Kara's Story Part 1: Burning From the Inside Out
The Medical Detectives
Soft Skills Media
3.8 • 937 Ratings
🗓️ 25 June 2025
⏱️ 59 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this intense two-part episode of The Medical Detectives, what began as a routine backpacking trip among Arkansas oaks quickly spiraled into a baffling medical mystery. A misdiagnoses of UTI, strep and “pink eye,” a terrifying drop into sudden blindness, and delirium, and a desperate race against time in under-equipped rural hospitals. Kara’s raw, first-person account of shock, ICU delirium and the gut-wrenching fear of not being believed by doctors exposes the darkest extremes of the patient experience, and, miraculously, the resilience that brought her back from the edge of death.
Have a medical journey to share? Email us at stories@themedicaldetectivespodcast.com.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Erin, how are you doing? I'm, I'm hanging in there. You know, I, you guys know, I'm kind of in a little |
| 0:09.4 | whirlwind book tour right now. So I am, it's like, where in the country is Dr. Nance? But as of |
| 0:16.8 | right now, I'm in L.A. It's been amazing. I love running into podcast listeners at all of the |
| 0:22.7 | events. I met three of the listeners in Charleston where I was last week. So it's been really |
| 0:29.1 | fun. I feel like we're on opposite sides of the world because I am currently in a cabin in the |
| 0:33.7 | woods. And the only thing I'm running into are bunnies in the back behind a cabin. |
| 0:39.5 | Well, better than coyotes. |
| 0:42.3 | Well, it's funny because every time I look at them, I'm like, if I get ill, I can use your blood to heal me. |
| 0:47.8 | But that's all from another episode. |
| 0:52.7 | Anyway, but this week's episode's really kind of intense. It's actually two parts again, guys, |
| 1:00.5 | because this is a wild, wild story. But I think what's fascinating about this one is this is what |
| 1:07.1 | you think about when you think about the most raw versions of a medical mystery, |
| 1:16.3 | you know, being on the edge of death, holding on and trying to find an answer before you don't have any more time. Yeah. I mean, this is something that literally no doctor knew |
| 1:25.5 | what was going on, which is a terrifying feeling to be in as a patient. |
| 1:30.5 | Yeah. And I think that one thing that's so spectacular about this story is that luckily she is |
| 1:36.1 | alive to tell the end of this tale because a lot of people don't survive in these situations. |
| 1:43.0 | So with that bold intro, before we jump into the actual |
| 1:48.6 | podcast, I want to make a little request of y'all if you have a story that you think is worth |
| 1:54.4 | telling or you're not sure if it's worth telling. We would love to hear from you. You can send us |
| 2:00.7 | an email at, and I always |
| 2:02.3 | have Aaron say it, because I always mess it up. It's Stories at the Medical Detectivespodcast.com. |
| 2:10.6 | You can tell which one of us is, you know, the more organized of the two. I'm the more creative |
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