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Listen or know, this episode contains references to suicide as well as graphic descriptions of medical experiments.

It may not be appropriate for younger audiences.

It's September 13th, 1936 in Washington, D.C.

Inside the hospital at George Washington University, Alice Hammett paces back and forth.

She's in a small hospital room with threadbare curtains and a cold tile floor.

It's lifeless and quiet and Hammett fits.

Hammett glances at her overnight bag, which sits in the corner of the room.

She knows that it's almost time for her to fall asleep, but that seems impossible.

Hammett can't get her mind to stop racing.

Tomorrow morning, she is scheduled to have a surgery that could change her life, and change is what she needs.

For decades, Hammett has lived with intense emotional pain.

It's often unbearable.

Her suffering began years ago when her child grew ill, then died.

He was only two years old.

Hammett had started to recover, but then she suffered another tragedy.

Her sister murdered her own husband, and then died by suicide.

Hammett was consumed by pain.

She has panic attacks and fits of crying.

She often can't fall asleep or even sits still.

Entire months can slip by in a haze.

It's a miserable way to live, and recently her husband snapped.

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