How Doug Lindsay Invented His Own Surgery
Unsung Science
CBS News
4.9 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 9 June 2023
⏱️ 40 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In his senior year of college, a monstrous ailment fell upon Doug Lindsay. His skin felt flayed. His heart raced. The room spun. He was so weak, he couldn’t sit up in bed, let alone walk. Worst of all, doctors had no idea what was wrong with him.
Only one person on earth had the time and motivation to figure out what was wrong with Doug Lindsay: Doug Lindsay. Over the next 14 years, he consumed medical textbooks and science journals. He attended medical conferences in his wheelchair. He wrote polite, well-informed letters to specialists all over the world. In the end, he not only figured out what was wrong with him—he invented a new surgery that he thought would fix it. He was right.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Ordinarily, there's very little overlap between unsung science topics and the stories |
| 0:09.9 | in People magazine. |
| 0:11.7 | I mean, can you imagine? |
| 0:13.6 | This week on Unsung Science, Taylor Swift looks back on her life and loves. |
| 0:18.9 | But there was this one article in 2021 that I could not get out of my head. |
| 0:23.6 | The story of a man with a horrific disease that was so rare, the medical community had |
| 0:29.4 | nothing to offer him. |
| 0:30.8 | It's exceedingly rare. |
| 0:31.8 | I was able to find 32 cases globally ever. |
| 0:35.0 | Like we said, wow, you know, you got 46 presidents. |
| 0:38.9 | You're more likely to be elected president to be diagnosed with one of these problems. |
| 0:42.8 | So what do you do when you're the only one who knows anything about your illness? |
| 0:46.9 | Well, Doug Lindsay spent 14 years turning himself into a scientist from his bed. |
| 0:52.9 | In the end, in the face of almost universal skepticism from doctors, he invented his own |
| 0:58.8 | surgery, convinced that it would cure him. |
| 1:02.0 | This story is incredible. |
| 1:03.8 | I'm David Pogue, and this is Unsung Science. |
| 1:08.8 | Hey, prime members, you can listen to Unsung Science add free on Amazon Music, download |
| 1:17.1 | the app today. |
| 1:18.1 | A few things are more devastating than a loved one that's gone missing. |
| 1:22.5 | From Wondry, the vanished is a podcast where host Marissa Jones tells stories of missing |
| 1:27.8 | persons that have gone overlooked. |
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