MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries - Ep. 27 | Deadly Cramp

Episode Date: April 9, 2024

A semi-pro tennis player nearly drowns in the pool when she suffers sudden, cramping pain in her midsection. Her doctors fear she has cancer, but then they realize that other people are showing the exact same symptoms.See 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 episodes 49 to 56 right now and ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the app today. A doctor sliced into his patient's chest, opening her up for surgery. He knew he had to be very careful. This patient was already so weak, there was a good chance that she would not survive this operation. But without the operation, this patient's body would continue to fill with fluid, especially in her lungs. It would make it impossible for her to breathe. So when the patient's chest cavity was opened up and her organs were exposed, the doctor

forced a long needle into her lungs and then retracted the syringe. It immediately filled with yellowish fluid. The doctor filled several more syringes with liquid from each lung, and then after that, he began just draining the fluid from the rest of her organs and body tissue. Over the next two hours, the doctor drained more than a gallon of fluid from his patient's body. The doctor sighed as he stitched his patient back up, relieved that she'd survived the operation, but only time would tell if she would survive the illness. Because to this point, the doctor had no idea what was actually making her sick, and he knew if he didn't figure it out soon,

her illness would kill her. I'm Marsha Clark, host of Informance Lawyer X. Join me as we tell the shocking true story of a lawyer who wasn't just representing some of Australia's most dangerous gangland criminals. She was informing on them to the police. Informance Lawyer X is available exclusively on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus for access to this and more Exhibit C true crime podcasts. From the team behind American History Tellers comes a new book, The Hidden History of the White House. Each chapter will bring you inside the fierce power

struggles, intimate moments, and shocking scandals that shaped our nation. From the War of 1812 to Watergate. Available now, wherever you get your books. 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 like today's story, invite the follow button out to eat with you your treat. But right when you sit down, tell them they have to keep their meal under $5. This episode is called Deadly Cramp. In late summer of 1989, 39-year-old Bonnie Bishop dove into the swimming pool at her local health club in Santa Fe, New Mexico. It was just after sunrise,

and she closed her eyes as the cool water rushed past her face and chilled her body. Bonnie didn't mind the cold. It was invigorating. Bonnie swam laps every morning. Then she'd towel off and hit the gym for a high-intensity workout. Bonnie was a semi-professional tennis player, and it was important for her to stay in peak physical condition. But this morning, Bonnie woke up feeling groggy, and she had a headache. She hadn't been sleeping well lately, and it was harder than usual to get herself motivated to go swim her laps. But she pushed through her discomfort and propelled herself through the pool, hoping that she'd just feel better once her blood got flowing. Halfway through her second lap,

she finally found a rhythm, and her headache started to melt away. But then a searing pain shot through her midsection, like someone had literally slashed her in half with a hot knife. She was so surprised by the pain that she actually choked down some water. She tried to cough it back up, but then her entire body just began cramping, and she could barely tread water. Panicked, Bonnie began to flail, desperate to reach the side of the pool. But every time she tried to kick her legs, they seized up like the worst charley horse she'd ever experienced. And so pretty quickly, Bonnie began to worry that she might drown right there in the middle of this pool that she used all the time. Bonnie tried to worry that she might drown right there in the middle of this pool that she used all the time. Bonnie tried to calm her frantic thoughts and forced herself to just doggy paddle

toward the edge of the pool no matter how uncomfortable it was. And finally she did get to the edge of the pool and she collapsed on the steps in the shallow end. And as she hacked up water a lifeguard who saw this happening raced over to her side. The lifeguard helped Bonnie up the stairs and out of the pool, and then guided her to a lounge chair a few feet away. Bonnie sat down and tried to catch her breath, but she just coughed up more water and continued to seize up in pain. She leaned forward until her chest was resting on her lap.

It eased the pain a little bit, so she let herself sit there, breathing slowly. After a few minutes, the pain did begin to subside. She felt sore and very scared from what had just happened, but now she could stand up and walk. The lifeguard asked her if she was okay, and she assured him that she'd be fine, but she skipped the rest of her workout that day and just headed home, trying not to feel too rattled by what had just happened. In more than 30 years of serious athletic training, Bonnie had never experienced pain like that. Bonnie was used to being in perfect

control of her body. She really didn't like feeling helpless or vulnerable. For a few hours, Bonnie felt relatively normal again, and she tried to put the incident out of her mind. But that afternoon, the intense pain returned. Bonnie realized this was not the sort of thing she could just wait out. So she called her primary care doctor and made an appointment for the following morning. The next day, Bonnie twisted in agony as she lay on an examination table at her doctor's office. Her muscles still felt sore and full of knots, and so she tried to massage her calves to keep them from seizing up, but nothing she did seemed to work. Meanwhile, every now and again, that

incredibly sharp pain kept slicing through her midsection. When the doctor came in, Bonnie, who was all bent over and totally uncomfortable, explained to her doctor what had happened at the pool the day before and how terrifying it had been to realize she could have drowned. She told him about the stabbing pain in her legs that made it nearly impossible to walk and the dull but persistent aching all over her body. Plus, she was feeling so tired. I mean, she was totally miserable and had no idea why. Bonnie's doctor was puzzled. She was an exceptionally healthy woman with no chronic conditions such as arthritis that could have explained her painful muscle spasms, and his initial physical examination revealed nothing out of the ordinary. Her blood pressure, vision,

and hearing were all normal. All she seemed to have was a slight fever. Then the doctor stepped back and frowned. He told Bonnie that he wanted to order a complete blood workup just to make sure she did not have some infection. Bonnie nodded, hoping that she would know soon what was going on with her. Her doctor told her that she was welcome to wait on the examination table and that a nurse would be in soon to collect the blood samples. An hour later, Bonnie opened her eyes and found herself staring up at the ceiling. She was totally disoriented for a moment and then realized she must have fallen asleep right after that nurse had come in and took her blood. That same nurse was actually now standing right beside her and the nurse was apologizing for waking Bonnie up

but she told Bonnie that she really could not keep napping in this examination room. Bonnie nodded her head like she understood and then slowly sat up to leave but then a moment later Bonnie's doctor walked in holding her chart and her doctor looked like something was wrong. Bonnie held her breath as the doctor explained that Bonnie's blood had 10 times the normal amount of a special type of white blood cell called eosinophils. Eosinophils are supposed to fight off infection, and they multiply when the body is invaded by bacteria, parasites, or other enemies. And so this meant Bonnie's body was definitely fighting something. Bonnie braced herself as she asked, you know, what does that really mean? And her doctor kind of looked down for a second, and then in a soft voice,

he told her that an eosinophil count as high as hers could mean cancer. Bonnie was shocked. Before she started feeling this pain, she'd been perfectly healthy. How could she have something as serious as cancer? She put her head in her hands, and the nurse came over and rubbed her back. Bonnie could feel tears collecting in her palms. She felt like her body had been hijacked. She was an athlete.

The idea of losing her strength and agility while she went through chemotherapy or surgery or whatever other treatment she would need made her feel sick. But as a competitor, Bonnie took pride in being very mentally tough, and she knew that now was not the time to break down. So she swallowed her fear and sat up straight. She wasn't going to wallow just yet. Instead, she asked her doctor how they were going to fight this thing. Bonnie saw her doctor flash a small smile at her sudden fighting spirit. He said it would require more testing to be certain whether she really had cancer, so he wanted to refer her to the oncology department at the local hospital. Bonnie agreed, then grabbed her phone to call her mom, Jackie.

Bonnie knew that her parents would want to drive her to the hospital and support her through whatever was about to happen. That afternoon, Bonnie felt like her muscles were on fire as she sat in the passenger seat of her mother's car. They pulled into St. Vincent Hospital in Santa Fe, where her primary care doctor had already sent over her lab work. Bonnie's mother helped her climb out of the car and then helped her hobble in through the front doors of the hospital. Thankfully, the receptionist told Bonnie that the oncologist was ready to see her right now. A nurse appeared in the waiting room with a wheelchair and helped Bonnie sit down inside of it,

and then she wheeled her down the hallway to the oncologist's office. Bonnie climbed onto an examination table as a tall doctor with gray peppered hair entered the office and introduced himself as Dr. William Blevins. Bonnie reached out to shake his hand and then doubled over as a cramp made her whole abdomen contract. She groaned. The pain was so intense that she couldn't find the words to even describe it. Then she looked up to see Dr. Blevins watching her very closely. He asked her if the pain felt like a toothache, but all over her body. Bonnie raised her eyebrows at such a weird and specific reference, but she said yes, that's actually exactly what it felt

like. Dr. Blevins nodded. He explained that Bonnie's high white blood cell count was causing inflammation in her organs and other tissue throughout her body. If they didn't reduce the swelling, the pain would actually only get worse. He said he was glad she came in right away. Dr. Blevins told Bonnie that he was going to test her liver, order some x-rays, and do further blood work. He said that if she really did have cancer, then these tests he was going to do would show him where the cancer was in her body. Despite the kind of frightening details the doctor was giving her, Bonnie tried to be optimistic. She was hopeful that if she did have cancer, that they'd caught it early enough to actually fight it off.

For the next hour, Bonnie gritted her teeth as the pain in her body gnawed away at her. In fact, the pain was so intense, she barely remembered Dr. Blevins taking blood samples or the nurse escorting her to the x-ray room. Bonnie kept telling herself that soon they would know what was wrong and how to fix it. Finally, 30 minutes after her last x-ray, Dr. Blevins entered the office, and Bonnie steeled herself, ready for him to confirm she did have cancer. She could feel her pulse quicken and her stomach felt queasy. For the first time all day, she was so anxious that she actually stopped thinking about

all her incredible physical pain. But Dr. Blevins said that all of Bonnie's tests actually came back negative. He'd even tested her for allergies, asthma, and parasites, but nothing showed up on her lab work. Now, they couldn't fully rule out cancer because there were some types of cancer that would not have shown up in these tests, but there were no obvious tumors on her x-rays. Bonnie's mouth fell open as she searched for words. She was encouraged that she didn't have tumors, but something was clearly wrong with her, and until the doctors knew what that was, there was no way to treat it. She clenched her fists, partially because she felt so frustrated and partially because her body was in excruciating pain. Bonnie looked up as Dr. Blevins sat on his stool and faced her.

He assured her that he was going to do everything he could to help. He told Bonnie that he'd already reached out to other doctors in the area to consult on this case. In the meantime, they were going to have to admit Bonnie to the hospital so they could help manage her pain, which meant she'd be staying for a while. From the award-winning masters of audio horror. I see a face right up against the window. Bleach white, no hair, black eyes, a round hole for a mouth. It's flat, Taylor. It's completely flat. I don't know what that is. I don't know what kind of a head is flat. Comes the return of Dark Sanctum.

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Harbor. Lady Mafia, available now on The Binge. Search for Lady Mafia wherever you get your podcasts to start listening today. Three days later, Bonnie lay on her bed at St. Vincent's Hospital, her eyes closed, imagining herself out on the tennis court. Whenever she needed a distraction, she liked to revisit old tennis matches and think about what she should have done differently. It helped take her mind off what was happening to her and the aching pain coursing through her body. Then Bonnie heard someone clear their throat and she opened her eyes. She saw Dr. Blevins standing near the foot

of her bed and he asked her how she was doing. Beside him was a man Dr. Blevins introduced as Dr. Phil Hertzman, a family practice physician who'd driven in from nearby Los Alamos. Bonnie sat up and tried to say hello, but her voice was hoarse and she felt totally out of breath. Dr. Hertzman gestured for her to just lie back down, it was fine. He told Bonnie that she really needed to save her strength. So Bonnie relaxed as Dr. Hertzman approached her bedside. He told Bonnie that he looked over her case and consulted with Dr. Blevins, and in his opinion, it was possible that Bonnie had cancer after all, though not in her organs or tissues.

Her high white blood cell count could indicate that she had leukemia, which is a form of blood cancer. This potential diagnosis hit Bonnie like a tidal wave, especially considering the fact she had been told that she probably did not have cancer. Her dad had a friend who died from leukemia, and she knew it could be one of the nastiest forms of cancer to fight. And so Bonnie burst into tears. She tried to catch her breath and calm herself, but the tears just kept coming, and she started to gasp. She heard Dr. Blevins say he'd go get her some supplemental oxygen.

Then a few moments later, she felt a mask slip over her face. She looked up, and Dr. Blevins told her to try and breathe slowly. With the help of the oxygen, Bonnie gradually brought her breathing under control. She leaned back on her hospital bed, feeling totally overwhelmed. Once Bonnie caught her breath, Dr. Hertzman explained that to determine if she really did have leukemia, they would need to test her bone marrow, which required inserting a needle into her bone. He'd need some time to schedule the procedure, so she'd need to stay in the hospital another day or two before they'd know for sure. In the meantime, Dr. Blevins told Bonnie to try and rest.

A few hours later, Dr. Blevins was finishing up some paperwork when he received a page from a nurse on Bonnie's floor. Bonnie's breathing had been getting worse, and now she could barely breathe at all. Dr. Blevins put his pager in his pocket and sprinted down the hospital hallway. He raced into Bonnie's room and found her leaning forward in bed, coughing and struggling for air. A nurse was hovering around her, trying to fit breathing tubes into her nose to administer oxygen. Dr. Blevins immediately grabbed a stethoscope and moved it down Bonnie's back, listening for any irregularities inside of her.

He told Bonnie to please take in a deep breath, and when she did, he heard soft pops in her lungs. He grimaced. These sounds, known as crackles, meant that Bonnie's lungs were definitely filling with fluid. That's why Bonnie was having so much difficulty breathing. It was like her own body was trying to drown her. And that wasn't all. Dr. Blevins could see that Bonnie's body was swelling, especially in her abdomen. It sort of seemed like her whole body was filling up with fluids. Dr. Blevins paged the head surgeon and then asked Bonnie's nurses to prep her for an emergency surgery. Within an hour, Bonnie was out of her hospital room and inside of an operating room.

Three hours later, Dr. Blevins stood to greet one of the surgeons who had whisked Bonnie away into surgery earlier that morning. The surgeon looked totally exhausted. He told Dr. Blevins that because there was fluid buildup throughout Bonnie's entire body, they needed to completely open up her chest cavity to operate, instead of targeting specific areas with needles. When they opened Bonnie up, they saw that the swelling in her body had gotten so bad it was constricting her airway. Between that and the fluid in her lungs, it was no wonder Bonnie could not breathe.

The surgeon explained that they spent two hours removing more than a gallon of thick yellowish fluid from inside of Bonnie's lungs, stomach, and liver. And while that would keep her alive for now, the fluid would almost certainly come back because they were not treating Bonnie's underlying disease. Bonnie's condition had now become critical. There was some good news though. The surgeon during the operation was able to take samples of Bonnie's bone marrow, liver, stomach, and ovaries. It would let them test her for leukemia and other infections. Dr. Blevins hoped he could finally figure out what was making Bonnie's white blood cell count so high. But the next morning, Dr. Blevins looked

over Bonnie's test results, feeling mixed emotions. There was no sign of leukemia in any of Bonnie's tissue, which meant that once and for all, she really did not have cancer. That was good, and yet, her biopsy showed that the specialized white blood cells called eosinophils had spread all over her body, and he still had no idea why. Bonnie was dangerously near death, and Dr. Blevins was very worried that she really did not have much time left. The next morning, Dr. Blevins knocked on the door of Bonnie's hospital room and then walked inside.

He smiled at her mother, Jackie, who was reading in the corner. Then he turned his attention to Bonnie. He was shocked to see how frail she looked. She was sickly pale and too weak to even lift her head. Dr. Blevins gave Bonnie a half smile, but then he had to tell her the bad news, that he still didn't know what was making her sick and he was running out of treatment options. He told Bonnie that he was going to prescribe a powerful steroid called prednisone to reduce the inflammation and swelling throughout her body. But privately, Dr. Blevins knew it was just a temporary fix. If they didn't find an answer soon for what this underlying disease was, he didn't see how Bonnie could survive. Now, a few days earlier, Bonnie might have broken down in tears at the doctor's grim message,

but now she just lay there staring blankly. Looking at Bonnie's hopeless face, Dr. Blevins racked his brain for any possible avenue he had not crossed yet. Then he had an idea. He turned to Jackie, Bonnie's mother, and made a very odd request. He knew it was a total shot in the dark, but it was all they had. The next morning, Bonnie's mother handed Dr. Blevins a paper bag full of vitamins, painkillers, sleep aids, and supplements, all from Bonnie's apartment. Dr. Blevins' request of Bonnie's mother had been for Jackie to go raid Bonnie's cabinets and bathroom for anything that Bonnie might be taking. He wondered if maybe something she was taking contained an allergen or something else that was actually causing her to be

so sick. Dr. Blevins excitedly dumped the bag out onto his desk and began sifting through all the plastic bottles. But as he read the ingredients on each of these bottles and the different things that were on his desk, he kind of huffed in exasperation. He didn't see any ingredient that could cause an allergic reaction similar to Bonnie's symptoms. Dr. Blevins leaned back in his desk chair feeling frustrated. He felt like he was running into another dead end. But just then, the doctor's phone began to ring. He was going to send it to voicemail, but when he picked up his phone, he saw it was Dr. Hertzman, the family physician who'd consulted on Bonnie's case and suggested she might have leukemia. So, considering the circumstances,

Dr. Blevins picked it up. Dr. Hertzman explained that a woman named Kathy had come to his practice that morning. Kathy was 43 years old, and she was having trouble sleeping. In fact, Kathy said that over the past three weeks, she hadn't slept more than a few minutes a night. Every time she began to drift off to sleep, she'd snap awake, feeling like her muscles were on fire. And now she was having trouble breathing, and she'd begun having this agonizing pain course through her entire body at regular intervals. According to Dr. Hertzman, Kathy said it felt like she had battery acid under her skin. Dr. Blevin's eyes widened. He couldn't believe what he was hearing.

Kathy's symptoms were nearly identical to Bonnie's. He asked if Kathy also had elevated levels of eosinophils, and Dr. Hertzman said yes. Her white blood cell count was off the charts. Dr. Blevins realized that Dr. Hertzman was essentially telling him that these women's cases could be linked, which meant both women might have been exposed to the same thing that made them sick. But it also meant something else. The doctors could be witnessing the beginning of a new contagious condition, but they had no idea what was causing it.

The situation had now become a ticking time bomb. Dr. Blevins thanked Dr. Hertzman and then hung up, but honestly, Blevins was kind of at a loss for what to do next. He got up to grab a cup of coffee so he could think, and when he got back to his office with his coffee, the phone on his desk was ringing. It was another physician at the nearby Women's Health Center calling about a patient referral. They wanted Dr. Blevins to take a look at a woman who had a high eosinophil count and extreme muscle pain. This woman had the same symptoms as Bonnie and Dr. Hertzman's patient, Kathy. But instead of feeling more despair at more people having these symptoms, Dr. Blevins suddenly felt energized.

If he could find one single link between all three of these women, he could probably figure out what was making them sick. And if he acted fast, he could probably figure out what was making them sick. And if he acted fast, he could potentially save all of their lives. Dr. Blevins picked up the phone and made some calls. And within a few hours, his desk was covered in pill bottles, containers of vitamins, and sleep aids. These were all the medicines that were collected from all three women, the three patients. Dr. Blevins took a step back from his desk and he noticed that all three piles from each of the three women had something in common. A blue bottle of an all-natural over-the-counter

sleep aid called L-tryptophan. And Dr. Blevins knew that all three women had been saying they were struggling to sleep lately, so they must have been taking this L-tryptophan right around the time they got sick. Now, typically, this supplement was harmless, but Dr. Blevins suspected that something about this one brand of L-tryptophan was harming these patients, and it was available on shelves everywhere, and so if he was right about this, Dr. Blevins needed to act right now before more people got sick. So, he grabbed the phone, and Dr. Blevins needed to act right now before more people got sick. So he grabbed the phone, and Dr. Blevins contacted the New Mexico Department of Health about a potential outbreak. The Department of Health immediately began an investigation, and in November of 1989,

about three months after Bonnie had first got sick, the FDA issued a nationwide recall of all products containing L-tryptophan. Six months after that, the CDC conducted a nationwide study and found that all the sick patients, including Bonnie, had been taking L-tryptophan made by a Japanese company called Showa Denko. Showa Denko had been trying to genetically engineer a bacteria that, in theory, would help them make more L-tryptophan for less money. But the bacteria contaminated the batches, which caused 1,500 cases like Bonnie's, and of those cases, 37 Americans died. Because of this outbreak, L-tryptophan was banned in the United States until 2005. Since the manufacturing error was identified, there have been no additional cases of contaminated batches. Bonnie would be one of the lucky ones who would survive her illness, which is known as

eosinophilia, but it took a long time for her to resume a normal life. She was in the hospital for a month before she was well enough to go home. It took several more years, but eventually Bonnie would make a full recovery. She finally felt in control of her body again and relished her active lifestyle more than ever. Also, thanks to the doctor's quick thinking, both Kathy and the other woman Dr. Blevins treated also made full recoveries. From Ballin Studios and Wondery, this is Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries, hosted by me, Mr. Ballin. A quick note about our stories. We use aliases sometimes because we don't know the names of the real people in the story. And also, in most cases, we can't know exactly what was said, but everything is based on a lot of research.

And a reminder, the content in this episode is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. This episode was written by Aaron Land. Our editor is Heather Dundas. Sound design is by Ryan Patesta. Coordinating producer is Sophia Martins. Our senior producer is Alex Benidon. Our associate producers and researchers are Sarah Bytack and Tasia Palaconda. Fact-checking was done by Sheila Patterson. For Ballin Studios, our head of production is Zach Levitt. Script editing is by Scott Allen and Evan Allen. Our coordinating producer

is Matub Zare. Executive producers are myself, Mr. Ballin, and Nick Witters. For Wondery, our head of sound is Marcelino Villapando. Senior producers are

Laura Donna Palavoda and Dave Schilling. Senior managing producer is Ryan Lohr. Our executive producers are Aaron O'Flaherty and Marshall Louis for Wondery. I know you're as obsessed with true crime as I am. And that's why I'm excited to tell you about a new app for iPhone called StoryRabbit. StoryRabbit is like having your very own audio tour guide for anywhere in the world.

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