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The-Shocking-End-of-a-Van-Life-Dream · Crime and Horror

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Speaker 1: Today, I'm going to share two totally weird medical mysteries.
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Speaker 1: But before we get into those 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 come to the right place, because that's all
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Speaker 1: we do, and we upload once a week. So if
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Speaker 1: that's of interest to you, the next time the like
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Speaker 1: button is out of town, sneak into their house and
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Speaker 1: prop open their refrigerator door and then just leave. Also,
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Speaker 1: please subscribe to our channel and turn on all notifications
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Speaker 1: so you don't miss any of our weekly uploads. Okay,
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Speaker 1: let's get into today's stories. On the evening of July
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Speaker 1: twenty fifth, two thousand and eight, a fifty nine year
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Speaker 1: old man named Brian Thomas walked hand in hand with
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Speaker 1: his wife Christine out of the restaurant where they had
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Speaker 1: just had dinner. The couple was in this little village
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Speaker 1: right on the coast of Wales, and where they were
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Speaker 1: now walking outside of this restaurant was right along the walk.
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Speaker 1: So as they did that, Brian found himself looking out
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Speaker 1: over the sea and he saw the reflection of the
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Speaker 1: moon on the waves and it was so beautiful. And
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Speaker 1: then he turned to his wife and she was so stunning,
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Speaker 1: and so Brian finally just stopped and kind of just
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Speaker 1: took in all this incredible beauty right in front of him,
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Speaker 1: and he began smiling ear to ear, which was a
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Speaker 1: big departure from how Brian had been feeling over the
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Speaker 1: past few months. Because Christine had recently had a big scare.
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Speaker 1: She had been told she might have cancer, and so
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Speaker 1: she went in for all this testing and then she
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Speaker 1: and Brian had to wait for it to come back,
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Speaker 1: and the weight was absolute torture. I mean, basically Brian
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Speaker 1: and Christine were prepping themselves to find out Christine really
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Speaker 1: did have cancer. But when the results did come back,
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Speaker 1: it would turn out Christine did not have cancer. And
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Speaker 1: so Christine was obviously hugely relieved, but it was actually
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Speaker 1: Brian who was more relieved. It was like he suddenly
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Speaker 1: saw he could lose his wife, his wife of forty years,
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Speaker 1: who he had raised a family with. I mean, this
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Speaker 1: was like the most important person in Brian's life, but
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Speaker 1: it was like he didn't fully appreciate that until he
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Speaker 1: realized he could lose this really important person. And so
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Speaker 1: now that Christine had a clean bill of health, Brian
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Speaker 1: was committed to showering her with love and affection and
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Speaker 1: taking her to restaurants and on vacations. And in fact,
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Speaker 1: the reason they were actually in this village in Wales
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Speaker 1: is because they were on one of Brian's many vacations
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Speaker 1: for Christine. He had gone out and bought this little
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Speaker 1: camper van and they had driven it up to this
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Speaker 1: part of Wales, and then after this vacation ended, Brian's
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Speaker 1: plan was to use this camper to travel with his
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Speaker 1: wife all over Great Britain, and so the couple had
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Speaker 1: a really busy schedule coming up. But for right now,
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Speaker 1: Brian was focused on just staying in the moment and
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Speaker 1: enjoying this new found happiness he was feeling, and so
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Speaker 1: he and his wife would continue to just kind of
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Speaker 1: walk along the water for a bit, and then finally
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Speaker 1: when they felt tired, they headed back to their camper.
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Speaker 1: They went inside, they got in their bed, and they
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Speaker 1: fell asleep. A little before four am. Brian suddenly woke
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Speaker 1: up inside of this camper and so he sits upright
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Speaker 1: and he looks around. You know, it's totally dark inside
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Speaker 1: of there. He can't see anything. He doesn't really know
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Speaker 1: why he just woke up and he's trying to get
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Speaker 1: his bearings, and then as his eyes kind of begin
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Speaker 1: to focus, he realizes there is a person standing inside
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Speaker 1: of their camper, right near the door, basically ten fifteen
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Speaker 1: feet away from he and his wife is a person,
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Speaker 1: and so Brian just froze and he's staring at this person,
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Speaker 1: hoping this is just a dream or something. But then
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Speaker 1: this person, who appeared to be dressed and all black
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Speaker 1: head to toe, began to move and they began to
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Speaker 1: move first to the left and then towards the bed,
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Speaker 1: and so Brian is still just frozen, thinking is this real?
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Speaker 1: Is this really happening? And then this person began climbing
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Speaker 1: on the bed on the side where Christine was, and
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Speaker 1: so Brian, without even thinking, just yelled out, you bastard,
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Speaker 1: and he jumped off the bed at the sky and
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Speaker 1: began choking them out. And the whole time Brian is
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Speaker 1: screaming at this person like what are you doing? Why
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Speaker 1: are you here? And this person is fighting back so
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Speaker 1: hard and Brian is just not letting go. It's like
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Speaker 1: instinct is completely take it over. And then this person
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Speaker 1: goes totally still and just dies, and Brian knows he
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Speaker 1: killed them. But they came into his camper, like what
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Speaker 1: do you expect. Brian would ultimately be the one who
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Speaker 1: called the police, and just several minutes later they would
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Speaker 1: show up, and when they got there, they would find
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Speaker 1: Brian standing outside the camper hyperventilating. And then when they
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Speaker 1: tried to get more information about what exactly had happened
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Speaker 1: inside the camper, Brian basically couldn't explain it. It was
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Speaker 1: like he was totally in shock. And so eventually one
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Speaker 1: of the officers just went inside the camper and there
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Speaker 1: on the ground they would find a body, but it
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Speaker 1: was not some attacker. It was Brian's wife. It would
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Speaker 1: turn out Brian had a medical condition called somnambulism, which
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Speaker 1: we know as sleepwalking, and at home he would sleep
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Speaker 1: in a different bed than his wife because he sleepwalked
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Speaker 1: so much. But since they were on vacation in their camper,
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Speaker 1: they had to sleep together because there was only one
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Speaker 1: bed on board the camper, and so not long after
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Speaker 1: Brian and Christine had fallen asleep together, Brian began having
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Speaker 1: this really intense nightmare where he believed his wife was
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Speaker 1: being attacked, and so Brian, in this nightmare, had to
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Speaker 1: stop this person from hurting Christine, except because of his sleepwalking.
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Speaker 1: He acted this out in real life, and the attacker
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Speaker 1: that he ultimately killed was ironically his wife. He basically
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Speaker 1: tackled his wife and strangled her to death because he
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Speaker 1: thought he was actually saving her. Brian was absolutely destroyed
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Speaker 1: with grief and with guilt, and the second he realized
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Speaker 1: what he had done, he confessed he didn't in any
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Speaker 1: way try to protect himself. He said, I did this.
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Speaker 1: Take me in and Brian would be arrested. However, in
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Speaker 1: November of two thousand and nine, the judge who actually
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Speaker 1: heard Brian's official confession, he kind of felt bad for
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Speaker 1: Brian and said, you know what, I'm dropping all charges
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Speaker 1: against you because it's obvious to me you are a
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Speaker 1: good and decent person. This was a mistake and you're
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Speaker 1: going to live with grief and guilt for the rest
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Speaker 1: of your life. And that's punishment enough. If you don't
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Speaker 1: know this. Late last year, we launched a brand new, strange,
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Speaker 1: dark and mysterious show called Mister Ballin's Medical Mysteries, and
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Speaker 1: so far people love it. It is a free weekly
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Speaker 1: show where each week we explore a new baffling mystery
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Speaker 1: originating from the one place we all can't escape, our
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Speaker 1: own bodies. Topics discussed on the show range from obscure
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Speaker 1: diseases and freak occurrences to totally weird medical mishaps that
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Speaker 1: sometimes result in big, amazing discoveries and other times result
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Speaker 1: in just unimaginable suffering and death. So if you're a
6:36
Speaker 1: fan of the strange, dark and mysterious, then you really
6:38
Speaker 1: ought to give Mister Ballin's Medical Mysteries a try. To
6:41
Speaker 1: start listening, go look up and follow Mister Ballin's Medical
6:45
Speaker 1: Mysteries on any podcast platform and boom you're in. You
6:48
Speaker 1: got yourself a new weekly show. But if you're super
6:51
Speaker 1: impatient like I am, and you can't wait a whole
6:54
Speaker 1: week to get a new episode, well, with your Prime membership,
6:57
Speaker 1: you can watch batches of eight episodes of Mister Ballin's
7:00
Speaker 1: Medical Mysteries on Amazon Music. Also on Amazon Music, there
7:05
Speaker 1: are no ads. And if all this was not enough
7:07
Speaker 1: to sell you on maybe giving the show a try, well,
7:10
Speaker 1: then stick around at the end of this video and
7:12
Speaker 1: I'll play you a sneak peek from our newest episode
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Speaker 1: of Mister Ballin's Medical Mysteries. One Morning in January of
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Speaker 1: twenty sixteen, a forty five year old woman named Lauren
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Speaker 1: walked into an office building in West Virginia where she
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Speaker 1: worked as an office manager, and she dropped her purse,
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Speaker 1: her phone, and her cigarettes on her desk. It was
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Speaker 1: a Friday, and so Lauren was in a really good
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Speaker 1: mood because she was pumped about the weekend. The next day, Saturday,
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Speaker 1: she and her husband Dan planned to go on this
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Speaker 1: big hike together. They loved hiking, so that was going
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Speaker 1: to be awesome. And then on Sunday, Lauren planned to
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Speaker 1: stay home all day and cook one big meal because
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Speaker 1: it had become a tradition in their family that on
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Speaker 1: Sundays Lauren and Dan's kids, they had three kids who
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Speaker 1: were all grown up, they would come back home to
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Speaker 1: their parents' house and they would have a big family
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Speaker 1: meal together. And these dinners were definitely the highlight of
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Speaker 1: the week for Lauren and for Dan, because both of
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Speaker 1: them were very family centric. Lauren switched on her computer
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Speaker 1: and then looked at her schedule and saw she had
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Speaker 1: a whole bunch of meetings back to back to back
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Speaker 1: that day, and so immediately she was worried that she
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Speaker 1: would not be able to slip out that day and
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Speaker 1: go for a quick walk, something she had recently been
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Speaker 1: doing a lot of because her doctor had recently told
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Speaker 1: her that she had a blood circulation disorder that was
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Speaker 1: called peripheral vascular disease, and what that meant was the
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Speaker 1: arteries that carried the blood from her heart down to
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Speaker 1: her legs and her feet were becoming blocked and so
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Speaker 1: her legs and feet were not getting enough oxygen. So far,
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Speaker 1: her only symptoms were the occasional leg cramp, but if
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Speaker 1: the disease got worse, it could lead to pain and
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Speaker 1: mobility issues and also heart attack and stroke. Luckily, Lauren's
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Speaker 1: doctor told her that she didn't need medication, she just
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Speaker 1: needed to quit smoking, change her diet, and become more
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Speaker 1: physically active. And Lauren had totally leaned into this and
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Speaker 1: was being much more active and had changed her diet.
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Speaker 1: She hadn't quit smoking yet, but she planned to, and
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Speaker 1: so Lauren really felt like she was on the right track.
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Speaker 1: And so as Lauren kind of began her day, you know,
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Speaker 1: going through her emails and thinking about when she's going
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Speaker 1: to do this walk, her cell phone rang. When Lauren
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Speaker 1: looked at the phone, she didn't recognize the number, so
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Speaker 1: she decided to let it go to voicemail. And so
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Speaker 1: Lauren forgot about her phone and just figured whoever this was,
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Speaker 1: you know, they'd call back or whatever, and she's doing
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Speaker 1: her thing. But then she got another phone call, and
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Speaker 1: when she looked, it was the same number calling her back.
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Speaker 1: And this time Lauren did pick up the phone, and
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Speaker 1: when she said hello on the other end of the line,
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Speaker 1: she heard a police officer say, in a very serious voice,
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Speaker 1: and my speaking to Dan's wife. And so right away
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Speaker 1: Lauren's heart began to race, and she would tell the officer, yes,
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Speaker 1: you know what's going on, And all the officer would
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Speaker 1: tell her is that Dan, unfortunately was in a very
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Speaker 1: serious car accident, and so you need to come to
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Speaker 1: the scene right away. In an absolute panic, Lauren hung
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Speaker 1: up the phone, she grabbed her things, she ran out
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Speaker 1: to the car, and she she floored her way to
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Speaker 1: the address the police officer gave her. But when she
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Speaker 1: got there, she saw there were so many police cars
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Speaker 1: and ambulances and all these people that she couldn't even
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Speaker 1: see what was going on, let alone park anywhere near
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Speaker 1: where this accident happened. So she wound up parking her
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Speaker 1: car around the corner, and then she got out and
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Speaker 1: just sprinted towards all the police and then when she
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Speaker 1: got up to them, she basically began pushing people out
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Speaker 1: of the way, and no one tried to stop her.
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Speaker 1: They could tell, you know, this woman must know the
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Speaker 1: people involved in this crash, and so she pushed past
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Speaker 1: all these people and finally she can see through the
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Speaker 1: crowd and she can see her husband's car and it's
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Speaker 1: absolutely mangled, and there's all these first responders that are
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Speaker 1: in a circle on the pavement, and she can tell
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Speaker 1: there is somebody on the ground they're working on and
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Speaker 1: it's got to be Dan. And so Lauren just began
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Speaker 1: running towards that group of people, and as she did,
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Speaker 1: they all stood up as if, you know, there was
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Speaker 1: nothing they could do. And on the ground Lauren saw
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Speaker 1: her husband. There was Dan lying in this huge pool
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Speaker 1: of blood, just motionless on the ground. And so before
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Speaker 1: she even got over to her husband, Lauren already knew
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Speaker 1: what had happened. Dan was dead, and so Lauren let
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Speaker 1: out this primal shriek and just rushed over to her
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Speaker 1: husband and fell to the ground next to him, holding
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Speaker 1: his body and crying hysterically, and all the EMTs and
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Speaker 1: first responders they knew this woman has just lost her husband,
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Speaker 1: and even though she shouldn't be here right now, they
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Speaker 1: just felt like they have to give this moment to her.
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Speaker 1: And so the police and the EMTs and the rest
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Speaker 1: of the first responders, instead of even talking to Lauren
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Speaker 1: or trying to get her to go somewhere else, they
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Speaker 1: just formed a big circle, shouldered to shoulder around Lauren
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Speaker 1: and Dan and just allowed Lauren to grieve in private.
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Speaker 1: About two hours later, Lauren returned to her home in
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Speaker 1: a daze. Dan's body had already been transported to the morgue,
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Speaker 1: and a police officer had driven Lauren back to her
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Speaker 1: home where her three kids, her son, and her two
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Speaker 1: daughters were now waiting for her. And so when Lauren
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Speaker 1: went inside the house and went into the living room
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Speaker 1: where her kids were, her kids, who already knew what
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Speaker 1: had happened, they just immediately swarmed her and hugged her
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Speaker 1: and they all just cried together. I mean, this was
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Speaker 1: so horrible and so unexpected that nobody knew what to do. Finally,
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Speaker 1: Lauren tried to speak through her sobs, but when she did,
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Speaker 1: she just couldn't get words out. It was like her
12:17
Speaker 1: chest was so tight she couldn't even speak. And then
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Speaker 1: suddenly Lauren realized this pressure on her chest was very real,
12:24
Speaker 1: and it was getting worse and worse, to the point
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Speaker 1: where it was genuinely hard to take a breath in.
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Speaker 1: And so Lauren actually said to her kids, I think
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Speaker 1: I'm having a panic attack. And so her daughter ran
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Speaker 1: to the kitchen to get some water, and as she did,
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Speaker 1: Lauren took a seat on the couch to try to
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Speaker 1: calm down. But by the time her daughter came back
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Speaker 1: with the glass of water, Lauren straight up just could
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Speaker 1: not breathe. I mean, she was trying to pull air in,
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Speaker 1: but it wasn't going in, and she was totally panicking,
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Speaker 1: and so she looked at her kids and just mouthed
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Speaker 1: the words I can't breathe, at which point the kids understood,
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Speaker 1: like this is way beyond just grief and sadness, like
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Speaker 1: she's having a physical emergency right now. And so one
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Speaker 1: of Lauren's daughters picked up the phone and called nine
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Speaker 1: to one one. A few minutes later, an ambulance arrived
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Speaker 1: and they would take Lauren to a local hospital. But
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Speaker 1: as soon as they got there, the doctors and nurses
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Speaker 1: determined that very likely Lauren had had a heart attack,
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Speaker 1: and even though she was basically stable right now, their
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Speaker 1: fear is she was going to have another one, and
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Speaker 1: this particular local hospital just lacked the resources and staff
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Speaker 1: to actually treat Lauren, and so they pretty much immediately
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Speaker 1: transferred Lauren to another hospital called the JW. Memorial Hospital
13:35
Speaker 1: in Morgantown, West Virginia, because that hospital had a specialized
13:39
Speaker 1: cardiac care unit for people with very serious heart problems.
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Speaker 1: Doctor Conard Fhalinger was the cardiologist on duty at JW
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Speaker 1: Memorial Hospital when Lauren was brought into the intensive care unit,
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Speaker 1: followed closely behind by her three adult children. Now, doctor
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Speaker 1: Fhalinger was used to seeing worried families in the hospital,
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Speaker 1: but Lauren's kids looked far more distressed than he was
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Speaker 1: used to seeing. And when he spoke to Lauren's kids about,
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Speaker 1: you know, what's going on with Lauren, he would see why.
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Speaker 1: The doctor would learn that this family has lost their father,
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Speaker 1: their husband, just a few hours earlier. And the mother, Lauren,
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Speaker 1: who's this patient? You know, she laid with her dead
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Speaker 1: husband out on the road in a pool of blood
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Speaker 1: and now these poor kids who just lost their father,
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Speaker 1: they're seeing their mother go to the ICU for what
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Speaker 1: looks like a heart attack. I mean, this was a
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Speaker 1: total worst case scenario where basically everything was going wrong
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Speaker 1: for this family. Doctor Fhalinger did his best to push
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Speaker 1: his emotions to the side. He didn't want to get
14:37
Speaker 1: wrapped up emotionally in this case. But at the same time,
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Speaker 1: the doctor felt a very deep need to save Lauren, like,
14:45
Speaker 1: let this family have one good thing happen to them.
14:48
Speaker 1: But Lauren's condition was pretty dire, just like the doctors
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Speaker 1: at that local hospital where Lauren went first. Doctor Fhalinger
14:55
Speaker 1: also suspected Lauren had heart attack, very likely because of
15:00
Speaker 1: that blood circulation disorder that she had that basically clogged
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Speaker 1: her arteries. When an artery in the heart gets blocked,
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Speaker 1: the blood can't circulate in the heart and so the
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Speaker 1: heart dies. And preliminary testing on Lauren showed there was
15:12
Speaker 1: already signs of damage to her heart in the same
15:15
Speaker 1: way that a heart attack would damage a heart. Her
15:18
Speaker 1: heart beat was also irregular and it was too fast,
15:21
Speaker 1: and her blood pressure was dangerously low. And then also
15:24
Speaker 1: when doctor Falinger looked at some imaging of Lauren's heart,
15:27
Speaker 1: he could see that the majority of her heart muscle
15:30
Speaker 1: wasn't even moving. Basically, Laurence heart was working way harder
15:34
Speaker 1: and way faster than it should be to accomplish nothing.
15:38
Speaker 1: And so very quickly, doctor Fhalinger realized that unless he
15:42
Speaker 1: was able to find the blocked artery in Lauren's heart
15:45
Speaker 1: and clear it, that Lauren would die. And so doctor
15:48
Speaker 1: Fallinger looked up at Lauren's three kids, who were just
15:51
Speaker 1: standing there in silence, waiting for more bad news, and
15:55
Speaker 1: doctor Falinger said to them, your mom needs to go
15:57
Speaker 1: into surgery right now. Nurses willed Lauren out of the
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Speaker 1: ICU and into surgery, where she was immediately put under anesthesia.
16:04
Speaker 1: Once Lauren was ready, doctor Fallinger watched on a monitor
16:08
Speaker 1: as another surgeon fed a thin, flexible tube called a
16:11
Speaker 1: catheter into an artery in Laurn's leg and then fed
16:15
Speaker 1: it up towards her heart. This surgery was called cardiac angioplasty. Basically,
16:20
Speaker 1: that surgeon was going to use that catheter, that tube
16:23
Speaker 1: and put it into Laurren's heart and then shoot dye
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Speaker 1: through that catheter tube into the blood in Lauren's heart.
16:30
Speaker 1: And then doctor Falinger and the other doctors could watch
16:33
Speaker 1: to see where this dye went. If the dye was
16:35
Speaker 1: pumped out of the heart like it should be, they'd
16:37
Speaker 1: see it go in all different directions. But if at
16:40
Speaker 1: some point on the monitor the dye just stopped inside
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Speaker 1: the heart and didn't go anywhere, then that would mean
16:46
Speaker 1: they found a blockage. And so when the surgeon had
16:48
Speaker 1: the catheter in Laurn's heart, he injected the dye and
16:51
Speaker 1: they all watched on the monitor, and her heart functioned
16:54
Speaker 1: completely fine. There was no blockage in her heart. Now,
16:58
Speaker 1: the doctors weren't entirely convinced yet that there was no blockage,
17:01
Speaker 1: so they pulled that catheter out and they got a
17:04
Speaker 1: different one, and they went through the exact procedure all
17:06
Speaker 1: over again to see if maybe that catheter was malfunctioning.
17:09
Speaker 1: But again that second time, the dye didn't stop anywhere.
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Speaker 1: Her heart seemed to be functioning totally normally. And so
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Speaker 1: doctor Fhalinger and the rest of the doctors and surgeons,
17:18
Speaker 1: they were all totally baffled because what this meant was
17:22
Speaker 1: whatever was happening to Lauren, or whatever did happen to Lauren,
17:26
Speaker 1: was not a heart attack. But make no mistake. Lauren's
17:29
Speaker 1: heart was still absolutely dying. It was just some other
17:32
Speaker 1: thing killing it. Doctor Fhalinger went back to the drawing board,
17:36
Speaker 1: but realistically, there just weren't that many other things to
17:39
Speaker 1: consider with regards to what was happening to Lauren. Heavy
17:42
Speaker 1: alcohol use could, in theory cause what was happening to Lauren,
17:45
Speaker 1: but Lauren didn't drink. Infection was another option, but Lauren
17:49
Speaker 1: showed no signs of having an infection. Certain chemotherapy drugs
17:53
Speaker 1: have been known to damage the heart, but Lauren wasn't
17:55
Speaker 1: on chemo and certainly would not have accidentally been exposed
17:59
Speaker 1: to chemo drugs without knowing about it. And so basically,
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Speaker 1: doctor Fallinger had no clue what was wrong with Lauren,
18:06
Speaker 1: and he didn't even know where to start. And so
18:08
Speaker 1: doctor Fallinger just sat in his office feeling so bad
18:12
Speaker 1: about the fact that, you know, these kids are almost
18:14
Speaker 1: certainly gonna lose their other parent. I mean, it was
18:17
Speaker 1: his duty to save Lauren, and he couldn't do it,
18:21
Speaker 1: and he just felt so bad. He couldn't even imagine
18:23
Speaker 1: how he was going to deliver the news to the
18:25
Speaker 1: kids that you know, your mom's gonna die and we
18:27
Speaker 1: don't know why. I mean, this was the worst for
18:30
Speaker 1: doctor Fallinger. He felt like he had failed as a doctor.
18:33
Speaker 1: But just then, doctor Fallinger has this epiphany. He remembers
18:37
Speaker 1: this weird medical article he had read somewhat recently, and
18:41
Speaker 1: he realized what was going on with Lauren and her
18:44
Speaker 1: family was like the same thing that happened in that article.
18:48
Speaker 1: And because doctor Fallinger did not have any other ideas
18:51
Speaker 1: of how to handle what was going on with Lauren,
18:53
Speaker 1: he decided he would just try to do what they
18:55
Speaker 1: did in that article, because if he was wrong, he
18:58
Speaker 1: had nothing to lose. So Fallinger got up and he
19:01
Speaker 1: ran to Lauren's hospital room, and when he got in there,
19:04
Speaker 1: he saw Lauren's kids and he called them over to him,
19:06
Speaker 1: and he would tell them that he's going to give
19:08
Speaker 1: their mom some medication that's going to spike her blood
19:11
Speaker 1: pressure and keep it high. But then he needs them
19:14
Speaker 1: to gather around her and just talk to her like
19:17
Speaker 1: she's your mom, talk lovingly, soothingly, remind her that you're
19:21
Speaker 1: still here and that everything is okay. And the kids
19:23
Speaker 1: they all agreed to do this, and then doctor Falinger
19:26
Speaker 1: he gave the medicine to Lauren, and then he watched
19:29
Speaker 1: as her three kids circled up around the head of
19:31
Speaker 1: the bed, and they're all crying and holding their mom
19:34
Speaker 1: and telling her how much they love her and please
19:36
Speaker 1: come back to us, come back. And as they're doing this,
19:39
Speaker 1: doctor Falinger just quietly walked out of the room, hoping
19:42
Speaker 1: this would work, and sure enough, just a week later,
19:45
Speaker 1: Lauren was all better. It would turn out, the way
19:48
Speaker 1: in which Lauren lost her husband, both the suddenness of
19:51
Speaker 1: getting that phone call combined with just the unthinkable horror
19:55
Speaker 1: of seeing your loved one on the road in a
19:57
Speaker 1: pool of blood dead. I mean, that's a situation was
20:00
Speaker 1: so stressful for Lauren that her brain released a ton
20:05
Speaker 1: of stress hormones into her body, so much so that
20:09
Speaker 1: these stress hormones literally paralyzed her heart. And so you
20:12
Speaker 1: can understand why all the doctors thought this was a
20:15
Speaker 1: heart attack, because this sort of looked like one. But
20:18
Speaker 1: this condition does have its own name. It's called stress cardiomyopathy. However,
20:23
Speaker 1: it's known by its more casual name, which is broken
20:26
Speaker 1: heart syndrome. Basically, Lauren loved her husband so much that
20:30
Speaker 1: to witness what happened to him and to learn about
20:33
Speaker 1: it so suddenly and abruptly it nearly killed her. And
20:36
Speaker 1: it just so happens that a few months before Lauren
20:39
Speaker 1: was checked into the hospital, doctor Fhalinger happened to read
20:43
Speaker 1: a medical article about broken heart syndrome, and the only
20:46
Speaker 1: way you can treat broken heart syndrome is just to
20:49
Speaker 1: try to keep the patient alive long enough that these
20:52
Speaker 1: stress hormones leave their body naturally, at which point their
20:55
Speaker 1: heart goes back to normal. And so doctor Fhalinger was
20:58
Speaker 1: able to buy Lauren a little bit of time right
21:00
Speaker 1: at the end, there by giving her that medicine that
21:02
Speaker 1: boosted her blood pressure. But doctor Fallinger told her three
21:06
Speaker 1: kids that really it was up to them to keep
21:09
Speaker 1: their mother alive. They needed to crowd around their mom
21:12
Speaker 1: and just talk to her and tell her that you
21:13
Speaker 1: love her, you know, show her that you're here with her,
21:16
Speaker 1: give her a reason to fight and hold on. You know,
21:19
Speaker 1: even though she's not saying or doing anything, she's still
21:22
Speaker 1: alive and she can hear you, So talk to her.
21:24
Speaker 1: And so Lauren's kids just sat around their mother and
21:27
Speaker 1: just showered her with love and affection. And sure enough,
21:31
Speaker 1: a few days later, when Lauren did kind of come
21:33
Speaker 1: out of it and recover. She would say that she
21:36
Speaker 1: felt herself drifting off towards death. I mean, she really
21:39
Speaker 1: knew she was dying. But then she remembers hearing her
21:43
Speaker 1: kids calling to her and saying how much they loved
21:45
Speaker 1: her and to please come back. We need you. We
21:47
Speaker 1: already lost dad. We got to keep you. And Lauren
21:50
Speaker 1: would say, that's the reason she's still here today is
21:53
Speaker 1: because she held on for her kids. She felt like
21:56
Speaker 1: it was her duty to be here for her family
21:59
Speaker 1: and what saved her life. Okay, here is the clip
22:08
Speaker 1: from our newest episode of Mister Ballin's Medical Mysteries, Enjoy.
22:12
Speaker 1: One summer afternoon in twenty sixteen, a young woman squeezed
22:16
Speaker 1: into the tiny bathroom on board a fishing vessel. She
22:19
Speaker 1: locked the door behind her and leaned in close to
22:22
Speaker 1: the mirror to get a good look at her face,
22:24
Speaker 1: in particular her left eye, which was disturbingly red. She
22:29
Speaker 1: used both hands to stretch the skin back around her eye,
22:32
Speaker 1: and the tissue along the edge of her eyelid looked
22:35
Speaker 1: totally strange, so she just ran a finger along it,
22:39
Speaker 1: and then suddenly something dislodged from her eye. It was
22:44
Speaker 1: the small sliver of fuzz about the size and thickness
22:48
Speaker 1: of a carpet fiber. The woman leaned in closer to
22:51
Speaker 1: the mirror and delicately pinched this weird strand and pulled
22:55
Speaker 1: it away from her eye. She held it up to
22:58
Speaker 1: the bathroom light, trying to figure out what it was,
23:01
Speaker 1: and to her surprise, it was almost half an inch long.
23:04
Speaker 1: As she stood there wondering how on earth this weird
23:07
Speaker 1: piece of fiber had gotten wedged in her eye, something
23:11
Speaker 1: strange happened, the little strand began to move. The sneak
23:19
Speaker 1: peak you just listened to was from an episode called
23:21
Speaker 1: It Moves, and you can listen to that episode and
23:24
Speaker 1: many more simply by looking up Mister Ballin's Medical Mysteries
23:27
Speaker 1: on any podcast platform, give the show a follow, and
23:30
Speaker 1: then start your bitch. So that's going to do it.
23:34
Speaker 1: If you enjoyed today's medically themed stories, be sure to
23:38
Speaker 1: check out our medically themed podcast. It's called Mister Ballin's
23:42
Speaker 1: Medical Mysteries and it's a whole bunch of stories about
23:45
Speaker 1: crazy medical mysteries. You can listen to it on Amazon
23:48
Speaker 1: Music or anywhere else you listen to your podcasts. Wait,
23:51
Speaker 1: don't go anywhere if you're looking for more strange, dark
23:54
Speaker 1: and mysterious videos click here