Ep. 50 | Elephant Man

MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries

Wondery | Ballen Studios

True Crime

4.7 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 17 September 2024

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When a routine medical study makes patients swell up like sausages, the doctors running it struggle to understand what went wrong. They have to act fast – because if they can’t figure it out soon, the so-called “elephant men” could die.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	A doctor in his mid-40
0:07.1	in his mid-40 stowed into the intensive care unit or ICU
0:11.4	preparing himself for the worst.
0:13.0	He'd been eating dinner when the hospital called him.
0:15.0	They told him six patients had just been admitted to the ICU in alarming condition.
0:20.0	They were covered in sweat and barely conscious.
0:22.0	Their blood pressure and other vital signs were crashing. They were nearly gasped. The man lying there was red and patchy like every blood vessel in his body was
0:34.6	inflamed. His face was so swollen that the skin was pulled tight like the softest touch would
0:39.2	rip it open. His lips were bulging in purple and his fingers were like fat sausages, bright red from
0:44.6	inflammation, and certainly they had to be very painful.
0:48.5	Drool was also pulling at the corner of the man's mouth.
0:51.3	The doctor asked the patient, you know, how are you doing? But the patient
0:54.4	just looked up at him with hazy eyes unable to focus. This was one of the sickest patients the doctor
0:59.9	had ever seen and he knew there were five more patients just like him.
1:03.2	The doctor felt a rush of adrenaline as he sprang to action.
1:06.4	He had no idea if it was even possible to save these grotesquely swollen men
1:10.9	but he had to try.
1:14.0	Hey podcast listeners have you heard you can listen to your favorite gripping
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1:23.3	Good news.
1:24.7	With Amazon Music you have access to the largest catalogue of ad-free top podcasts included with
1:30.2	your Prime membership.
	...

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