Latest / Crime and Horror / This blood curse will claim your entire family - MrBallen

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This blood curse will claim your entire family - MrBallen · Crime and Horror

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Speaker 1: Today, I'm going to share three stories that are about
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Speaker 1: real medical cases that are totally wild. And in each
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Speaker 1: of these stories, the patient or patients appear to have
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Speaker 1: no hope, like they are just doomed and nobody knows why.
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Speaker 1: But eventually, when the doctor or doctors finally figure out
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Speaker 1: what was actually wrong, it turned everything the patients and
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Speaker 1: their families thought they.
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Speaker 2: Knew completely inside out.
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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: then you've come to the right place, because that's all
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Speaker 1: we do, and we upload two, three, even four times
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Speaker 1: every week. So if that's of interest to you, the
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Speaker 1: next time you're at the like Button's house, go ahead
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Speaker 1: and secretly replace all.
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Speaker 2: Of their handloation with mayonnaise.
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Speaker 1: Also, please subscribe to our channel and turn on all
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Speaker 2: Okay, let's get into today's stories.
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Speaker 1: One hot afternoon in May of eighteen ninety one, a
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Speaker 1: thirty one year old businessman named James Hatcher rushed through
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Speaker 1: the small town of Pikeville, Kentucky, and as he made
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Speaker 1: his way, he could feel people staring at him. Because
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Speaker 1: he knew he very likely looked crazy. His hair was
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Speaker 1: totally wild, as his suit that he had slept in
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Speaker 1: the night before was all rumpled from sleeping in it,
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Speaker 1: and he was swatting at all the flies that were
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Speaker 1: buzzing around his head.
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Speaker 2: Flies were very common in this part of Kentucky in
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Speaker 2: the spring.
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Speaker 1: But right now, James did not care what anybody thought,
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Speaker 1: because his only focus at this very moment was just
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Speaker 1: getting to the town doctor's office, because in his hand
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Speaker 1: he held this legal document that he was sure would
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Speaker 1: put an end to the psychological torture he'd been enduring
1:51
Speaker 1: ever since his wife had died. So up until very recently,
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Speaker 1: James had had sort of a charmed, perfect life. Even
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Speaker 1: though he was a pretty young guy, he was still
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Speaker 1: one of the richest men in town. He'd made his
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Speaker 1: fortune in coal and real estate, and in fact, he
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Speaker 1: actually owned most of Pikeville where he was. But more
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Speaker 1: than having lots of money and resources, the real thing
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Speaker 1: that had made him so happy and really fulfilled his
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Speaker 1: life was that he'd had this great marriage to his wife, Octavia,
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Speaker 1: and last year they had gotten pregnant with their first child,
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Speaker 1: and it just seemed like everything was coming up roses.
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Speaker 1: But then four months ago, tragedy had struck. Their baby
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Speaker 1: had died just hours after being born, and it was
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Speaker 1: arguably the worst thing that had ever happened to James
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Speaker 1: or his wife. That is until just last week when
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Speaker 1: Octavia herself had died.
2:39
Speaker 2: The doctor had.
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Speaker 1: Told James that his wife had died from a broken
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Speaker 1: heart from losing her child.
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Speaker 2: It had just been so much it had killed her.
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Speaker 1: And during the chaos of making the arrangements for the
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Speaker 1: funeral and just grappling with this overwhelming grief, not only
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Speaker 1: for the loss of his child still but now his
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Speaker 1: wife is well, I mean, his life is wrecked here.
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Speaker 1: James had not questioned the cause of death, he had
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Speaker 1: just accepted it.
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Speaker 2: But after the funeral, when James was back inside of.
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Speaker 1: His mansion, now all by himself because his family has
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Speaker 1: been wiped out here, he found himself just like unable
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Speaker 1: to live. I mean, he couldn't sleep, he couldn't go
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Speaker 1: to work, he couldn't do anything. All he could do
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Speaker 1: was just pace around the mansion by himself, just obsessing
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Speaker 1: over how in.
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Speaker 2: The world this could have happened.
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Speaker 1: How could he have lost his child and his wife,
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Speaker 1: you know, a week apart.
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Speaker 2: How could that have happened? He had a perfect life.
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Speaker 2: How could this be?
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Speaker 1: And the more he obsessed over this unbelievable loss, the
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Speaker 1: more he began to question specifically how his wife had died,
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Speaker 1: because again he had been told by the doctor she
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Speaker 1: had died of a broken heart, but he was thinking,
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Speaker 1: wait a minute, I just don't buy that diagnosis.
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Speaker 2: There's got to be something else now.
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Speaker 1: Of course, it was true that Octavia was completely devastated
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Speaker 1: after losing her baby. I mean, she and her husband
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Speaker 1: both were devastated.
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Speaker 2: But people did not die of sadness, not really.
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Speaker 1: I mean, they can decline rapidly, but to literally die
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Speaker 1: from a broken.
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Speaker 2: Heart just seemed impossible.
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Speaker 1: And so now the question of what really had killed
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Speaker 1: his wife was all James could think about. It was like,
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Speaker 1: instead of just grieving the loss of his wife and
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Speaker 1: his child, it was like he needed to solve what
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Speaker 1: happened to his wife for real, and pretty quickly, James
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Speaker 1: decided that the only real way to figure out what
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Speaker 1: happened to his wife was not going and talking to
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Speaker 1: the doctor again, or reading literature you know about various
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Speaker 1: symptoms that could have been hers and try to tie
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Speaker 1: it to some disease or something.
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Speaker 2: No, he realized that.
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Speaker 1: The best thing he could do is just go dig
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Speaker 1: his wife up and have a look. So James had
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Speaker 1: convinced a local judge to order an emergency exhumation, you know,
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Speaker 1: to dig up his wife, and the judge it said yes,
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Speaker 1: and he had given him a legal document saying he
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Speaker 1: could do that, and so that legal document was what
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Speaker 1: he was carrying as he hustled through town looking totally
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Speaker 1: crazy on his way to the town doctor's office, because
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Speaker 1: it was ultimately the town doctor who would actually examine
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Speaker 1: his wife's body once the exhumation was complete. And so
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Speaker 1: James he finally reaches the doctor's office and he bangs
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Speaker 1: on the door, and eventually the doctor opened up, sort
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Speaker 1: of looking at this guy, who again looks totally wild,
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Speaker 1: you know, frumpled suit, hair, crazy flies everywhere.
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Speaker 2: And he's like, hey, you know what's going on?
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Speaker 1: And James he just hands over this legal document, the
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Speaker 1: order that says he's going to exhume his wife, and
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Speaker 1: the doctor took the order and he read it and
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Speaker 1: he kind of looked up at James with almost like
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Speaker 1: a look of sympathy on his face, like he felt
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Speaker 1: bad for James, Like, obviously, this man's life has just
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Speaker 1: fallen to shambles here.
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Speaker 2: Now.
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Speaker 1: The doctor was clearly prepared to fulfill this order and
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Speaker 1: to look at his wife's body, but he made a
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Speaker 1: point of telling James that, you know, digging up Octavia
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Speaker 1: now just was not a good idea. It wouldn't change
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Speaker 1: what happened, and it definitely would not bring her back,
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Speaker 1: Like this is not the move here. But James knew
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Speaker 1: all this, and he really didn't care about anything the
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Speaker 1: doctor was saying, because he wasn't trying to bring his
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Speaker 1: wife back. He just wanted to know the truth he
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Speaker 1: had to. And so later that afternoon, James and the
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Speaker 1: doctor stood by Octavia's tombstone as a pair of cemetery
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Speaker 1: workers dug up her grave. And it was so hot
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Speaker 1: outside that James and the doctor were sweating profusely and
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Speaker 1: these these flies are everywhere. I mean, it's kind of
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Speaker 1: a miserable scene here. But James, I mean, he was
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Speaker 1: just kind of overcome by this, the sense of almost dread,
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Speaker 1: like he definitely wanted to do this, but he's realizing
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Speaker 1: that any moment here after these guys dig up this grave,
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Speaker 1: that he's going to physically see his wife again, his
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Speaker 1: dead wife, And he didn't really know how he was
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Speaker 1: going to feel, like literally seeing her in the condition
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Speaker 1: that she was going to be in, you know, decomposed,
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Speaker 1: but he knew this was the right thing to do.
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Speaker 1: So he just sat there, you know, swatting it flies,
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Speaker 1: sweating profusely, just just waiting, and eventually one of the
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Speaker 1: workers with their shovel they dug into the ground and
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Speaker 1: it struck something hard.
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Speaker 2: It was the coffin, and so at.
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Speaker 1: That point James and the doctor that kind of leaned
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Speaker 1: into the hole to look down, and one of the
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Speaker 1: workers got to the side and lifted up the lid
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Speaker 1: of the coffin and.
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Speaker 2: Inside was Octavia.
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Speaker 1: But Octavia was not in the same position she had
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Speaker 1: been in when she.
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Speaker 2: Was lowered into the ground.
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Speaker 1: She was sort of in this position with her hands
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Speaker 1: up and across the top the inside top of the
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Speaker 1: actual coffin where all these deep gouges like scratch marks
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Speaker 1: on the inside of the coffin, and Octavia's nails were
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Speaker 1: all flipped backwards. So shortly after James buried his wife,
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Speaker 1: you know, he's totally heartbroken. He's questioning, you know, the
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Speaker 1: doctor's diagnosis of what actually killed her. And in that
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Speaker 1: period of time, over those few days after the funeral,
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Speaker 1: there were several people in Pikeville that came down with
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Speaker 1: a mysterious illness. They almost appeared to be dead, but
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Speaker 1: it would turn out it was just from being bit
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Speaker 1: by these flies that were swarming around everybody this spring.
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Speaker 1: And so James, as he's thinking about his wife and
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Speaker 1: like what really killed her, he began to have this
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Speaker 1: this panicked thought that maybe his wife hadn't died at all.
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Speaker 1: Forget the broken heart thing. Maybe she had just been
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Speaker 1: bit by a fly and appeared to be dead. And
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Speaker 1: now I've buried her, and so we had to get
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Speaker 1: her up a zoomer and check. And when he opened
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Speaker 1: up the coffin, he saw he was right. She had
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Speaker 1: not died of a broken heart. She clearly had been
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Speaker 1: bit by a fly. She woke up underground in her
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Speaker 1: coffin and slowly asphyxiated while trying to burrow her way.
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Speaker 2: Back out again. Shortly after James.
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Speaker 1: Had buried his wife in the ground, like in those
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Speaker 1: subsequent few days, he noticed several people in Pikeville, where
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Speaker 1: he lived, had come down with something they called sleeping sickness,
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Speaker 1: which is something you get from being bit by one
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Speaker 1: of those flies that are always buzzing around these folks.
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Speaker 2: Heads in this town in the spring.
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Speaker 1: And you know, sleeping sickness sometimes can take the form
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Speaker 1: of just having.
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Speaker 2: Like a fever and being very achy, but in.
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Speaker 1: Some cases, really bad sleeping sickness can cause people to
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Speaker 1: drift into a coma for several days. You know, sometimes
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Speaker 1: they wake up up, but sometimes they don't. They die
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Speaker 1: or others, like the sleeping sickness is so severe that
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Speaker 1: it causes their their heart rate to drop so low
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Speaker 1: that they're not in a coma, but they almost like
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Speaker 1: give the impression of being dead. And so sleeping sickness
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Speaker 1: basically mimics death and sometimes causes death, but some people
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Speaker 1: do come out of it.
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Speaker 2: And so James, he's seeing all these people have this illness,
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Speaker 2: and he began to wonder, well, wait a minute, I'm
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Speaker 2: already questioning my wife's diagnosis. What if something even worse happened.
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Speaker 1: What if she wasn't even dead, What if she had
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Speaker 1: just gotten bit by one of those flies.
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Speaker 2: And had sleeping sickness.
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Speaker 1: And so, in a panic, he has her exhumed and
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Speaker 1: when he opens the coffin, what does he see all
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Speaker 1: the signs in the world that his wife had not
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Speaker 1: been dead, So she did not die of a broken heart. No,
9:45
Speaker 1: she was alive when she was buried, and at some
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Speaker 1: point she woke up, but she was trapped and she
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Speaker 1: slowly asphyxiated while trying to claw her way out. She
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Speaker 1: must have been bit by a fly and got sleeping sickness.
10:11
Speaker 1: One morning in early twenty twenty, a twenty four year
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Speaker 1: old woman named Rosa Sanchez laid in a hospital bed
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Speaker 1: inside of a National medical center in Lima, Peru. And
10:20
Speaker 1: while she lay in her bed, Rosa was sort of
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Speaker 1: vaguely aware of doctors and nurses and a small group
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Speaker 1: of strangers sort of leering over her, staring at her
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Speaker 1: like she was some kind of medical anomaly. But Rosa
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Speaker 1: really couldn't pay attention to anyone right now, because right
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Speaker 1: now she was feeling sicker than she ever had felt
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Speaker 1: in her whole life. Her stomach hurt so much that
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Speaker 1: it felt like, you know, she was rotting from the
10:44
Speaker 1: inside out or something. And at the same time she
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Speaker 1: was having this awful physical symptom, she was also feeling
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Speaker 1: incredibly depressed and overwhelmed.
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Speaker 2: With guilt.
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Speaker 1: So just a few months ago, Rosa had been a happy,
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Speaker 1: successful college student.
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Speaker 2: Working towards a degree in economics.
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Speaker 1: But then there had been this outbreak, this sudden disease
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Speaker 1: outbreak at her school, and a bunch of students, including Rosa,
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Speaker 1: had gotten sick with some kind of mysterious illness that
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Speaker 1: still had not been identified. And Rosa had gotten so
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Speaker 1: sick she actually had to temporarily drop out of school
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Speaker 1: and move back home with her mother and father and
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Speaker 1: two little siblings. And it was at that time that
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Speaker 1: something truly just tragic and unimaginable happened. Rosa when she
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Speaker 1: came home, was still sick, and she wound up infecting
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Speaker 1: her entire family, all four of them, and within weeks
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Speaker 1: they all died. Rosa's still alive, but her family is
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Speaker 1: now wiped out from this disease that she still had.
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Speaker 1: And so Rosa now is not only dealing with this
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Speaker 1: horrific illness that feels like it's killing her, but she's
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Speaker 1: living with the reality that in her mind, she caused
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Speaker 1: the deaths of her whole family. And so this is
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Speaker 1: just like the worst possible scenario anybody could be in.
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Speaker 1: And so now in the hospital, Rosa, who's sort of
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Speaker 1: just totally out of it. She's racked with pain in
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Speaker 1: her stomach. She could tell that a doctor had actually
12:06
Speaker 1: moved up right next to her bedside, and he began
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Speaker 1: telling her some of the results from the recent diagnostic
12:11
Speaker 1: testing they had been running on her. And the doctor
12:13
Speaker 1: told her that, you know, they had run all these
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Speaker 1: blood work tests, and they had done these imaging scans,
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Speaker 1: but so far everything had come back normal, and so
12:21
Speaker 1: they still didn't know what was wrong with her. However,
12:24
Speaker 1: the doctor did say that he wanted to try a
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Speaker 1: different kind of test that might be able to tell
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Speaker 1: them a little bit more. He explained that since Rosa's
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Speaker 1: basic imaging scans had come back normal, what he wanted
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Speaker 1: to do now was try a more advanced type of
12:38
Speaker 1: imaging known as a spect scan. Before she could even
12:41
Speaker 1: ask what a spec scan was, he explained to her
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Speaker 1: that what it would be is she would be injected
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Speaker 1: with this radioactive substance and then after that they would
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Speaker 1: have her lie down inside of this machine that could
12:52
Speaker 1: basically trace the substance as it moved through her body. Basically,
12:56
Speaker 1: this would allow doctors to not just look at Rosa's
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Speaker 1: internal organs, but to actually see how they were functioning
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Speaker 1: in real time. Hearing this, Rosa couldn't help but be
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Speaker 1: a little weary of the idea of a radioactive substance
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Speaker 1: being injected into her body.
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Speaker 2: But at the same time, I mean, her life is
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Speaker 2: in shambles.
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Speaker 1: She basically knows this disease is probably going to kill
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Speaker 1: her at some point, and so she was desperate enough
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Speaker 1: to try anything, so.
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Speaker 2: She closed her eyes and just nodded, yes, she would
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Speaker 2: try this new scan.
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Speaker 1: About an hour later, Rosa was laying on this long,
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Speaker 1: thin platform right outside of the spec scan machine, which
13:30
Speaker 1: was like this big machine that was shaped kind of
13:32
Speaker 1: like a doughnut with an opening large enough for her
13:35
Speaker 1: to be basically slid in through horizontally. By this point,
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Speaker 1: Rosa had already been injected with this radioactive substance, and
13:42
Speaker 1: now the same doctor who had suggested this scan in
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Speaker 1: the first place stood right beside her and told her
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Speaker 1: that the actual scan would only take maybe you know,
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Speaker 1: thirty minutes when she was inside of this this machine,
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Speaker 1: and all she would have to do during the scan
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Speaker 1: was just lie perfectly still.
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Speaker 2: So Rosa said, okay, and then she heard the doctor
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Speaker 2: leave the room.
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Speaker 1: Moment later, the spec machine began making the whirring sound,
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Speaker 1: at which point the platform that Rosa was laying on
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Speaker 1: began moving, and she was brought inside of this machine,
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Speaker 1: inside of the doughnut, and then eventually the platform stopped,
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Speaker 1: and at that point she's just looking at the inside
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Speaker 1: of this machine, which was just you know, white plastic
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Speaker 1: all around her. And for a couple of minutes, as
14:19
Speaker 1: this scan began and Roses just laying there, you know,
14:22
Speaker 1: being as still as possible, everything seemed fine, you know,
14:26
Speaker 1: she had never done a spec scan before.
14:28
Speaker 2: But then out of nowhere, pain.
14:31
Speaker 1: Ripped through Ros's abdomen, which was already in pain, but
14:34
Speaker 1: this was a new pain. It was so severe, like
14:37
Speaker 1: she knew she was supposed to stay still, but she
14:39
Speaker 1: couldn't help but sort of lean forward from how much
14:42
Speaker 1: pain was in her gut. And then as she's telling
14:44
Speaker 1: herself to stay calm, she began feeling lightheaded, and she
14:47
Speaker 1: had tunnel vision and she began to panic. She's claustrophobic,
14:52
Speaker 1: and then before long her ears were ringing, and then
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Speaker 1: it was like everything just kind of faded. Her vision
14:57
Speaker 1: went black, and Rosa died. Doctor he's outside of the room,
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Speaker 1: and he's hearing and seeing in real time Rosa basically dying,
15:06
Speaker 1: and so as fast as he can, he shuts off
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Speaker 1: the spec machine, which immediately causes the platform that she
15:11
Speaker 1: is on to automatically go back out of the machine.
15:14
Speaker 2: And so as the doctor runs into.
15:16
Speaker 1: The room, he sees Rosa just lying there on this
15:19
Speaker 1: platform outside of the machine, and she's completely limp, like
15:23
Speaker 1: she's lifeless. But the doctor was thinking the scan had
15:27
Speaker 1: actually worked. It told him exactly what was wrong with Rosa.
15:32
Speaker 1: What the scan had shown the doctor before Rosa died
15:36
Speaker 1: was that Rosa had severely low blood flow to several
15:39
Speaker 1: crucial areas of her brain, and this lack of blood
15:42
Speaker 1: flow was what had actually caused all of her symptoms.
15:46
Speaker 1: But this was actually really good news because now the
15:50
Speaker 1: doctor simply leaned over Rosa, looked into her wide open eyes,
15:55
Speaker 1: and told her to please just go ahead and sit up,
15:58
Speaker 1: because Rosa was not dead, she just thought she was.
16:02
Speaker 2: It would turn out.
16:03
Speaker 1: Rosa was suffering from two extremely rare psychological disorders. The
16:08
Speaker 1: first was known as catard syndrome, and it caused Rosa
16:12
Speaker 1: to believe that she was literally rotting from the inside out.
16:15
Speaker 2: And then eventually that she died.
16:18
Speaker 1: She literally believed that she had died inside of the scanner,
16:21
Speaker 1: and the second rare psychological disorder.
16:25
Speaker 2: Was cap cross syndrome.
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Speaker 1: It had caused Rosa to think that many of the
16:29
Speaker 1: people close to her, like her classmates and her own
16:31
Speaker 1: family members, had gotten sick and died from this mystery illness,
16:36
Speaker 1: and then they had been replaced by clones. The reality
16:40
Speaker 1: here was that there actually was never any disease outbreak
16:44
Speaker 1: at rosa school or in her home. The group of
16:48
Speaker 1: strangers in Rosa's hospital room were her mother, father, and
16:51
Speaker 1: two siblings.
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Speaker 2: They were perfectly fine.
16:53
Speaker 1: As for Rosa herself, you know, she was obviously mentally
16:56
Speaker 1: very unwell, but physically she was never sick at all.
17:00
Speaker 1: Now Rosa would need continued psychiatric care, but after three
17:04
Speaker 1: weeks in the hospital, she was able to go home
17:07
Speaker 1: with the family that she believed she had lost forever.
17:21
Speaker 1: In the spring of nineteen eighty eight, a twenty seven
17:24
Speaker 1: year old woman named Severina stood in the corner of
17:27
Speaker 1: a small adobe house in the rural village where she
17:30
Speaker 1: lived in the.
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Speaker 2: Mountains of Bolivia.
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Speaker 1: The house belonged to a curran daro, which was a
17:34
Speaker 1: traditional healer.
17:36
Speaker 2: Severina had come here with her two.
17:37
Speaker 1: Aunts because her aunts were sick and in desperate need
17:41
Speaker 1: of help from the curran Daro. So two weeks earlier,
17:44
Speaker 1: Severina's aunts had come down with these horrible fevers, and
17:47
Speaker 1: they had been in bed for days, and they had
17:49
Speaker 1: both been so tired and so weak that they could
17:52
Speaker 1: barely move or even eat. However, despite eating, both of
17:56
Speaker 1: their stomachs had swollen up like balloons, and then the
18:00
Speaker 1: skin on the outside of their stomachs had actually turned black,
18:03
Speaker 1: almost like the skin itself was dying. And it was
18:06
Speaker 1: at that point that Savaina decided that her aunts could
18:09
Speaker 1: no longer afford to just hope this goes away on
18:12
Speaker 1: its own. They needed to go see a professional, go
18:14
Speaker 1: see the local healer.
18:15
Speaker 2: And so now.
18:16
Speaker 1: Saverina watched as her two aunts were told by the
18:19
Speaker 1: Currandaro to lie.
18:21
Speaker 2: Down on these mats in the middle of the floor.
18:23
Speaker 1: And both aunts are They're very weak and sick, but
18:25
Speaker 1: they lie down, and the Currandaro, as they're lying down,
18:29
Speaker 1: lit incense and began waving it over their bodies, and
18:33
Speaker 1: then he inspected their faces and also their black stomachs.
18:36
Speaker 1: Then a moment later he turned his attention to this
18:39
Speaker 1: folded up blanket that was sitting near the aunt's hits.
18:42
Speaker 1: He took the blanket and he unfurled it and sort
18:45
Speaker 1: of laid it out in front of him, and then
18:47
Speaker 1: wrapped up inside of this blanket was a small pile
18:50
Speaker 1: of coca leaves, and the Currandero he picked out a
18:53
Speaker 1: few of these leaves and just sort of appeared to
18:56
Speaker 1: scatter them on the blanket, and then he appeared to
18:59
Speaker 1: study the leaves like he was looking for signs that
19:02
Speaker 1: the leaves were going to give him, and Severina knew
19:04
Speaker 1: that these leaves were telling him what was wrong with
19:07
Speaker 1: her aunts. Finally, the curran Aro, after looking at these
19:10
Speaker 1: leaves for a bit, he looked up at Severina and
19:13
Speaker 1: told her that her aunts were sick with a blood curse,
19:17
Speaker 1: which meant that the blood flowing through their veins was
19:19
Speaker 1: literally cursed with dark magic.
19:22
Speaker 2: But that wasn't all.
19:24
Speaker 1: The curran arow went on telling Severina that this was
19:26
Speaker 1: actually not just a blood curse, but it was a
19:28
Speaker 1: family blood curse, which meant that someday she Severina would
19:34
Speaker 1: also get this curse and very likely die. When Severina
19:38
Speaker 1: heard this, a chill ran through her body, and she
19:40
Speaker 1: almost instinctively began scratching at her arms, like she could
19:44
Speaker 1: scratch this curse, you know, out of her skin or something.
19:47
Speaker 2: But the Currandaro looked at her and just said, there's
19:50
Speaker 2: nothing you can do.
19:51
Speaker 1: There's no cure for you or your aunt's your fate
19:54
Speaker 1: and theirs is sealed. A few days later, Severina was
19:58
Speaker 1: back in her own home, in her own kitchen, making
20:00
Speaker 1: some herple tea for her aunts, who were staying in
20:03
Speaker 1: her guest bedroom. And as she prepared this tea, all
20:06
Speaker 1: she could hear was the sound of her aunts moaning
20:09
Speaker 1: in pain and agony.
20:10
Speaker 2: In the other room.
20:11
Speaker 1: So Severina as quickly as she could, she finished making
20:14
Speaker 1: the tea and then hustled into the guest bedroom. So
20:17
Speaker 1: over the past few days after leaving the Corindero's hut,
20:20
Speaker 1: Severina's aunts had gotten sicker.
20:22
Speaker 2: And sicker and sicker.
20:24
Speaker 1: They now couldn't eat anything, and they were constantly so
20:27
Speaker 1: dizzy that could barely even lift their heads up off
20:30
Speaker 1: their pillow. And they both just seemed so weak and
20:33
Speaker 1: so depleted, and their stomachs were still black and bloated,
20:37
Speaker 1: and they had these agonizing stomach cramps.
20:39
Speaker 2: Basically all the time.
20:40
Speaker 1: It was obvious that they were dying, and their sickness
20:43
Speaker 1: had just been horrifying for Severina.
20:45
Speaker 2: To watch on many levels.
20:47
Speaker 1: And so at this point, all Severina was really trying
20:49
Speaker 1: to accomplish was just doing her best to try to
20:52
Speaker 1: make her aunts as comfortable as possible until they died.
20:56
Speaker 1: And so now Severena walked over and she sort of
20:59
Speaker 1: assisted one of the aunt aunts and had them sit up,
21:01
Speaker 1: and she tried to give her some of this tea
21:03
Speaker 1: that she had made, but when her aunt just smelled
21:05
Speaker 1: the herbal tea, she began to dry heave, and Severena
21:09
Speaker 1: jumped out of the way just as her aunt threw
21:11
Speaker 1: up vial all over her own lap. Immediately, the smell
21:15
Speaker 1: of this vomit and the smell of death and just
21:18
Speaker 1: the smell of filth that was filling this room, it
21:21
Speaker 1: just went right up Severina's nostrils and she had to
21:23
Speaker 1: immediately run from the room and go outside, where she
21:27
Speaker 1: vomited just from being so grossed out by being in
21:30
Speaker 1: that room. Seburina felt completely overwhelmed by what was happening here.
21:35
Speaker 1: I mean, she obviously was just devastated to see her
21:38
Speaker 1: aunts in this condition. But what was even worse is
21:41
Speaker 1: it was like she was sort of watching what was
21:43
Speaker 1: going to happen to her, and she just couldn't believe it.
21:46
Speaker 1: And so she thought to herself, any day now, I'm
21:49
Speaker 1: going to begin showing symptoms that shows I too have
21:52
Speaker 1: this blood curse, and I'm going to begin withering away
21:55
Speaker 1: and then rotting until I die. And as she had
21:58
Speaker 1: this thought, she found herself again and scratching at her
22:01
Speaker 1: arms as if somehow she could rip this illness out
22:05
Speaker 1: of her body before it took her life. Later that
22:07
Speaker 1: same night, after Severina had composed herself and gone back
22:11
Speaker 1: into the house, she had seen that her aunts did
22:14
Speaker 1: need more tea, and so she had left to go
22:16
Speaker 1: get more herbal tea remedies from the curandero. But after
22:20
Speaker 1: getting it and coming back to her house, she found
22:23
Speaker 1: that both of her aunts by this point, had died,
22:25
Speaker 1: and the moment she saw them, Severina was overcome with
22:28
Speaker 1: both grief and also fear. Over the next few weeks,
22:32
Speaker 1: as she buried her aunts and grieved for them alongside
22:35
Speaker 1: her family, what she really was thinking about is when
22:39
Speaker 1: does this blood curse kind of kill me too? And
22:41
Speaker 1: as months turned into years, and still she didn't get sick.
22:45
Speaker 1: Severina began to wonder if maybe the Curandero had been wrong,
22:50
Speaker 1: maybe she didn't have this blood curse, maybe it wasn't.
22:52
Speaker 2: A family curse.
22:54
Speaker 1: But then thirty years later, in the fall of twenty eighteen,
22:57
Speaker 1: when Severina was fifty seven years old, she woke up
23:00
Speaker 1: one morning with a stomach cramp and she also felt
23:03
Speaker 1: very nauseous and.
23:04
Speaker 2: A little dizzy.
23:05
Speaker 1: And even though by this point it's been thirty years
23:08
Speaker 1: since her aunt's died of this illness, she knew immediately
23:12
Speaker 1: on that morning that the curse had finally arrived and
23:15
Speaker 1: it was now going to kill her. So she forced
23:18
Speaker 1: herself to get out of bed, and then she walked
23:21
Speaker 1: outside to where her husband and her daughter were sitting
23:23
Speaker 1: and having coffee, and she told.
23:25
Speaker 2: Them what was going on here.
23:27
Speaker 1: And when she told her family that she has this
23:29
Speaker 1: blood curse and there's nothing they can do, her daughter,
23:32
Speaker 1: whose name was Janet, said, wait a minute, mom, go
23:36
Speaker 1: to a doctor, But Severina argued that there was no
23:39
Speaker 1: point because the Kurandero thirty years ago had told her
23:42
Speaker 1: that nothing would help, and she had watched her aunt's
23:44
Speaker 1: dive from this very thing like there was nothing she
23:47
Speaker 1: could do. She was doomed, but Janet begged her mother
23:51
Speaker 1: to just forget what you were told thirty years ago,
23:53
Speaker 1: forget all that and just go see a doctor, even
23:56
Speaker 1: if they can't do anything.
23:58
Speaker 2: Just goually.
24:00
Speaker 1: Severina relented and said, fine, I'll go to the doctor, even.
24:03
Speaker 2: Though it's not going to help.
24:04
Speaker 1: So later that day they made the long journey into
24:07
Speaker 1: the nearest city to go see a doctor.
24:10
Speaker 2: At the doctor's office, a doctor took.
24:12
Speaker 1: Blood samples and ran tests on Severina and listened carefully
24:16
Speaker 1: as she explained the family blood curse. And as Severina
24:19
Speaker 1: and her family waited for the test results to come back,
24:22
Speaker 1: she braced herself because she knew that the doctor would
24:25
Speaker 1: say that, sorry, yep, the test show there's nothing we
24:27
Speaker 1: can do here. And finally the doctor did come back
24:30
Speaker 1: into the room and he told.
24:31
Speaker 2: Severina that she was right. Kuran Daro had been right.
24:35
Speaker 2: This was blood related. There was something in her blood.
24:38
Speaker 1: And immediately Severina just kind of collapsed in her chair
24:41
Speaker 1: because she knew what came next was an agonizing death,
24:45
Speaker 1: the same way her aunts had died. But then the
24:48
Speaker 1: doctor told her what this blood curse actually was and
24:51
Speaker 1: At first, Severina was just really confused by what the
24:54
Speaker 1: doctor was saying. But then as she's hearing this new information,
24:58
Speaker 1: she remembered all the times when when she was younger,
25:01
Speaker 1: when she would reflexibly itch her skin when she thought
25:03
Speaker 1: about the blood curse, like she would itch to scratch
25:06
Speaker 1: it out of her body. It was almost like this
25:08
Speaker 1: reflexive thing that she was doing, not realizing that every
25:11
Speaker 1: time she scratched her arms, she was quite literally.
25:15
Speaker 2: Giving herself the curse.
25:17
Speaker 1: It would turn out the so called blood curse that
25:19
Speaker 1: Severina's aunts had was actually caused by a parasite, and
25:24
Speaker 1: it was true Severina also had this blood curse. She
25:27
Speaker 1: too had a parasite in her body that would do
25:30
Speaker 1: the same thing. But Severina's parasite it went dormant inside
25:34
Speaker 1: of her body for more than thirty years, so no symptoms,
25:38
Speaker 1: nothing for thirty years, just living inside of her skin.
25:41
Speaker 1: In many parts of South America, there was a bug
25:43
Speaker 1: called the vinchuca, which is essentially a type of bedbug.
25:47
Speaker 1: The bug itself is harmless, but there's a parasite that
25:50
Speaker 1: lives in the bug's feces. When the bug bites its victims,
25:55
Speaker 1: and its victims scratch at the bites, they break the
25:58
Speaker 1: surface of their skin and in fact themselves with this parasite.
26:01
Speaker 1: Then the parasite can lay dormant in the person's.
26:04
Speaker 2: Blood, sometimes for decades. Now.
26:06
Speaker 1: A lot of people don't even realize they have this
26:08
Speaker 1: because they never have symptoms ever. But if symptoms do
26:12
Speaker 1: appear without any real treatment, the person suffers organ damage
26:16
Speaker 1: or even dies. Luckily, in Severina's case, when her parasite
26:20
Speaker 1: became active again thirty years later, she was able to
26:24
Speaker 1: receive treatment for the parasite and would make a full recovery.
26:39
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for watching. Let me know what
26:41
Speaker 1: you thought of today's episode in the comments. And remember,
26:44
Speaker 1: we have hundreds of videos for you to binge right now.
26:47
Speaker 1: But if you're looking for a recommendation for me of
26:50
Speaker 1: that one video that's worth your time, well it's this
26:53
Speaker 1: one right here, So give it a watch, all right,
26:56
Speaker 1: Until next time, see y