MrBallen Podcast: Strange, Dark & Mysterious Stories - Diagnosis Vol. III

Episode Date: July 3, 2025

Today’s podcast will feature 3 medical horror stories. The audio from all three stories has been pulled from our main YouTube channel, which is just called "MrBallen," and has been remastered for today's podcast.Story names, previews & links to original YouTube videos:#3 -- "All In Her Head" -- An infant is rushed to the ER, what they discover will leave you stunned (Original YouTube link -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtUhNYVTuLM)#2 -- "A Mouthful" -- A woman is walking down the street when her life suddenly changes forever (Original YouTube link -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtUhNYVTuLM)#1 -- "Only You Can Save Her" -- A puzzled surgeon tries one last crazy effort to save his patient's life (Original YouTube link -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Qz4U3bh-eE)For 100s more stories like these, check out our main YouTube channel just called "MrBallen" -- https://www.youtube.com/c/MrBallenIf you want to reach out to me, contact me on Instagram, Twitter or any other major social media platform, my username on all of them is @mrballenSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey Prime members, you can binge 8 new episodes of the Mr. Ballin podcast one month early and all episodes ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today. Today's podcast will feature 3 medical horror stories. The audio from all 3 of these stories has been pulled from our main YouTube channel and has been remastered for today's episode. The links to the original YouTube videos are in the description. The first story you'll hear is called All in Her Head, and it's about an infant who

is rushed to the emergency room, but what doctors discover will leave you stunned. The second story you'll hear is called A Mouthful, and it's about a woman whose life would forever change after a routine walk down the street. And the third and final story you'll hear is called Only You Can Save Her and it's about a puzzled surgeon who tries one last crazy effort to save his patient's life. But before we get into today's stories, if you're a fan of the strange dark and mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come to the right podcast because that's all we do and we upload twice a week, once on Monday and once on Thursday. So if that's of interest to you, please invite the

Amazon Music Follow button to your wedding, but give them the wrong date, time, and location. Okay, let's get into our first story called All in Her Head. Agent Nate Russo returns in Oracle III, Murder at the Grandview, the latest installment of the gripping Audible original series. When a reunion at an abandoned island hotel turns deadly, Russo must untangle accident from murder. But beware, something sinister lurks in the Grandview's shadows. Joshua Jackson delivers a bone-chilling performance in the supernatural thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat.

Don't let your fears take hold of you as you dive into this addictive series. Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. My name is TJ Raphael. I'm the host of Liberty Lost, a new podcast about who gets to be a mother and the control of young women hidden behind the veil of faith.

Binge all episodes of Liberty Lost ad free right now and the control of young women hidden behind the veil of faith. Binge all episodes of Liberty Lost ad-free right now on Wondery Plus. One morning in the spring of 1982, a mother rushed to the reception desk at the Royal London Hospital in England, cradling her six-week-old baby girl named Claire. Claire was her first and only child, and like a lot of first-time parents, the mother was very paranoid about her daughter's health. And so any time there was a change in her behavior or her appearance changed, it was

like this mom rushed to the doctor. And that morning, the mother had noticed something very unusual on her daughter's head. There were two raised white lines that made the shape of a plus sign. There was one line that ran from the nape of her neck all the way in back, all the way up her head to her forehead, and the other line was horizontal, and it went from behind one ear all the way to the other ear. Now this mother had no idea what these lines were, what they meant, what caused them, and so as soon as she saw them she scooped her kid up and she headed to the hospital. Now in the past, every time this mother had brought Claire to the hospital, the visit always ended

with, your child is just fine. But this time when the receptionist saw Claire's head and saw those lines, she immediately said those do not look normal. And so she handed the mother some paperwork and told her they would get Claire to a neurologist as soon as they could. Fifteen minutes later, the mother stood in an exam room and watched as the hospital's pediatric neurologist, Dr. Farhad Afshar, examined Claire's head. And after a moment, Dr. Afshar stepped back and he explained to the mother that these raised lines on her daughter's head were something known as bulging fontanelles.

So when a baby is born, the bones of their skull are not actually fused together yet, and the thin gaps between these separate skull bones are called fontanelles. And Dr. Afshar told Claire's mom that when a baby's fontanelles begin to bulge like this, it's usually because the child's brain is so swollen that it's beginning to push the skull bones apart. Dr. Afshar told Claire's mom that she had made the right decision to bring her daughter to the hospital. But he was clear that a lot of things can cause a baby's brain to swell and potentially cause these bulging fontanelles, and so in order to figure out what was going on, they would need to order a CAT scan.

Claire's mom felt uneasy, but she said okay, and so they did the CT scan, and then a few minutes later, Dr. Afshar came back into the room with the results. And with a grave expression on his face, he told Claire's mother that he had some terrible news. Her daughter had a brain tumor. Hearing this, Claire's mom felt like the entire world was crumbling all around her. She was terrified for her daughter, and she had a million questions. But before she could ask any of them, Dr. Afshar said there's something else. He said that normally brain tumors are made up of brain cells, but based on the CT scan,

it looked like Claire's tumor inside of her brain was made partially of fat and partially of bone. Dr. Afshar said he had never seen anything like this and couldn't even begin to explain it, but the one thing he did know is that whatever this thing was, it had to come out of Claire. Leaving it inside of her head could at a minimum cause serious neurological damage or at worst could even kill the child. So Dr. Afshar told Claire's mom that she only had really one option. Claire needed brain surgery. Even though the operation was very risky for a child as young as Claire was, it was the only way they could figure out what this mass actually was, and it was the only way to get it out.

Soon after their conversation, Dr. Afshar was standing in the operating room, with Claire sedated laying face down on the table in front of him. Dr. Afshar made an incision across the back of Claire's head. Then he cut a rectangle into her skull, essentially creating a small door. He opened up that door to see the bottom of Claire's brain. He delicately moved the left and right hemispheres of Claire's brain slightly apart so he could reach the section where the tumor was. And that's when he got his first glimpse of this strange mass. He grabbed it with a pair of surgical tongs and gently tugged, and he was surprised at how easily it began to slide out.

And slowly it came into the light. And when Dr. Afshar finally got a full look at what this thing was, he was so stunned he just froze, staring at this thing that seemed impossible. And so after setting this strange mass aside, Dr. Afshar closed her skull, stitched her head up, and then sent her to the pediatric ICU. Claire laid unconscious in a hospital bed with her mother by her side for weeks. Meanwhile, Dr. Afshar ordered a genetic test on the mass he had removed from Claire's brain.

And it turned out Claire was not an only child like her mother thought. She was actually a twin. And the mass that Dr. Afshar had removed from Claire's brain was her twin sibling's fetus. Claire had an extremely rare condition called fetus in fitu. Fetus in fitu occurs in the very early stages of a twin pregnancy, when cells don't divide properly and one fetus becomes enveloped by the other. The enveloping twin looks like a single baby, but they're actually born with their sibling's partially developed fetus still inside of their body. The fetus in Claire's head was five and a half inches long. It had two arms, two legs, but its head hadn't formed

yet. And Claire's case was extra rare because her twin's fetus was found inside of her skull. was extra rare because her twin's fetus was found inside of her skull. In all of global medical history, intracranial fetus and FETU had only ever been recorded 18 other times. And it was thought to be a fatal diagnosis because to this point all the others who had it had died. But after two weeks in the ICU, Claire woke up. And a week after that, she was healthy enough to go back home. And by 18 months old, she had fully recovered and had no lingering neurological problems. As far as the medical literature suggests, Claire was the first person to ever survive having her own twin removed from her brain.

Hey, it's Mr. Ballin here. in. brings a very unique insider perspective to these wild stories. From covert operations to historical deceptions, Luke examines verified stories that sound almost too incredible to be true. Like Ana Montes, the Defense Intelligence Analyst who maintained a perfect cover while secretly working for Cuba for nearly 20 years. Or the Tic-Tac Incident, where a decorated Navy pilot encountered something in the skies that the Pentagon couldn't explain. Luke and his team dive deep into declassified documents to bring you thoroughly researched, eye-opening stories from the darkest corners of history.

Follow redacted declassified mysteries with Luke Lamanna on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to new episodes early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus. Today is the worst day of Abby's life. The 17-year-old cradles her newborn son in her arms. They all saw how much I loved him. They didn't have to take him from me. Between 1945 and the early 1970s,

families ship their pregnant teenage daughters to maternity homes and force them to secretly place their babies for adoption. In hidden corners across America, it's still happening. My parents had me locked up in the godparent home against my will. They worked with them to manipulate me and to steal my son away from me. The godparent home is the brainchild of controversial preacher Jerry Falwell, the father of the modern evangelical right and

the founder of Liberty University. Where powerful men, emboldened by their faith, determine who gets to be a parent and who must give their child away. Follow Liberty Lost on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. Our next story is called A Mouthful. Around 1 p.m. on August 6, 2011, a 32-year-old seafood vendor named Carla Flores stood in the entryway of her home, balancing a tray of shrimp in one hand and waving goodbye to her three kids with the other. She told her kids she'd be right back, and then she stepped out the front door onto the

streets of Culiacan, which is a major city in northwestern Mexico. Carla was going to deliver this tray of shrimp to one of her regular customers. She walked down an alleyway and then onto a main road, and then eventually into a neighborhood with a whole bunch of brightly colored houses. She went up to one of them and knocked on the door. A man answered, and Carla handed him the tray of shrimp. He took the shrimp, gave her a handful of cash. She thanked him and turned and headed back down towards the street. And Carla had made it all the way back to the alleyway right near her house when suddenly she heard this loud sound and then before she could figure out what it was, this small hard object

smashed into her right cheek and it hit her so hard she fell onto the pavement. And so instinctively Carla reached up and she touched her cheek, and she felt a warm, wet liquid. She looked at her hand, and it was covered in blood. Carla tried to get up, but her ears were ringing and she felt dizzy, and then suddenly everything went black. 20 minutes later, a receptionist at Kulia Khan General Hospital watched as a man carried a bloody unconscious woman into the emergency room, he laid her down on a bench in the waiting area and then he just turned around and began walking back out again.

The receptionist jumped up and chased after this guy demanding to know what was going on with this woman, who is she, what happened to her, what are you doing? But the guy just said, look, I was driving down the road and I saw this woman bloody in the streets, and so I brought her here, I promise you, that's all I know. And then he turned and kept on walking, and the receptionist went back inside to check on the woman. The receptionist looked down at the woman. She was unconscious, her mouth was hanging open, and the entire right side of her face was totally mangled. And then embedded in this mess on the right side of her cheek, basically in her head, was this weird dark-colored object, but she couldn't tell what it was, and she didn't have time to stand around trying to find out.

So she called for help, and a couple of nurses came running out of the emergency room, and together they lifted this woman up, put her on a gurney, and wheeled her back to see a doctor. A few moments later, Dr. Gustavo Mesa walked into Carla's hospital room. He'd been briefed on her condition, but when he went inside, she was no longer unconscious. Now her eyes were wide open open and she looked totally confused. Dr. Mesa could tell Carla was having trouble breathing and she couldn't close her mouth. But then Carla began making this grunting sound. And at first the doctor couldn't

understand what she was saying, but then it became clear she was saying, Rock, Rock, Rock. Dr. Mesa's first thought was, oh, she's telling me she was hit by a rock. That's what's caused her injury. And so Dr. Mesa leaned in and looked at her wound, and he caught a glimpse of what looked like a dark-colored stone buried inside of her cheek. Dr. Mesa thought, you know, wow, she must have been hit so hard by this rock, this stone, for it to get buried that far inside of her face. He promised Carla he would get it out,

but first he told her she would have to undergo an x-ray to really figure out where it was in her skull and how exactly they'd be able to get it out. A few minutes later, Dr. Mesa stood in the radiology department looking over Carla's x-ray images. And it was immediately clear to him and all the other medical staff that what was in Carla's cheek was not a rock. Because the object was shaped like an oval, it had round edges, and it was perfectly symmetrical. To Dr. Meza, it just seemed far too uniform to be a rock. But he didn't have a better guess for what it was. All he could tell from the x-ray was this object had broken Carla's upper and lower jaw and shattered several of her teeth.

And now this object was stuck between her broken jaw bones. Dr. Mesa knew it was going to take surgery to get this thing out, but he needed more information before he felt confident operating. So he ordered a CAT scan of Carla's head to give him a more detailed picture of this object. And when the results came in and Dr. Mesa looked at the image, his face went pale. He couldn't believe what he was looking at, but the proof was right there in front of him, and he knew he would have to do something and fast. So Dr. Mesa ran to the nearest nurse's station and told the nurse to evacuate everybody from the emergency room. Then he grabbed the hospital phone and he dialed

a military official. Less than an hour later, Carla was no longer in the hospital. She was now out in the middle of a grassy field laying on her back, absolutely terrified. An anesthesiologist walked up to her and injected a local anesthetic into her cheek. And suddenly, the agonizing pain that Carla had felt ever since waking up in the hospital was now gone. But her absolute terror was not. Carla knew there were two doctors and a nurse standing by to perform an operation on her, but also there were two army soldiers just a few feet away from her staring at her. Carla saw a doctor start to bring a scalpel toward her face, and she had to close her eyes to keep from flinching. She heard the soldiers giving directions and the clinking of surgical instruments. And all the while, Carla kept her eyes shut tight and just

tried to pretend none of this was even happening. And after what felt like a lifetime, Carla felt a shift inside of her face, and it was the doctors and nurses pulling this object out of her cheek. Carla opened her eyes, and right above her head, she saw the doctor holding the bloody thing they had just removed from her face. It was a live grenade. That's why she was being operated on, not in the hospital, but out in this open field, because if it did go off mid-operation, it would at least limit casualties. And that's also why the military was called in to tell the medical staff how to handle this live piece of ordnance in the middle of the operation. After the grenade was safely removed from Carla's face, it was disposed of by the army soldiers.

It's believed that the grenade that hit Carla was fired out of a grenade launcher. That would explain the loud sound she heard in the alleyway before it hit her in the face. Luckily though, the grenade's fuse that should have ignited and caused it to explode didn't work. So, even though it absolutely was a live grenade, it didn't explode and so it didn't kill her. It's unknown who shot the grenade, why they shot it, or whether Carla was the intended target or simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Carla would ultimately lose half her teeth, she would undergo multiple reconstructive

surgeries and she would be left with a huge scar on her right cheek. But she said she was just happy to be alive. And she was forever grateful to the stranger who brought her to the hospital, and to the medical team, and the army soldiers who risked their lives to save her. One morning in January of 2016, a 45-year-old woman named Lauren walked into an office building in West Virginia where she worked as an office manager and she dropped her purse, her phone, and her cigarettes on her desk. It was a Friday and so Lauren was in a really good mood because she was pumped about the weekend. The next day, Saturday, she and her husband Dan planned to go on this big hike together. They loved hiking so that was going to be awesome. And then on Sunday, Lauren planned to stay home all day and cook one big meal because it had become a tradition in their family that on Sundays, Lauren and Dan's kids, Lauren planned to stay home all day and cook one big meal because it had become

a tradition in their family that on Sundays, Lauren and Dan's kids, they had three kids who were all grown up, they would come back home to their parents' house and they would have a big family meal together. And these dinners were definitely the highlight of the week for Lauren and for Dan because both of them were very family-centric. Lauren switched on her computer and then looked at her schedule and saw she had a whole bunch of meetings back to back to back that day and so immediately she was worried that she would not be able to slip out that day and go for a quick walk. Something she had recently been doing a lot of because her doctor had recently told her

that she had a blood circulation disorder that was called peripheral vascular disease. And what that meant was the arteries that carried the blood from her heart down to her legs and her feet were becoming blocked, and so her legs and feet were not getting enough oxygen. So far, her only symptoms were the occasional leg cramp, but if the disease got worse, it could lead to pain and mobility issues, and also heart attack and stroke. Luckily, Lauren's doctor told her that she didn't need medication. She just needed to quit smoking, change her diet and become more physically active.

And Lauren had totally leaned into this and was being much more active and had changed her diet. She hadn't quit smoking yet, but she planned to and so Lauren really felt like she was on the right track. And so as Lauren kind of began her day, you know, going through her emails and thinking about when she's going to do this walk, her cell phone rang. When Lauren looked at the phone, she didn't recognize the number, so she decided to let it go to voicemail. And so Lauren forgot about her phone and just figured whoever this was, you know, they'd call back or whatever, and she's doing her thing. But then she got another phone call.

And when she looked, it was the same number calling her back. And this time, Lauren did pick up the phone and when she said hello, on the other end of the line, she heard a police officer say in a very serious voice, am I speaking to Dan's wife? And so right away, Lauren's heart began to race and she would tell the officer, yes, you know, what's going on. And all the officer would tell her is that Dan, unfortunately, was in a very serious car accident. And so you need to come to the scene right away.

In an absolute panic, Lauren hung up the phone, she grabbed her things, she ran out to the car and she floored her way to the address the police officer gave her. But when she got there, she saw there were so many police cars and ambulances and all these people that she couldn't even see what was going on, let alone park anywhere near where this accident happened. So she wound up parking her car around the corner. And then she got out and just sprinted towards all the police. And then when she got up to them, she basically began pushing people out of the way, and no one tried to stop her. They could tell, you know, this woman must know the people involved in

this crash. And so she pushed past all these people. And finally, she can see through the crowd, and she can see her husband's car, and it's absolutely mangled. And there's all these first responders that are in a circle on the pavement. And she can tell there is somebody on the ground they're working on, and it's got to be Dan. And so Lauren just began running towards that group of responders that are in a circle on the pavement and she can tell there is somebody on the ground they're working on and it's got to be Dan. And so Lauren just began running towards that group of people and as she did they all stood up as if you know there was nothing they could do and on the ground Lauren saw her husband. There was Dan lying in this huge pool of blood just motionless on the ground. And so before she even got over to her husband,

Lauren already knew what had happened. Dan was dead. And so Lauren let out this primal shriek and just rushed over to her husband and fell to the ground next to him holding his body and crying hysterically. And all the EMTs and first responders, you know, they knew this woman has just lost her husband. And even though she shouldn't be here right know, they knew this woman has just lost her husband. And even though she shouldn't be here right now, they just felt like they have to give this moment to her. And so the police and the EMTs and the rest of the first responders,

instead of even talking to Lauren or trying to get her to go somewhere else, they just formed a big circle shoulder to shoulder around Lauren and Dan, and just allowed Lauren to grieve in private. 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. No more wading through cliffhangers or dealing with ads, because let's be honest, ads shouldn't be the most nerve-wracking part of true crime. 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. Last year, long crime brought you the trial that captivated the nation. She's accused of hitting her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O'Keefe with her car. Karen Reed is arrested and charged with second degree murder. The six week trial resulted in anything but resolution. We continue to find ourselves at an impasse. I'm declaring a mistrial in this case. But now the case is back in the spotlight and one question still lingers. Did Karen read kill John O'Keefe? The evidence is overwhelming that Karen Reed is innocent. How does it feel to be a cop killer, Karen? I'm Kristin Thorn, investigative reporter with Law and Crime and host of the podcast

Karen, the Retrial. This isn't just a retrial. It's a second chance at the truth. I have nothing to hide. My life is in the balance and it shouldn't be. I just want people to go back to who the victim is in this. It's not her. Listen to episodes of Karen, the retrial, exclusively and ad free on Wondery Plus. About two hours later, Lauren returned to her home in a daze. Dan's body had already been transported to the morgue and a police officer had driven

Lauren back to her home where her three kids, her son and her two daughters, were now waiting for her. And so when Lauren went inside the house and went into the living room where her kids were, her kids, who already knew what had happened, they just immediately swarmed her and hugged her and they all just cried together. I mean this was so horrible and so unexpected that nobody knew what to do. Finally, Lauren tried to speak through her sobs but when she did, she just couldn't get words out. It was like her chest was so tight she couldn't even speak. And then suddenly Lauren realized this pressure on her chest was very real and it was getting worse and worse to the point where it was genuinely hard to take a breath in.

And so Lauren actually said to her kids, I think I'm having a panic attack. And so her daughter ran to the kitchen to get some water. And as she did, Lauren took a seat on the couch to try to calm down. But by the time her daughter came back with the glass of water, Lauren straight up just could not breathe. I mean, she was trying to pull air in, but it wasn't going in and she was totally panicking and so she looked at her kids and just mouthed the words, I can't breathe. At which point the kids understood like this is way beyond just grief and sadness

like she's having a physical emergency right now. And so one of Lauren's daughters picked up the phone and called 911. A few minutes later, an ambulance arrived and they would take Lauren to a local hospital, but as soon as they got there, the doctors and nurses determined that very likely Lauren had had a heart attack, and even though she was basically stable right now, their fear is she was going to have another one, and this particular local hospital just lacked the resources and staff to actually treat Lauren. And so they pretty much immediately transferred Lauren to another hospital called the J.W. Memorial Hospital in Morgantown, West Virginia, because that hospital had a specialized cardiac care unit for people with

very serious heart problems. Dr. Konard Phalinger was the cardiologist on duty at J.W. Memorial Hospital when Lauren was brought into the intensive care unit, followed closely behind by her three adult children. Now, Dr. Phalinger was used to seeing worried families in the hospital, but Lauren's kids looked far more distressed than he was used to seeing. And when he spoke to Lauren's kids about, you know, what's going on with Lauren, he would see why. The doctor would learn that this family has lost their father, their husband, just a few hours earlier and the mother Lauren who's this patient,

you know, she laid with her dead husband out on the road in a pool of blood and now these poor kids who've just lost their father, they're seeing their mother go to the ICU for what looks like a heart attack. I mean this was a total worst case scenario where basically everything was going wrong for this family. Dr. Fehlinger did his best to push his emotions to the side, he didn't want to get wrapped up emotionally in this case, but at the same time, the doctor felt a very deep need to save Lauren, like let this family have one good thing happen to them. But Lauren's condition was pretty dire. Just like the doctors at that local hospital where Lauren went first, Dr. Phalinger also

suspected Lauren had a heart attack, very likely because of that blood circulation disorder that she had that basically clogged her arteries. When an artery in the heart gets blocked, the blood can't circulate in the heart, and so the heart dies. And preliminary testing on Lauren showed there was already signs of damage to her heart, in the same way that a heart attack would damage a heart. Her heartbeat was also irregular and it was too fast, and her blood pressure was dangerously low.

And then also when Dr. Fallinger looked at some imaging of Lauren's heart, he could see that the majority of her heart muscle wasn't even moving. Basically, Lauren's heart was working way harder and way faster than it should be to accomplish nothing. And so, very quickly, Dr. Phalinger realized that unless he was able to find the blocked artery in Lauren's heart and clear it that Lauren would die. And so Dr. Phalinger looked up at Lauren's three kids who were just standing there in silence waiting for more bad news and Dr. Phalinger said to them, your mom needs to go into surgery right now. Nurses wheeled Lauren out of the ICU and into surgery where she was immediately put under anesthesia. Once Lauren was ready, Dr. Fallinger watched on a monitor as another surgeon that surgeon was going to use that catheter,

that tube and put it into Lauren's heart and then shoot dye through that catheter tube into the blood in Lauren's heart. And then Dr. Phalinger and the other doctors could watch to see where this dye went. If the dye was pumped out of the heart, like it should be, they'd see it go in all different directions. But if at some point on the monitor, the dye just stopped inside the heart and didn't go anywhere, then that would mean they found a blockage.

And so when the surgeon had the catheter in Lauren's heart, injected the dye and they all watched on the monitor and her heart functioned completely fine. There was no blockage in her heart. Now the doctors weren't entirely convinced yet that there was no blockage. So they pulled that catheter out and they got a different one and they went through the exact procedure all over again to see if maybe that catheter was malfunctioning. But again that second time the dye didn't stop anywhere. Her heart seemed to be functioning totally normally. And so Dr.

Phalinger and the rest of the doctors and surgeons, they were all totally baffled because what this meant was whatever was happening to Lauren or whatever did happen to Lauren was not a heart attack. But make no mistake, Lauren's heart was still absolutely dying. It was just some other thing killing it. Dr. Phalinger went back to the drawing board, but realistically there just weren't that many other things to consider with regards to what was happening to Lauren. Heavy alcohol use could in theory cause what was happening to Lauren, but Lauren didn't

drink. Infection was another option, but Lauren showed no signs of having an infection. Certain chemotherapy drugs have been known to damage the heart, but Lauren wasn't on chemo and certainly would not have accidentally been exposed to chemo drugs without knowing about it. And so basically, Dr. Phalinger had no clue what was wrong with Lauren, and he didn't even know where to start. And so Dr. Phalinger just sat in his office feeling so bad about the fact that, you know, these kids are almost certainly going to lose their other parent. I mean, it was his duty to save Lauren and he couldn't do it.

And he just felt so bad. He couldn't even imagine how he was going to deliver the news to the kids that, you know, your mom's going to die and we don't know why. I mean, this was the worst for Dr. Phalinger. He felt like he had failed as a doctor. But just then, Dr. Fallinger has this epiphany. He remembers this weird medical article he had read somewhat recently.

And he realized what was going on with Lauren and her family was like the same thing that happened in that article. And because Dr. Fallinger did not have any other ideas of how to handle what was going on with Lauren, he decided he would just try to do what they did in that article. Because if he was wrong, he had nothing to lose. So Dr. Phalinger got up and he ran to Lauren's hospital room, and when he got in there, he saw Lauren's kids and he called them over to him.

And he would tell them that he's gonna give their mom some medication that's gonna spike her blood pressure and keep it high. But then he needs them to gather around her and just talk to her like she's your mom. Talk lovingly, soothingly, remind her that you're still here and that everything is okay. And the kids, they all agreed to do this.

And then Dr. Fallinger, he gave the medicine to Lauren. And then he watched as her three kids circled up around the head of the bed and they're all crying and holding their mom and telling her how much they love her and please come back to us, come back. And as they're doing this, Dr. Phalinger just quietly walked out of the room, hoping this would work. And sure enough, just a week later, Lauren was all better.

It would turn out, the way in which Lauren lost her husband, both the suddenness of getting that phone call, combined with just the unthinkable horror of seeing your loved one on the road in a pool of blood dead, I mean that situation was so stressful for Lauren that her brain released a ton of stress hormones into her body. So much so that these stress hormones literally paralyzed her heart. And so you can understand why all the doctors thought this was a heart attack because this sort of looked like one. But this condition does have its own name, it's called stress cardiomyopathy.

However, it's known by its more casual name, which is broken heart syndrome. Basically, Lauren loved her husband so much that to witness what happened to him and to learn about it so suddenly and abruptly, it nearly killed her. And it just so happens that a few months before Lauren was checked into the hospital, Dr. Phalinger happened to read a medical article about broken heart syndrome. And the only way you can treat broken heart syndrome is just to try to keep the patient alive long enough

that the stress hormones leave their body naturally, at which point their heart goes back to normal. And so Dr. Phalinger was able to buy Lauren a little bit of time right at the end there by giving her that medicine that boosted her blood pressure. But Dr. Phalinger told her three kids that really it was up to them to keep their mother alive. They needed to crowd around their mom and just talk to her and tell her that you love her, you know, show her that you're here with her, give her a reason to fight and hold on.

Even though she's not saying or doing anything, she's still alive and she can hear you. So talk to her." And so Lauren's kids just sat around their mother and just showered her with love and affection. And sure enough, a few days later, when Lauren did kind of come out of it and recover, she would say that she felt herself drifting off towards death. I mean, she really knew she was dying. But then she remembers hearing her kids calling to her and saying how much they loved her

and to please come back. We need you. We already lost dad. We got to keep you. And Lauren would say that's the reason she's still here today is because she held on for her kids. She felt like it was her duty to be here for her family. And so that's what saved her life. A quick note about our stories. They are all based on true events, but we sometimes use

pseudonyms to protect the people involved, and some details are fictionalized for dramatic purposes. There's this one, the Mr. Ballin podcast, as well as Mr. Ballin's medical mysteries, bedtime stories, wartime stories, run fool, redacted, late nights with Nexpo, and a twist of history. All you have to do is search for Ballin Studios wherever you get your podcasts. To watch hundreds more stories just like this one, head over to our YouTube channel, which is just called Mr. Ballin. So that's gonna do it. I really appreciate your support. Until next time, see ya. Hey Prime members, you can binge 8 new episodes of the Mr. Ballin podcast one month early

and all episodes ad free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today. And before you go, please tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at wondery.com slash survey. We acting bad, bad, bad, bad. We ain't trying I heard nobody. For decades he was untouchable. But now it's all coming undone Sean combs the mogul as we know

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