
18:47
Speaker 1: But as he continued to cough, this feeling, this sensation
18:50
Speaker 1: in his throat that was making him cough was only
18:53
Speaker 1: getting worse and worse. And this cough was not a
18:56
Speaker 1: normal cough. It was a deep, guttural, kind of rough
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Speaker 1: sounding cough that really hurt as he did it, and
19:02
Speaker 1: it kind of scared George, like he had never heard
19:05
Speaker 1: himself make this sound before. And in the other room,
19:08
Speaker 1: George's girlfriend, Juanita, she heard this very odd sounding cough,
19:12
Speaker 1: and so she came out into the kitchen to see
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Speaker 1: what was going on. And when she got there, she
19:16
Speaker 1: found George leaning on the counter, barely able to catch
19:19
Speaker 1: his breath because he was coughing so much. And this
19:22
Speaker 1: was totally out of character for George. He wasn't sick,
19:25
Speaker 1: he didn't have some sort of respiratory problem, he didn't
19:28
Speaker 1: smoke cigarettes. He did work in a metal shop where
19:31
Speaker 1: he melted down aluminum and poured it into different molds.
19:35
Speaker 1: But he always followed all the safety precautions. He wore
19:38
Speaker 1: a mask, you know, he did all the things you're
19:40
Speaker 1: supposed to do to make sure he didn't inhale anything toxic.
19:44
Speaker 1: And so there was really no good reason why George
19:46
Speaker 1: would suddenly be having this unbelievable coughing fit. And so
19:50
Speaker 1: as juan Nita kept asking George, you know, hey, are
19:52
Speaker 1: you okay? Can I do anything? George, he can't even talk.
19:56
Speaker 1: He just pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket and
19:58
Speaker 1: he put it over his mouth as he continued to cough,
20:01
Speaker 1: and then when he pulled the handkerchief away, it was
20:03
Speaker 1: clearly covered in blood. Now, George was quick to kind
20:06
Speaker 1: of put the handkerchief back in his pocket, not wanting
20:09
Speaker 1: to deal with the fact that he was coughing up blood.
20:12
Speaker 1: But Janita, she saw the blood and said, okay, George,
20:14
Speaker 1: I don't know what's going on, but you are going
20:16
Speaker 1: to the hospital right now now. George, even though he
20:19
Speaker 1: couldn't talk because he was coughing so much, clearly did
20:22
Speaker 1: not want to go, and he kind of resisted. Wanita
20:24
Speaker 1: pretty aggressively. He did not want to go, but Wanita
20:27
Speaker 1: finally grabbed him and literally dragged him through the house,
20:30
Speaker 1: out the front door, and down into their car, and
20:33
Speaker 1: then just a few moments later they were on their
20:35
Speaker 1: way to the hospital located a few miles away. By
20:38
Speaker 1: the time they actually parked in front of the emergency
20:41
Speaker 1: room at this hospital, George's cough had actually died down
20:45
Speaker 1: a little bit. And so now George was being really
20:47
Speaker 1: insistent that it was totally pointless to go to the hospital,
20:51
Speaker 1: that they did not need to be here, you know,
20:53
Speaker 1: take me back home. This is ridiculous. But Janita really
20:56
Speaker 1: pressed him and said, you can't goof around with coughing
20:59
Speaker 1: up blood. Have to go in there. And so finally George,
21:02
Speaker 1: who was totally annoyed by this, relented. He got out
21:05
Speaker 1: of the car and the two of them walked to
21:07
Speaker 1: the hospital. And then when they went in the front
21:09
Speaker 1: doors of this emergency room, a nurse came up to
21:12
Speaker 1: greet them and see what was going on, and George
21:15
Speaker 1: kind of inexplicably pushed the nurse like to get away
21:18
Speaker 1: from me. I don't need your help. And Janita, she
21:20
Speaker 1: was so embarrassed, and tried to apologize, and the staff
21:24
Speaker 1: just kind of rolled with it and just kind of
21:25
Speaker 1: gave him his space. And then for the rest of
21:27
Speaker 1: the time they were there, the staff basically only talked
21:30
Speaker 1: to Juanita while George sat in the corner with his
21:33
Speaker 1: arms crossed, unwilling to talk or give them any information.
21:37
Speaker 1: Toward the end of this hospital visit, the doctor would
21:40
Speaker 1: prescribe George some antibiotics for what he called an upper
21:43
Speaker 1: respiratory infection, and then the doctor asked George if he
21:47
Speaker 1: was willing to stay the night so they could observe
21:49
Speaker 1: him and make sure he really was okay, but George
21:52
Speaker 1: flatly refused. He got up, turned around and practically ran
21:55
Speaker 1: out of the hospital, and Wanita said, I'm so sorry,
21:58
Speaker 1: and she followed after him. Over the next couple of days,
22:01
Speaker 1: George would take these antibiotics that he was prescribed, but
22:05
Speaker 1: they really did not make a difference. He continued to
22:07
Speaker 1: have these huge coughing fits, and even worse than that,
22:11
Speaker 1: something Juanita noticed was George's skin was clearly turning blue,
22:16
Speaker 1: in particular on his arms, his hands, his fingertips, and
22:19
Speaker 1: on his face. And so finally, about a week after
22:22
Speaker 1: that first visit, to the er Juanita. She looked at
22:25
Speaker 1: George and just felt like, he looks so bad. He
22:28
Speaker 1: has to go back. They have to check him again,
22:30
Speaker 1: and so Janita was able to again convince George to
22:33
Speaker 1: go to the hospital. He was very resistant to the idea,
22:36
Speaker 1: but now he was so physically weakened and drained from
22:39
Speaker 1: whatever was going on, he just kind of went with
22:42
Speaker 1: whatever Janita wanted. And this time when they went to
22:45
Speaker 1: the hospital, they would give George a chest X ray
22:48
Speaker 1: and it would reveal George had pneumonia in both of
22:51
Speaker 1: his lungs. This explained why he was coughing so much,
22:54
Speaker 1: and it also explained why his skin was turning blue.
22:58
Speaker 1: Because of this infection in his lungs, his body was
23:00
Speaker 1: not getting enough oxygen and when that happens, it leads
23:04
Speaker 1: to a condition known as cyanosis, which turns your skin blow.
23:07
Speaker 1: But when doctors tried to figure out what was actually
23:10
Speaker 1: causing George's pneumonia, they immediately ran into a brick wall.
23:14
Speaker 1: Usually pneumonia is caused by bacteria, viruses, or some other
23:19
Speaker 1: microscopic invader, and doctors can test a patient's mucus to
23:23
Speaker 1: determine which one it is but when they tested George's mucus,
23:27
Speaker 1: they couldn't find any evidence of anything that would cause pneumonia.
23:31
Speaker 1: The doctors also ruled out aluminum pollution because he did
23:34
Speaker 1: work in a metal plant and could have been inhaling
23:37
Speaker 1: the aluminum when he melted it down, but he was
23:39
Speaker 1: negative for that. And then also doctors began looking into
23:42
Speaker 1: all these crazy other possibilities like strange fungus that maybe
23:46
Speaker 1: George had come in contact with that caused this, or
23:49
Speaker 1: you know, very rare viruses and bacteria. But no matter
23:52
Speaker 1: what the doctors thought of when they tested George, it
23:55
Speaker 1: would come back negative. And so, with the exception of
23:58
Speaker 1: his X ray that clearly showed he had pneumonia, every
24:01
Speaker 1: other test they ran on George made it seem like
24:04
Speaker 1: he was a healthy guy. And so George would spend
24:07
Speaker 1: weeks in the hospital with doctors and nurses constantly trying
24:10
Speaker 1: to figure out what was wrong with him, but not succeeding,
24:13
Speaker 1: and as each day went by, George's condition got worse
24:16
Speaker 1: and worse, until finally he was put on a ventilator
24:20
Speaker 1: because his lungs actually just didn't work on their own,
24:22
Speaker 1: and so a ventilator basically force his air into the
24:25
Speaker 1: patient's body. But no matter how much oxygen they pumped
24:28
Speaker 1: into George's body, he continued to have these terrible coughing
24:31
Speaker 1: fits and his skins stayed blue. Finally, in October, so
24:36
Speaker 1: three months after George had first developed this coughing fit,
24:39
Speaker 1: he would pass away. George's doctors were totally baffled. It
24:43
Speaker 1: did not make sense what had happened to George. He
24:46
Speaker 1: was young and healthy, and then something that was totally
24:49
Speaker 1: powerful and aggressive had wiped him out. And so the
24:52
Speaker 1: doctors knew they needed to figure out what that thing
24:54
Speaker 1: was and how to cure it before other people died
24:57
Speaker 1: from the same mystery illness. On a October eighth, so,
25:01
Speaker 1: five days after George passed away, an Indiana pathologist named
25:05
Speaker 1: doctor Daniel C. Weaver, who was known for his ability
25:08
Speaker 1: to figure out unexplained deaths like George's, was called to
25:12
Speaker 1: the hospital where George died to perform George's autopsy. And
25:16
Speaker 1: when doctor Weaver began the autopsy and looked inside of George,
25:20
Speaker 1: he could not believe how just absolutely ruined George's lungs were.
25:25
Speaker 1: Healthy lungs are sort of like cotton candy. The tissue
25:28
Speaker 1: is light and airy, which is perfect for transferring the
25:31
Speaker 1: oxygen we breathe throughout our bodies. But George's lungs were
25:36
Speaker 1: thick and heavy, and they were lumpy with scar tissue.
25:39
Speaker 1: I mean, they were totally useless. And so doctor Weaver knew,
25:42
Speaker 1: you know, George basically suffocated to death. But now the
25:45
Speaker 1: question was why doctor Weaver would run into the same
25:49
Speaker 1: obstacles as all the other doctors when he attempted to
25:52
Speaker 1: find contamination inside of George's lungs. There was nothing to see.
25:57
Speaker 1: In fact, at the end of the autopsy, doctor Weaver
26:00
Speaker 1: had basically learned nothing as to why this happened to George.
26:04
Speaker 1: In frustration, after this autopsy was over, doctor Weaver went
26:08
Speaker 1: to George's medical records and just began reading through them.
26:11
Speaker 1: And it was at this point that he saw something
26:13
Speaker 1: very odd that other doctors clearly had seen too, but
26:17
Speaker 1: they must have thought it was not important. At that
26:19
Speaker 1: very first er visit, Juanita had told nurses and doctors
26:24
Speaker 1: that George, before he had begun coughing in the kitchen,
26:27
Speaker 1: he had been in a great mood, and generally speaking,
26:30
Speaker 1: George was just a very positive and upbeat person. But
26:33
Speaker 1: she said, once he started coughing, it was like he
26:36
Speaker 1: transformed into somebody else and became mean and nasty, and
26:40
Speaker 1: Juanita had to practically drag him to the hospital. And
26:43
Speaker 1: then also there was a note in the file about
26:45
Speaker 1: how George had walked through the doors and pushed that
26:48
Speaker 1: admissions nurse. And so doctor Weber thought to himself, you know,
26:52
Speaker 1: maybe George's belligerence was not just him being a jerk,
26:55
Speaker 1: but maybe he had ingested something toxic that was affecting
26:59
Speaker 1: of his lungs and also his brain, and that was
27:03
Speaker 1: causing him to behave this way. And so doctor Weaver
27:06
Speaker 1: called the manager of the metal shop where George had
27:09
Speaker 1: worked to try to ask him if there were other
27:12
Speaker 1: chemicals or toxins inside of the plant that maybe George
27:15
Speaker 1: had been exposed to. But the manager just did not
27:18
Speaker 1: want to talk about any of that. Instead, he just
27:21
Speaker 1: wanted to talk about basically how awful George was as
27:24
Speaker 1: a person. The manager clearly did not like George, and
27:28
Speaker 1: he began talking about how George was obsessed with making
27:31
Speaker 1: money at all costs, and that in addition to working
27:34
Speaker 1: in the metal plant, George had all these kind of
27:36
Speaker 1: sketchy kind of borderline illegal side jobs to make more money.
27:40
Speaker 1: And then at some point the manager just began talking
27:43
Speaker 1: about this one particular potential scam that George was involved
27:47
Speaker 1: in that had to do with little bits of silver
27:49
Speaker 1: and gold. And the doctor at this point is not
27:52
Speaker 1: really even listening. He just wants to get off the
27:54
Speaker 1: phone with this guy, because it's obvious the manager is
27:57
Speaker 1: not really trying to help, he's just trying to bash George.
28:01
Speaker 1: But at some point the manager, in detailing this golden
28:05
Speaker 1: silver scam, mentioned something that piquked the doctor's interest, and
28:09
Speaker 1: suddenly the doctor was really intently listening to this manager
28:13
Speaker 1: and actually began taking notes and asking clarifying questions about
28:17
Speaker 1: this particular scam that George was apparently involved in. And
28:20
Speaker 1: then when doctor Weaver hung up the phone with this manager,
28:24
Speaker 1: he felt pretty confident that he had actually figured out
28:27
Speaker 1: what had happened to George. The clues had all been
28:29
Speaker 1: there the whole time, George's blue skin and his rude
28:33
Speaker 1: and violent behavior at the er, but nobody had put
28:37
Speaker 1: them together correctly because the cause of what was happening
28:41
Speaker 1: to George was so weird no one would have ever
28:45
Speaker 1: thought of it on their own on the night that
28:47
Speaker 1: George first began coughing in the kitchen, he was not
28:51
Speaker 1: cooking dinner like everybody assumed. He was actually cooking teeth
28:57
Speaker 1: like human teeth. The metal shop manager told doctor Weaver
29:01
Speaker 1: on the phone about the scam that George was involved
29:04
Speaker 1: in that had to do with little bits of gold
29:06
Speaker 1: and silver, and the manager explained to doctor Weaver that
29:09
Speaker 1: George was going to all of these local dentists offices
29:13
Speaker 1: and he was collecting all of their discarded teeth. What
29:16
Speaker 1: George wanted was teeth that had fillings in them, because
29:19
Speaker 1: some of the fillings, especially for older patients, were made
29:23
Speaker 1: from gold and silver. George would then literally cook the
29:26
Speaker 1: teeth until he was able to extract the gold and silver. Now,
29:30
Speaker 1: if he had just been cooking teeth with gold fillings,
29:34
Speaker 1: he'd probably still be alive. But because George also was
29:38
Speaker 1: cooking the teeth with silver in them. During that process
29:41
Speaker 1: of cooking the silver teeth, mercury gas was released and
29:45
Speaker 1: George would inhale the gas, and mercury gas is deadly,
29:48
Speaker 1: and so the gas went into George. It ravaged his lungs,
29:52
Speaker 1: and it also created these massive mood swings and mental disturbances,
29:57
Speaker 1: which explained why he became so nasty and mean when
30:00
Speaker 1: he got to the er. Also, ingesting high levels of silver,
30:04
Speaker 1: which George was doing as well, can turn your skin blue.
30:07
Speaker 1: So in the end, George did not die from pneumonia.
30:11
Speaker 1: He died from mercury poisoning, So that's going to do it.
30:18
Speaker 1: If you enjoy today's medical mystery stories, be sure to
30:22
Speaker 1: tune into our brand new podcast called mister Ballin's Medical Mysteries,
30:26
Speaker 1: that is available wherever you get your podcasts right now. Again,
30:31
Speaker 1: it's called Mister Ballin's Medical Mysteries.