Hey, Prime members, you can binge eight new episodes of the Mr. Ballin podcast one month early and all episodes ad-free on Amazon Music.
Download the Amazon Music app today. Hey, it's Mr. Ballin here.
If you're a fan of The Strange, Dark, and Mysterious, then you should check out my other podcast, Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries.
Each week, I dive into some of the most bizarre, mind-bending medical stories you've ever heard.
Cases that leave doctors scratching their heads, miraculous recoveries that defy logic, and strange medical mishaps that seem too wild to be real.
These stories are more than just eerie. They are a reminder of how unpredictable and sometimes terrifying life can be.
Up next is one of my recent favorites from the series.
Whether you're new to Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries or a longtime listener, I think you'll find it just as captivating as I did.
If you like this content, make sure to follow Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries on Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts.
We put out new episodes every week, and each one dives into a bizarre, mind-bending medical mystery that will leave you questioning what you thought you knew about the human body.
In the summer of 2020, a desperate father ran alongside a stretcher in the ICU of an Ohio hospital, holding his daughter's limp hand.
She was on a ventilator and was about to be put into a medically induced coma.
Just a few weeks earlier, she had been completely fine, but now she was inches from death.
Her doctors had no idea what was wrong with her.
All they knew was that whatever was going on, it had started when she began hearing a mysterious song.
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The phenomenally talented Philippa Soo returns to narrate her fifth Lily Chu title.
This time, Philippa is joined by her real-life husband, Steven Pasquale.
Set in Toronto's wealthy cottage country, aka the Hamptons of Canada, Rich Girl Summer follows the story of Valerie, a down-on-her-luck event planner posing as a socialite's long-lost daughter while piecing together the secrets surrounding a mysterious family. and falling deeper and deeper in love with the impossibly hard-to-read and infuriatingly handsome family assistant, Nico.
Caught between pretending to belong and unexpectedly finding where she truly fits in, Valerie learns her summer is about to get far more complicated than she ever planned.
She's in over her head and head over heels.
Listen to Rich Girl Summer now on Audible.
Go to audible.com slash richgirlsummer. If you're anything like me, you love a good story that has twists and turns and moments that make you stop and think, like, how is the story even real?
That's why I want to recommend the podcast Crime Junkie.
Every week, amazing host Ashley Flowers unravels stories about missing people, murders, and mysterious deaths.
These strange, dark, and mysterious cases range from stories ripped straight from the headlines to cases you really won't hear anywhere else.
It's binge-worthy, true crime storytelling that is thoughtful, well-researched, and always leaves you wanting more.
Discover why Crime Junkie has such a loyal community and dive into your next mystery today.
Search for Crime Junkie wherever you're listening right now.
From Ballin Studios and Wondery, I'm Mr. Ballin, and this is Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries, where every week we will explore a new baffling mystery originating from the one place we all can't escape, our own bodies.
If you liked today's story, please change the follow button's alarm clock sound to the song Tiptoe Through the Tulips and set it for 3 a.m. every day.
This week's story is called Rare Bird. It was past midnight in June of 2020 in Sandusky, Ohio, and 25-year-old Lauren Wells lay in her bed wide awake.
She had to be up early for work and had been trying to fall asleep for hours.
But all night long, the faint sound of music coming from her upstairs neighbors had made sleep impossible.
The tune they kept playing was extremely irritating.
Sometimes it was very generic sounding, like elevator music.
Then it seemed to switch to some kind of strange experimental jazz.
Lauren had just moved into her apartment and didn't want to cause any trouble with her new neighbors, but they clearly were not stopping anytime soon.
So she finally climbed out of bed and grabbed her broom.
She was just about to knock on the ceiling with her broom when the direction of the music suddenly changed.
Now it sounded like it was coming from next door.
Lauren shook her head in frustration. She didn't want to start a fight with the entire complex, so she climbed back into her bed and threw her pillow over her head.
She could still hear the music, but eventually she drifted off to sleep.
The next morning at 8 a.m., Lauren arrived at her job as a nursing home administrator.
She had just been hired two months ago, and she was proud that she'd gotten this position at such a young age.
Running the nursing home was Lauren's dream job.
She loved interacting with the elderly residents and wanted to make a difference in their lives.
So even though she was running on fumes at this point from a lack of sleep, Lauren pushed through the day, checking in on staff and residents and running various meetings.
Thankfully, it was a Friday, so Lauren had the weekend to look forward to.
She and her friends were heading to one of the islands off of Lake Erie, which is one of the Great Lakes.
Lauren hoped some time outdoors would help her regain some energy.
And the weekend getaway was just what she needed.
The sun was out, there was a gentle breeze over the lake, and the water was cool and refreshing.
Lauren was excited to reconnect with her best friends, and on their first night out, they went out to dance and have some drinks.
She forgot about work and her annoying neighbors and just enjoyed herself.
But as the evening progressed, Lauren found herself using the bathroom more than usual, but she figured it was just because she was drinking.
A little while later, when she was on the dance floor, she felt a sharp pain on her left side.
The pain stayed with her the rest of the night.
She thought it was menstrual cramps and did her best to ignore them.
Nothing was going to stop her from having a fun weekend.
And by the time she got home Sunday night, she was feeling better, just like she had hoped.
But soon after Lauren stepped into her apartment, her good mood evaporated.
Her neighbors were playing that annoying elevator music again.
The faint melodies seemed to be coming from everywhere and nowhere at the same time.
Lauren dropped her bags and shook her head.
She wasn't going to let this upset her. It was late and she knew she needed to get some sleep.
So she unpacked and got ready for bed. But just like before, it was impossible to relax with that music coming through the walls.
She tossed and turned for hours until finally exhaustion overtook her.
When Monday morning rolled around, Lauren was definitely not feeling well.
She figured she was paying for her weekend of partying, so she tried to shake it off.
She made herself a cup of coffee and got on the treadmill for her daily run.
But she'd only been on the treadmill for a minute when once again, she felt an intense pain in her left side and had to stop running.
It almost felt like someone was punching her hard, but from the inside.
This pain went far beyond menstrual cramps.
She figured something else had to be going on.
Lauren thought back to everything she did at Lake Erie.
She wondered if she had pulled a muscle while she was out swimming.
It didn't seem likely, but she couldn't think of anything else that would explain the pain.
Lauren had no idea how she was going to get through the day, much less the week, but she didn't want to call in sick.
She was still new to her job and people were counting on her.
So she slowly got dressed while wincing in pain and got ready for work.
And as she did, she thought to herself, at least her neighbors weren't playing that God awful music.
Once Lauren arrived at work, she did her morning rounds and sat down at her desk to take care of some paperwork.
But as hard as she tried, she just couldn't focus.
There was something distracting her. It was that weird music she kept hearing in her apartment.
It made no sense that the same music would be playing in the nursing home.
Lauren looked around just to see if there were any speakers nearby, but there was none.
She tried to ignore the disjointed melody, but it was impossible.
It seemed like it was coming from everywhere.
But then she realized something that made her heart start racing.
If there really wasn't any music actually playing right now, that could only mean one thing.
The music was only happening in her head.
She wondered if she was going crazy. But before she jumped to any conclusions, Lauren thought of someone who might be able to help her.
She had a friend who was an audiologist, which is a doctor that specializes in hearing.
Lauren called her right away and explained what was going on.
She described the strange, repetitive sound and said it was following her everywhere.
Lauren's friend listened patiently, then told her that what she was describing sounded upsetting, but it actually wasn't uncommon.
She promised that Lauren was not going crazy.
She said that sometimes people can hear melodies in everyday noises, like busy traffic or the hum of air conditioners.
And just like songs that get stuck in your head, these sounds can do the same thing.
Since Lauren was clearly so tired, she was probably more susceptible to hearing these noises.
Her friend was sure that once Lauren just got some quality sleep, this weird music she was hearing would go away.
Lauren was relieved, but also frustrated.
The music was actually the thing keeping her from sleeping in the first place.
But she was glad to know that if she could just get some rest, maybe her life would go back to normal.
As the week went by, Lauren did her best to stay relaxed, but the music in her head just would not stop, and it continued to make sleep nearly impossible.
And so a few days after talking to her friend, Lauren again dragged herself to work, and as she headed down the hall toward her office, she noticed a new odd sensation.
Her hands felt like they were covered in a thick layer of dirt, and they felt sticky too, almost as if a glue stick had melted in her palm.
She kept scrubbing her hands with soap and hot water, but she couldn't get them to feel clean.
Lauren was totally confused. She'd never felt anything like this before.
And it wasn't long before that same sensation spread to her feet.
Lauren felt like her socks were glued to her toes.
At first, it was just a little bit irritating, but then it became totally unbearable.
She started going barefoot at work, which helped a little bit.
She realized it was weird, but she couldn't stand the thought of putting her shoes and socks back on.
Lauren was afraid that there was a connection between her auditory hallucinations and now her hands and feet feeling dirty all the time.
But she had no idea what that connection could be.
Lauren's instinct was telling her to go see a doctor, but she imagined how ridiculous it would all sound.
She hung on to what her friend, the audiologist, had told her about feeling better with some rest.
And so Lauren convinced herself that this was the weekend she would finally get some sleep and all these problems would just finally go away.
That Saturday night, more than two weeks after her strange symptoms had begun, Lauren climbed into bed exhausted.
She tried to ignore the strange soundtrack playing in her head, her sticky hands and feet, and the dull pain still in her left side.
She pulled the comforter up to her chin, and she tried to meditate, letting the sounds of birds outside her window lull her to sleep.
But after a few minutes, Lauren's eyes flew open.
She realized that the birds singing outside her window were seagulls.
Seagulls live near water, and there was not an ocean or a lake anywhere near her.
The seagulls got louder and louder, and finally sounded like they might just fly right into a room at any second.
Lauren knew that no amount of rest was going to make them go away, because just like the music, the squawking seagulls were in her head.
She couldn't wait any longer. She needed to see a doctor.
Almost 500 miles away in Easton, Pennsylvania, Lauren's father, Brad, was sound asleep at home when his phone rang.
He saw Lauren's name on the caller ID and felt his stomach tighten.
She wouldn't be calling so late if something wasn't wrong.
After he answered the phone, Lauren told him what had been going on for the past couple of weeks.
She had reached the point where she was so worried about her symptoms that she was heading to the emergency room to get checked out.
Brad could hear the panic in her voice, and that made him scared.
He was fully awake now, calculating how long it would take him to drive to Ohio.
He jumped out of bed and reached for his clothes, telling Lauren he was on his way, but she told him he should stay home.
She wanted to see what the doctor had to say before he made such a long trip.
Brad reluctantly agreed to hold off, but he told Lauren to call as soon as she had any answers.
30 minutes after talking to her father, Lauren arrived at the emergency room.
She took a breath and then described her symptoms to the admissions nurse, expecting to get some strange looks.
But the nurse just nodded and took some notes.
Then Lauren was sent back to see a doctor who performed an exam and drew her blood.
Lauren waited anxiously as they processed her results.
And after a little while, the doctor approached Lauren's hospital bed.
She searched his face, looking for any sign of concern, but his expression seemed totally relaxed.
He told Lauren that her tests were completely normal.
He didn't think anything was really wrong with her.
As he spoke, he flipped through her chart and asked about her work.
She explained she'd recently moved and started a new job.
The doctor nodded and said he understood, and he said, you know, Lauren, you're probably just stressed.
And then he prescribed her some anti-anxiety medication, and he gave her an order to see a psychiatrist.
Lauren was frustrated with the doctor's diagnosis, but he seemed to be certain there wasn't anything else going on with her.
So Lauren left the ER feeling somewhat unsettled, and on the way home, she called her father, Brad.
Lauren could always rely on him to be supportive and honest with her.
She told him how annoyed she was that all these doctors just assumed she was stressed because of her new job.
But she was thriving there and loved the new challenge.
It didn't make sense to put the blame solely on stress.
Her dad said he totally understood her frustration, but the doctors knew what they were doing.
He asked Lauren to at least start taking the anti-anxiety medication.
With any luck, they'd let her get some sleep, and then at that point, with a clear head, she could reassess her situation.
Lauren was not convinced, but she promised her dad that she would try.
Later that week, Lauren drove to work as usual.
She'd been taking her anxiety medication, but so far it really wasn't helping.
She still heard all the mysterious music playing everywhere she went, and so she really wasn't getting more than an hour or two of sleep at night.
She gulped down some strong black coffee, but nothing could cut through her brain fog.
She'd been a zombie at work all week, often losing track of what she was supposed to be doing.
Lauren turned into the parking lot, pulled into her parking spot, and then got out of her car, and as she walked towards the building, she left the engine running and her keys in the ignition, and her laptop and purse were still on the passenger seat.
Lauren entered the conference room in a daze.
She felt like she was moving in slow motion, and she barely registered the team of nurses who were already there for the weekly staff meeting.
Lauren sat down at the table and tried to read the agenda, but the words looked like a jumble of hieroglyphics.
At some point, Lauren tried to say something, but nothing came out of her mouth.
She looked at the faces of her colleagues, who were now staring at her in confusion, and suddenly Lauren realized she had no idea how she had gotten there or what she was supposed to do.
The nurses who were at the meeting with Lauren could tell something was wrong with her.
They helped Lauren lie down on a nearby sofa and took her blood pressure, which was extremely high.
She could hear another nurse calling 911.
Lauren tried not to panic, but the fear was overwhelming.
Then her mind went totally blank. By the time the ambulance arrived, Lauren was starting to come out of her trance-like state.
The fog that had been clouding her mind had lifted, and she felt more clear-headed than she had in a long time.
She insisted that she did not need to go to the hospital, but the staff wouldn't hear of it.
And so, after some gentle coaxing, they convinced Lauren to get in the ambulance.
The paramedics took Lauren to a local hospital where doctors ran a series of tests.
As she waited for the results, she felt surprisingly calm.
She was so relaxed that she began texting her friends to come hang out with her in the hospital.
She said she was having a great time. Lauren's friends were taken aback by these text messages.
They knew what she was going through, and this just didn't sound like her at all.
A little while later, Lauren's father, Brad, was busy at work when his cell phone rang.
He'd been on edge the whole week worrying about his daughter.
When he saw it wasn't her number, he felt relieved.
But then he realized the person calling him had an area code from Sandusky, the town where Lauren lived.
Brad's stomach tightened as he answered.
It was one of Lauren's friends. She told Brad that Lauren was in the hospital and that she was not doing well.
This time, Brad didn't hesitate. He raced home, threw some clothes in a suitcase, and sped off to make the seven-hour drive to Sandusky.
Meanwhile, Lauren was waiting at the hospital for more test results.
One of her close friends who had come to the ER was sitting next to her.
When the doctor came back to Lauren, he gave her some good news.
Her test results had all come back negative, just like before.
They couldn't explain what had happened to her at work, but physically she was fine and she could be discharged.
Lauren thanked him, then she turned to her friend and said that it must have been another false alarm.
But Lauren could tell her friend still looked worried. and deep in her heart, Lauren knew she wasn't okay, no matter what these tests said.
Her symptoms might have temporarily gone away, but they were going to return, and as she thought about that, she began to feel this terrible dread come over her.
Lauren asked the doctor if there was any other alternative to being discharged.
The doctor hesitated, and then he said, yes, there was, but it was drastic.
You know that person in your life who just can't stand mayo?
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Hey, listeners, Mr. Ballin here. What if I told you that some of the strangest, darkest, and most mysterious stories happening right now are all connected to what might be the biggest crime of our generation?
You know I'm always on the hunt for the most chilling and perplexing tales out there.
Well, I've discovered a new podcast that uncovers real-world mysteries unfolding right now. much like how another Ballin' Studios podcast, redacted Declassified Mysteries, brings hidden government secrets to light, and it's called Lawless Planet.
Host Zach Goldbaum reveals how shocking tales of murder, cover-ups, and mysterious deaths are all part of something bigger. the systematic destruction of our planet.
From activists who vanish in the Amazon to whistleblowers uncovering billion-dollar environmental crimes, these aren't just stories about the environment.
They're real-life thrillers about people caught between powerful forces willing to kill to keep their secrets buried.
Follow Lawless Planet on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts.
You can listen to new episodes of Lawless Planet early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus.
Hey, it's Mr. Ballin. I'm excited to tell you about something special.
For the first time, My show, Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries, has joined forces with Redacted, Declassified Mysteries with Luke LaManna, to tell a story so complex it required our combined storytelling styles.
This special episode is called A Redacted Medical Mystery.
In it, unexplained symptoms after a routine surgery quickly unravel into something much darker, leading straight to classified government operations hidden for decades.
To listen and uncover the truth alongside us, head to either the Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries or Redacted show pages right now. or search for A Redacted Medical Mystery in the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts.
If you're fascinated by unexplained medical stories, well, stick around on Medical Mysteries.
Every week, we dive deep into cases that will leave you questioning everything you know about the human body.
And if government conspiracies are more your style, Redacted is your go-to for stories that unravel secrets never meant to see the light of day.
Remember, you can listen to both shows early and ad-free by joining Wondery Plus.
Hey listeners, big news for true crime lovers.
You can now enjoy this podcast ad-free on Amazon Music with your Prime membership.
Listen to all episodes of my podcasts, Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries and Mr. Ballin's Strange, Dark, and Mysterious Stories, along with a huge collection of top true crime podcasts completely ad-free.
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To start your ad-free listening journey, download the Amazon Music app for free or head to amazon.com slash ballin.
That's amazon.com slash b-a-l-l-e-n. Dive into uninterrupted true crime stories today.
Seven hours later, Brad finally arrived at the hospital in Sandusky and he raced to the admissions desk.
Just moments earlier, his daughter had called him with the stunning news that she was admitting herself into the psychiatric ward of the hospital.
And so Brad, all he wanted to do was just get to his daughter.
Once he entered the patient area, Brad was greeted by a doctor and brought to Lauren's room.
But he was only allowed to see her through a shatterproof glass window on her locked door.
And what he saw shook him to the core. Lauren was writhing on the floor, screaming and begging to be let out.
She was trying to tear off her shirt, food was splattered on the walls, and an empty tray and plate were upside down on the floor.
Brad was stunned. Lauren had called him just a couple of hours earlier and seemed fairly clear-headed, and so he didn't understand how her condition could have changed so drastically.
The doctor explained that he was giving Lauren medicine to treat schizophrenia, which is a serious mental disorder that causes people to hallucinate and experience delusions.
They'd already started on her medication, but it would need time to take effect.
Brad shook his head in disbelief. There was no history of mental illness in their family, and Lauren had always been so happy and well-adjusted.
The doctor could only shrug. Schizophrenia did have a tendency to run in families, but it also struck out of the blue, usually in young adults anytime between their late teens and early 20s, and Lauren was 25.
The diagnosis was terrifying. Rad was desperate to do something to help, but all he could do was wait for Lauren's medication to kick in.
It was early in the morning when Brad left the hospital after Lauren had finally calmed down.
He checked into a nearby hotel and sank into an exhausted sleep thinking about his daughter and praying that she would be back to her normal self by the time he woke up.
After sleeping for a few hours, Brad returned to the hospital.
And when he got there, the nurse gave him a rundown of Lauren's condition.
She said Lauren had begged the staff to use their hospital phone, and then when they said yes, she had called friends and relatives repeatedly, forgetting she'd already spoken with them.
She'd also become very aggressive with the hospital staff.
Brad insisted on going into his daughter's room, so they unlocked her door and he walked in softly, not wanting to scare her.
Lauren was sitting on a rumpled bed staring into the distance.
Her hair was disheveled and there were dark circles under her eyes.
He almost didn't even recognize her. Brad struggled to stay calm as he sat down next to Lauren.
He tried to comfort her and asked her if she needed anything, but she didn't respond.
The medications she was on didn't seem to be working, but the doctor said it could take a while to kick in.
Without anything else to hold on to, Brad clung on to that hope.
Over the next few days, Brad anxiously waited for Lauren to improve as doctors tried different combinations of medications.
But on the fifth night after Lauren was admitted to the psych ward, things got even worse.
Brad had gone back to his hotel and in a routine that had become too familiar, a phone call startled him awake.
It was someone from the hospital. Lauren had experienced a massive seizure and was being transferred to the ICU for further testing.
Brad ran to his car and by the time he arrived at the ICU, Lauren was heavily sedated.
He flagged down a doctor in the hall and bombarded her with questions, but it was clear that the doctor was just as much in the dark as he was.
All she knew was that Lauren was in critical condition and they were trying to figure out what was wrong.
Afterward, in the waiting room, Brad called friends and family to update them.
He tried to piece together everything that had happened to her in the last several weeks, hunting for any clues that might explain her illness.
But all he had was a long list of strange symptoms and events.
Brad didn't know what to do, but he was desperate for answers.
And so he began mentally going through his list of friends who might have some perspective that could be useful right now about Lauren.
And as he did this, one name came up that he and Lauren both had in common, Ken Zemanek.
Ken was the father of twin girls who were Lauren's best friends from childhood, and he was also a psychiatrist.
And so Brad hoped Ken could provide some perspective about Lauren's mental state.
When he got Ken on the phone, Brad was afraid that Ken would tell him the same things as all the other doctors.
That it was possible Lauren had schizophrenia, or that Brad just needed to be patient and wait for more test results.
But once Brad finished going through Lauren's extensive list of strange symptoms, Ken didn't say a word.
After a long pause, he said that the hallucinations and mood swings did point to a mental issue.
But what troubled Ken was the seizure. Schizophrenia couldn't have caused that to happen.
Ken paused again and then told Brad he did have another thought, one that could potentially explain everything that had been happening to Lauren.
He described it as a, quote, rare bird or extremely rare condition.
He suggested that Brad ask Lauren's doctors to test her for this rare condition.
Brad listened intently. It was a long shot, but it was all he had.
After Brad hung up with Ken, Brad googled anything he could find about this rare disease Ken had mentioned.
And the more he read about it, the more convinced he became that it was what was happening to Lauren.
Brad headed straight to the nurse's station and asked to speak with one of Lauren's doctors right away.
For the first time since Lauren's nightmare had started, he felt a real glimmer of hope.
The on-duty doctor arrived, and Brad told him about his conversation with Ken Zemanek.
But the doctor was hesitant to test for it right away.
The condition Brad described was incredibly unusual, and they needed to test for more common conditions first.
Brad immediately tried speaking with another one of Lauren's doctors to see if maybe they would test for it, but that doctor said the same thing.
They were going to test for common things first.
And this doctor would say that in their entire career, they had never seen a patient with something that rare before.
And so a parade of specialists marched in and out of Lauren's room, but every test they ran was inconclusive.
As the hours ticked by, Brad's frustration grew.
The next morning, Brad arrived at the hospital and headed straight to the ICU.
As he walked down the hallway leading to Lauren's room, he heard a commotion of voices and the sound of beeping monitors.
He ran into his daughter's room and saw a team of doctors hovering over Lauren.
She was lying motionless on the bed and her eyes were closed.
Brad stood there in shocked silence until a doctor noticed him and rushed over.
He told Brad that Lauren's vital signs were dropping and they were working to get her stabilized.
And so Brad needed to leave and go to the waiting area until the situation was under control.
But Brad was sick of waiting in a medical twilight zone.
His daughter was on the verge of death and they still had no idea what was wrong with her.
He demanded they run the tests that he had requested about this rare illness.
The doctor hesitated, but then nodded. He finally admitted that they were hitting a total brick wall and were at an absolute loss.
But they were at a small community hospital, and so their resources were very limited to both test and treat Lauren for this rare condition if she were to have it.
And so if Brad wanted to get her the help she needed, they'd have to transfer her to the Cleveland Clinic, which was over an hour away.
However, getting there was a huge risk. Lauren was so weak, she could die on the transit.
Brad was facing the biggest decision of his life, but he didn't hesitate.
A few minutes later, Lauren was loaded into the back of an ambulance, headed for the Cleveland Clinic.
Brad followed behind in his car, praying his daughter could hold on just a little longer.
When the ambulance finally arrived at the clinic, a medical team was waiting.
Brad quickly parked his car and joined them as the team grabbed the gurney that Lauren was on and rushed her towards the entrance.
Brad tried to stay calm as he watched them wheel her to the neurological ICU.
Lauren's heartbeat barely registered and she was having trouble breathing on her own.
The doctors told Brad that her brain had also begun to swell and so they needed to put her into a medically induced coma to help bring the swelling down.
Lauren was given a strong sedative through an IV drip to put her into a state of unconsciousness.
She was then hooked up to a ventilator that went into her mouth and down her throat to keep her breathing and a feeding tube was inserted inside her nose and down into her stomach.
Brad tried not to show how scared he was, but he knew Lauren was hanging on by a thread.
Brad spent the next several hours anxiously pacing in the lobby of the ICU while the heads of several departments at the Cleveland Clinic teamed up in an attempt to save Lauren's life.
Finally, one of Lauren's doctors walked in with the results of Lauren's newest round of tests.
The doctor was incredulous. Brad and his good friend, Ken Zemanek, had been right.
Lauren was sick with something that was so unheard of, most doctors would never think to even test for it.
She had a disease called anti-NMDAR encephalitis.
Anti-NMDAR is extremely rare, affecting only one out of 1.5 million people per year.
It had only been identified 13 years earlier in 2007.
The disease causes severe inflammation of the brain, which then results in hallucinations and a total psychotic breakdown.
This explained almost all of Lauren's symptoms, like hearing the strange music and the seagulls and the sticky feelings on her hands and feet, but it turned out that NMDAR by itself wasn't what caused Lauren to get so sick.
The doctor explained that the disease usually signified a deeper, even rarer underlying condition, which would have caused Lauren's other symptoms, like the pain in her side and the frequent need to urinate.
Those symptoms were caused by a tumor in her ovary called a teratoma.
Teratomas usually strike young women. This kind of tumor is made up of tissue from other parts of the body, like hair, muscle, nerve, organ, or bone.
Normally, when the immune system recognizes a tumor in the body, it creates antibodies to try and kill it off.
However, the specific type of antibodies formed from a teratoma can end up targeting more than just the tumor.
They can also attack the brain and cause anti-NMDAR.
In trying to defend her body against this tumor, Lauren's brain had accidentally attacked itself.
Brad nearly collapsed from relief. They had a clear-cut answer for what Lauren was up against.
It meant they weren't working in the dark.
Now they just needed to get the tumor out.
A surgeon removed the teratoma the next morning.
It was 13 centimeters long, so more than 5 inches long.
And unfortunately, it was malignant, which meant Lauren needed chemotherapy in order to fully recover.
For the next two weeks, Lauren stayed in a medically induced coma.
Once she was finally awakened, she couldn't remember anything that had happened to her.
She had to relearn how to walk and how to talk, but day by day, she got stronger and was finally well enough to go home.
Six months later, Lauren got the news they'd all been hoping for.
She was now officially cancer-free. After a full recovery, she went on to graduate from school and earned an advanced degree.
Then in April of 2022, she took a new job as executive director of a senior living facility.
She never heard phantom elevator music or seagulls again.
From Ballin Studios and Wondery, this is Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries, hosted by me, Mr. Ballin.
A quick reminder, the content in this episode is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.
Fact-checking was done by Sheila Patterson.
For Ballin Studios, our producer is Alyssa Tommenang.
Our head of production is Zach Levitt. Executive producers are myself, Mr. Ballin, and Nick Witters.
For Wondery, senior managing producer is Ryan Lohr.
Our head of sound is Marcelino Villapondo.
Our producer is Julie Magruder. Senior producers are Laura Donna Pallivota, Dave Schilling, and Matt Olmos.
Our executive producers are Aaron O'Flaherty and Marshall Louis for Wondery.
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Hey, it's Mr. Ballin. For the first time, my show, Medical Mysteries, has joined forces with Redacted for a special episode.
A Redacted Medical Mystery uncovers how routine surgery leads to classified government operations.
Listen now on the Medical Mysteries or Redacted feeds, or search A Redacted Medical Mystery wherever you get your podcasts.
