MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries - Ep. 53 | Rough Patch/ No Warning

Episode Date: October 8, 2024

"Rough Patch" When a young woman’s skin begins to break out after a wedding, she doesn’t think much of it…at first. But as the rash engulfs her body, she begins to wonder if a person can die from eczema."No Warning"When a skinny teen tries to build some muscle, he ends up white as a sheet and vomiting uncontrollably. As the boy’s condition worsens, doctors wonder if his health kick is to blame. Follow MrBallen's Medical Mysteries on Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes publish for free every Tuesday. Prime members can binge episodes 49-56 early and ad-free on Amazon Music.Wondery+ subscribers can listen ad-free--join Wondery+ in the Wondery App or on Apple Podcasts.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! One summer afternoon, a 29-year-old woman zipped up a bridesmaid's dress in her friend's bridal suite. Around her, the rest of the bridal party was getting their makeup and hair done, all while sipping on champagne. As for the bride, she was wearing a beautiful silk bathrobe and sitting on a director's chair like a queen on her throne. The bridesmaid grabbed her phone and began filming her good friend's wedding day.

Then at some point, she flipped the camera around to film herself. After all, she'd put a lot into getting ready for this day. She had a perfectly tailored new dress, veneers for her front teeth, a haircut and color. I mean, she did the whole nine yards, and so she wanted to show it off. The bridesmaid grinned into the camera, and then after filming the video, she uploaded it to TikTok. As she watched the video back, she thought she looked perfect. However, she didn't notice she had a very small patch of dried skin on her forehead, right near her hairline, barely bigger than her pinky nail. But soon that little imperfection would grow and turn her skin into a living prison. race against time to warn those who lives were in danger. Follow Kill List wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to Kill List and more Exhibit C true crime shows like Morbid early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus.

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. So, if you liked today's story, the next time the follow button's out of town, sneak into their house and unplug their refrigerator and leave the door open.

Most of the time, milestones in life are something to celebrate. Birthday, a promotion, an anniversary, a wedding. But for the people in today's stories, what should have been something to celebrate quickly became a tragedy. In our first story, a woman becomes mysteriously sick after a friend's wedding with no solution in sight. And in our second story, a teenager about to start a memorable year of high school suddenly finds himself at death's door. Here is our first story called Rough Patch. In early August 2022, 29-year-old Lily Lindsay strode out of a nail salon in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, feeling especially polished. Usually, she did her own nails with an at-home gel manicure kit,

but today she'd gotten her nails done at a fancy salon and she had even paid extra for eyebrow threading. Lily had really spent a lot of money over the past week to make herself as beautiful as possible. Her best friend's wedding was in two days, and Lily really wanted to look absolutely perfect for the photos. To Lily, looking her absolute best was another way of showing her friend how excited she was for her big day. Lily ran through a short mental checklist of everything she still had to get done before the wedding. She needed to pick up her dress from the tailor and get decorations and snacks for the bridal suite. But before she could do any of that, she had one more appointment. She was getting a facial.

Lily decided to grab an iced coffee on her way to the spa. She walked a few doors down from the nail salon to a little cafe on the corner. And as she walked in, she caught a glimpse of herself in the store window. And she couldn't help but smile, because she was beautiful and elegant. And so she could barely wait to see how amazing she would look with her full hair done and makeup and her dress on. It had been hectic helping her best friend bring the wedding together, but she could not be more excited for the weekend ahead.

The wedding would end up being even more incredible than Lily had hoped, and she had really high expectations. And ten days later, Lily still felt like she was recovering from it. She stumbled from her bed to her bathroom, stretching her arms high overhead to try and wake up. She yawned and she could feel the skin around her mouth start to crack a bit, which seemed strange for summertime. Her skin had not felt this tight and dry since mid-winter, when the cold and high winds left her whole face feeling chapped. Lily went to grab her toothbrush, but when she saw herself in the mirror, she stopped. The skin under her eyes was blotchy and red. She leaned in

toward the mirror for a better look and traced the outline of the rash with one of her fingers. She'd never had a skin outbreak like this before. Lily opened up her medicine cabinet and looked at the array of skincare products inside. She'd used most of the products for months or even years. But now she wondered if maybe she'd developed an allergic reaction to one of them. So she decided to skip her skincare routine for a few days to see if maybe that would clear up the irritated skin. But Lily's rash didn't get any better. And after two weeks of eliminating different face products to see if that helped, she found herself on an examination table at a doctor's office. At this point, she'd stopped using every face serum she owned, but still had not been able to identify what was making her skin break out. In the last

few days, her rash had spread across her face and down her neck. The red splotches itched and would sting if she tried to cover them with makeup, so she had to leave the rashes exposed, which made her sort of embarrassed in public. Lily winced as the doctor gently tapped his finger all along her rash. He was being very gentle, but still it burned every time he touched her, almost like salt touching a wound. The doctor stood up and told her not to worry. He'd seen cases like this a dozen times. It was standard-issue dermatitis, which meant a skin irritation, usually caused by an environmental factor like air pollution or exposure to a new allergen. He was confident that an antibiotic would clear her face up in no time. Lily was so relieved. She'd never had

particularly sensitive skin, so she was surprised to learn that all of this boiled down to skin irritation, but she was just glad to have a diagnosis and a plan of action. She told the doctor she'd stop at the pharmacy on the way home and grab the antibiotic. A month after Lily's initial visit to her doctor, she was in a room getting ready for a follow-up appointment. She carefully peeled off her pajamas and put on wide-leg jeans and a baggy shirt. These were unfortunately the only clothes she could stand to wear these days because the rest of her wardrobe fit too snugly and rubbed against her raw skin, which was still totally broken out and incredibly painful. The antibiotics had not worked. Her skin still felt crusty. Her lips were so dry that they split every time she laughed. Big blotchy rashes covered her face and neck as well as down her chest and beneath her armpits.

They were so painful that Lily often tried to keep her arms raised slightly whenever she walked around, usually with her hands on her hips to avoid chafing. Showering had also become excruciatingly painful. She'd started skipping it as much as she could, which made her feel totally dirty. As Lily walked out the door this time, she hoped this appointment would finally lead her to some answers. She didn't know how much more skin irritation she could take. 30 minutes later, Lily parked her car at the doctor's office and made her way across the parking lot, keeping the hood of her jacket over her head to obscure her face. She knew it was superficial, but she still felt embarrassed to let people see all her blotchy and flaky skin. As Lily checked in with the receptionist and headed into an exam room,

she tried not to make eye contact with anybody in the office. As she changed into a hospital gown, she thought how repulsed people would be if they saw her undressed. When the doctor finally entered the exam room a few minutes later, his eyes widened a bit, and Lily knew he was shocked by her appearance. He quickly recovered and acted totally professional, but Lily couldn't help feeling totally ashamed as he asked her about the rash and inspected it on different areas of her body. After a few minutes, the doctor told her that in his opinion this seemed

like a flare-up of eczema, which is a term for chronically inflamed skin. It's like an extreme case of dermatitis, which is what he'd originally diagnosed her with. But antibiotics don't work against eczema, which is why she was not improving. But he told her not to panic because a steroid cream would clear it up in no time. A few months later, in January of 2023, Lily sat on her couch as a winter storm raged outside. The steroid cream had also not worked. If anything, it only seemed to make her breakout worse. At this point, her skin, in total, was actually more rash than clear.

Lily had spent the last few months going to all sorts of doctors. They were all sympathetic to her problem, but ultimately had been unable to help her. It was unbelievably frustrating. Lily felt trapped in her own skin, like she was in a cage she couldn't escape. In fact, Lily's skin troubles had gotten so bad, it was totally affecting her mental health. Her thoughts were starting to get really dark and pessimistic, so she'd gone to a therapist for help. The therapist had prescribed her a low dose of antidepressants, which were helping with some of Lily's racing thoughts and feelings of hopelessness, but they were obviously not a cure for the entire situation she was in.

At this point, even if she felt mentally okay, physically she was in so much pain all the time that she couldn't even leave the sofa. So tonight, Lily had wrapped herself in a fuzzy blanket, the only one that didn't scratch at her skin, and ordered herself a pizza. Lily decided to watch a movie, but when she got up to grab the remote, she felt blood rushing to her head and her vision began spinning. Lily eased back onto the couch and closed her eyes, feeling so dizzy it made her nauseous. Then suddenly her ears began to ring and her chest tightened as she tried to fight back anxious tears. She knew that dizziness and ear ringing were not symptoms of eczema, and so she couldn't help but start wondering if she was actually going to die. This was the final straw. Lily could not just sit around and wait for death, and if the doctors couldn't help, she would just have to solve this puzzle herself. So she slowly got up and very

painfully walked over to grab her laptop, because now it was time for her to conduct her own research. A few hours later, Lily was crouched over her computer whoring over an article she'd found online. It discussed the symptoms of extreme allergic reactions and to Lily's surprise, many of her symptoms fit. This entire ordeal really did seem like one big allergic reaction. But Lily still had no idea what she might be allergic to. So she started looking up common allergies, until she found a couple that sounded like hers. She discovered that some people

are actually extremely allergic to the latex from the balloons that she had actually used during her friend's wedding to create custom arrangements. Now, Lily had never had a problem with latex before, but the article said that allergies could develop later in life. She also found that home nail polish kits like the ones she used can cause allergies too, as the chemicals seep into people's bodies through the nail bed. Lily started thinking that surely there must be a way to test whether these chemicals were making her break out so horribly. And so for the first time in five months, Lily felt like she kind of had a plan here, and so hope began to spark inside of her. She would call her doctor first thing in the morning, and hopefully they could, together, get to the bottom of this thing once and for all. A few days later, on a Friday afternoon, Lily sat on an allergist's examination table with her hands on her knees.

She was wearing a hospital gown, and her rash-covered back was fully exposed. She winced as her doctor taped a bunch of small patches to her back. To Lily, the patches looked like little strips of bubble wrap, but actually, they were allergy patch test strips, and each of the little bubbles contained a different allergen. Lily clenched her jaw. The strips were already beginning to itch, partially because they were stuck to her rash, which was sensitive already, and partially because they'd stuck more than 200 chemical samples to her back, including latex and the chemicals from her at-home nail kit. So she was bound to be allergic to at least a few of these things. When the doctor finished his work, he explained to Lily that, unfortunately, she would have to leave all of these test strips on her back all weekend, no matter how much they irritated

her. She nodded, though she was absolutely dreading the discomfort the next few days would bring. But she told herself that if she could just push through to Monday, she would almost certainly have an answer, and then this nightmare could finally be over. By Monday morning, when Lily drove her car into the doctor's office parking lot, she wanted to rip those test strips off her back and light them on fire. It had been the most miserable weekend of her life. The only thing that had gotten her through the very itchy discomfort was knowing that each little sting she was feeling was a positive reaction to an allergen and a possible answer to her problems. As she strode into the doctor's office, her clothes

billowed all around her because she could only wear really baggy clothes. And there were bags under her eyes because she hadn't slept well either, so she was quite the sight. But Lily prayed that it would all be over soon, because in a few short minutes, she would know exactly what was causing this excruciating rash. Except, that's not what happened. Lily's doctor peeled off all the patches and explained that he could only see a few mild allergic reactions, but nothing that could cause a reaction this bad all over her body. Lily couldn't understand. Her symptoms had matched an extreme allergic reaction perfectly, especially to latex or the at-home nail gel. She was so sure she was on the right track, and now she just felt defeated. Lily drove home in a stupor. She felt like her life was now this living hell. She thought

back to the previous summer, mad at herself for not appreciating how good her life used to be. She'd give anything to go back to the day of her best friend's wedding and just look like her old self again. She ran her tongue over the veneers she'd gotten for the wedding. Her smile was the only part of her physical appearance that she liked now, but she would give it up in a second to get her old skin back. But just then, a thought hit her like a lightning bolt, and she actually pulled her car over so quickly that the tires screeched. Once she came to a stop, she immediately began rifling through her purse for her phone, and as her heart raced, she thought to herself, she'd been going to the wrong doctor. That was the issue,

and now she desperately needed to make an appointment with the right one. Two days later, Lily sat in her dentist chair. She told him that in her quest to look perfect for a friend's wedding, she suspected that she had accidentally set herself up for months of misery. She was just sure she had discovered the cause of her extreme rash. When the dentist looked skeptical, Lily told him about the article she'd found online about extreme allergies. And suddenly, the dentist understood too. Lily had a strong suspicion that her problems had all been caused by the gels in her at-home nail kit.

But it was more complicated than that. In fact, the online article Lily read talked about the way nail gels can make people dangerously allergic to other everyday things. That's because the acrylic-based plastic in the gel can seep into someone's nail bed and make them allergic to anything else that contains acrylic. In Lily's case, that would be the veneers she had applied to her teeth to look beautiful for the wedding. The veneers were loaded with acrylic-based plastic, and her body had a very powerful reaction to it. Essentially, Lily had poison glued to her front teeth for the last six months, which

triggered a constant severe allergic reaction. Ultimately, the dentist ground the veneers off of Lily's teeth in April of 2023, and slowly but surely, the rash became less painful. By the summer of 2023, Lily's skin was back to normal, and she felt like herself again. There's really no way to know for sure whether the at-home gel manicure kit had triggered her allergy, but either way, Lily has steered clear of them ever since. In the Pacific Ocean, halfway between Peru and New Zealand, lies a tiny volcanic island. It's a little-known

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Here is our second and final story called No Warning. On the morning of August 15th, 2020, 16-year-old Rohan Gaudhenia stood in his kitchen mixing up a protein shake. He was trying to put on some muscle before school started in a few weeks. Rohan took a sip and grimaced. The shake was thick and chalky, which he just was not expecting because he did not often drink protein shakes. But Rohan was never one to back down from a challenge, so he adjusted his glasses and steeled himself, then gulped the whole shake down. When he was done, he slammed the glass down on the counter in triumph. He told himself he was

going to learn to like those shakes because he was going to get jacked. Rohan put the dirty glass in the dishwasher, then bounded up the stairs to his bedroom on the second floor, already feeling stronger. In truth, he was a very skinny kid, especially for his age. And even though Rohan knew he had a lot going for him, good grades, a bright future, a very winning personality, he really wanted big muscles, or at least to weigh more than a 12-year-old. Rohan opened the door to his bedroom and made a beeline for his piano keyboard. Rohan was a very accomplished musician and loved practicing just about every day. But this morning, he stopped himself and instead turned toward the Nintendo Wii game system hooked up to the television on top of his dresser.

He grabbed the Wii remote and began browsing through Wii Fit games until he came to strength training. Rohan thought that if he started right now and kept on sucking down those protein shakes, maybe he really could build some actual muscle by the time classes resumed. At lunchtime, Rohan's father, Hitendra, made sandwiches for the two of them and then called Rohan to the kitchen table. But while Hitendra wolfed his meal down in about four bites, he noticed that his son barely touched his food. Rohan told him his stomach hurt, and Hetendra just nodded, understanding. He told his son it was fine if he didn't want to finish his lunch, and encouraged Rohan to go lie down and take a nap.

Hopefully that would settle his stomach. Rohan smiled at his father and then left the kitchen. Once the boy was gone, Hetendra picked up Rohan's plate and began to tidy up. But then he heard the distinct sound of dry heaving coming from the upstairs bathroom. Hitendra dropped the plates into the sink and hurried upstairs to check on Rohan, who he found kneeling over the toilet. Rohan retched repeatedly as his father rubbed his back reassuringly. Then Hitendra suggested Rohan stay in bed for the rest of the day. It seemed like he must have picked up some kind of stomach bug.

Once Rohan was in his bed with a waste can nearby just in case, Hitendra went back downstairs and found the protein powder he'd gotten for Rohan. It was the only unusual thing Rohan had eaten over the past couple of days, and Hitendra wondered if it had gone bad or had some strange ingredients in it. Hitendra scanned the label, and he saw the expiration date was not for a while, and none of the ingredients stood out to him as unusual or alarming, so he shrugged and put the protein powder back where it went in the cupboard, convinced his son would feel better by morning.

But when Hitendra went to check on Rohan the next morning, the boy was as white as a sheet. Rohan admitted he'd vomited a few times overnight and that he felt even worse than the day before. The boy propped himself up in bed squinting. Hitendra thought his son might be looking for his glasses, so Hitendra told Rohan they were on the nightstand. Rohan nodded slowly, but then he started looking around the room as if he didn't know where to find his own nightstand. Hitendra frowned and just pointed at the nightstand, and Rohan's face suddenly lit up as though he was pleasantly surprised to even find a table there.

Now, Hetendra couldn't help but feel more concerned for his son. He wondered if Rohan was so dehydrated that he was confused. So, he helped Rohan downstairs and sat him at the kitchen table while he went to grab a bottle of the sports drink they always kept in the pantry. But when Hetendra returned to the kitchen carrying his son's drink, his son suddenly seemed even stranger. Rohan glared at his father with utter contempt. When Hitendra asked if everything was okay, Rohan snapped that his father should mind his own business. Then Rohan got up so aggressively that the table shook. Then Rohan just stood there staring icily at his father. This was very unlike Rohan, and so Hitendra knew something had to be deeply wrong.

Rohan was so gentle normally, but now he was erratic and aggressive and confused. Hitendra knew his son needed to see a doctor, but something told him it was just not safe to try to take Rohan to the hospital by himself right now, like not in this state, something was terribly wrong. So to play it very safe, Hetendra just called an ambulance. A few hours later, Rohan's mother, Pushpa, arrived at West Middlesex Hospital, where the paramedics had taken her son. She kept telling herself that Rohan would be just fine, but Pushpa still felt incredibly anxious as she entered the hospital lobby. Her husband, Hitendra, met her in

the hallway outside of Rohan's room and explained that Rohan had become increasingly agitated on his way to the hospital and he kept trying to get up and move around the ambulance on the way and Hitendra actually had to physically restrain him on the stretcher to keep him from jumping out the back doors? Pushpa just blinked in surprise at this incredibly strange turn of events. Rohan was just not the type of boy to fly into a rage, let alone leap out of a moving vehicle, and so fear began creeping into Pushpa's mind much the way it had already creeped into Hetendra's mind. And so Pushpa followed Hetendra into Rohan's hospital room, hoping to find Rohan back to himself and feeling better. But instead, Rohan was sitting up in bed, hunched over a kidney-shaped bowl and vomiting. Pushpa felt instant sympathy

for her son as she watched him throw up. But that wasn't the worst of it. There were tubes hooked up to Rohan's arms and wires patched to his chest, leading to all sorts of whirring and beeping machines. Whatever was wrong with Rohan was clearly more serious than just the flu or some other minor ailment. Pushpa looked back at Hetendra, whose eyes were full of concern. Hetendra explained that Rohan had been deteriorating ever since they arrived at the hospital, and the doctors still had no idea what was making Rohan sick. Rohan was complaining of intense abdominal pain and kept forgetting where he was or how he'd even gotten there. Suddenly, the knot in Pushpa's chest tightened and her breathing quickened as she grappled with what Hetendra was saying. And so kind of panicking,

she just stepped out into the hallway and let out a scream of absolute despair. Her son was falling apart before her eyes, and there wasn't anything of absolute despair. Her son was falling apart before her eyes, and there wasn't anything she could do. She felt so hopeless. Pushpa bent over and braced her hands on her knees, sucking in long breaths of air. When she finally felt like she had collected herself, she went back into the hospital room and planted a kiss on Rohan's forehead. She told her son everything was going to be fine, even though inside she didn't know that. Then she stood next to Hetendra, gripping his hand tightly. Over the next few hours, Pushpa and Hetendra paced the hospital room as their son alternated between moments of confusion and extreme agitation. All the while, doctors and nurses came in and out,

explaining all the tests and treatments they were doing to try to figure out what was wrong. The doctors said that they suspected that Rohan was suffering from some kind of inflammation around the spinal column and brain, and so they started him on medication right away for the two most likely conditions, which were meningitis and encephalopathy. For a little while, Rohan did seem to get better with the medication. But just before midnight, he started to get restless and agitated again, and he began trying to jump out of the bed, which would have torn out all the wires and IV lines. And so Hetendra did

his best to hold the teenager down, while Pushpa repeatedly pressed the call button for help. A moment later, two nurses were in Rohan's room, attaching restraints to Rohan's wrists so that he couldn't get out of bed. A doctor said that Rohan was getting too unstable to remain in a regular hospital room, and he directed the nurses to move him to the intensive care unit. Pushpa was shocked. She knew Rohan was sick, but she still couldn't believe his condition had gotten this bad, and so she had to fight to hold in another scream. The nurse said that Rohan would be sedated once he got upstairs, and he would likely be asleep for hours. She urged Pushpa and Hetendra to go home for the night and then come back rested in the morning. Pushpa hated the idea of leaving her son, but she also knew that he'd

be under close watch in the ICU without them, and if Rohan was going to be in the hospital for a few days, she and Hetendra would need some sleep. So they followed the medical team to the ICU and they stayed with their son until he fell asleep. And then after kissing their boy goodnight, the parents headed home. When they got there, Pushpa threw on some pajamas and crawled into bed, but she felt like she was not going to be able to sleep. She just stared at the ceiling thinking of her son, and she would lay there, her thoughts racing, until about 5 a.m. when her phone started ringing. It was the hospital. The doctor explained that Rohan's condition had actually taken another serious turn for the worse over the night. Rohan was now struggling so hard to breathe that he had to be intubated and put on a ventilator, which meant that a machine was now keeping him alive. Absolutely shocked and terrified, Pushpa

shook Hetendra awake, and then she ran to wake up their 17-year-old daughter, Alicia, and then the three of them threw on their shoes and raced to the hospital. By the time they arrived, Rohan's doctor was there to meet them. The doctor admitted that they were struggling to get Rohan stabilized, but he was not actually in immediate danger. Once he was stable, they planned to do another CT scan so they'd have a better picture of what was going on in his brain. Pushpa felt like she was going to faint, so she sank into one of the chairs that lined the pale blue hallway of the ICU. She was vaguely aware that Hetendra and Alicia had sat down on either side of her and each had taken one of her hands. After the doctor left, Hetendra squeezed Pushpa's hand and reminded her that while all of this sounded terrifying, Rohan was in good

hands here. Pushpa wanted to believe that, but the drumbeat of bad news over and over and over again was making it hard for her to be optimistic. Pushpa sat tensely by Rohan's bed for the entire day, willing her boy to get better. Rohan's doctor came to check in every few hours, assuring them that Rohan would get his CT scan once he was stable enough. And then finally, in the late afternoon, technicians were able to perform that CT scan of Rohan's brain. And then, around 6pm, Rohan's brain. And then around 6pm, Rohan's doctor slowly walked into his room, staring at the floor. The doctor took a deep breath and

looked Pushpa in the eye. He told her that Rohan had severe swelling in his brain, which can be fatal if it's not controlled. The doctor said he had already called the neurosurgery department at nearby Charing Cross Hospital, but the team there had said they could not, in good conscience, operate on Rohan to relieve the pressure. Given the extent of his brain injury and meningitis, they were not confident he would survive the surgery. Pushpa struggled to understand what the doctor was even saying, that essentially her son was too far gone to help. She hadn't even considered this possibility. Her boy was only 16 years old. Despite all her worry over the past few days,

she had fully believed her son would eventually get better. He had to. Pushpa told the doctor he had to be wrong. But the look on the man's face said everything. Her boy was beyond helping. The following evening, on August 18th, Pushpa sat on the edge of Rohan's bed, her hand wrapped around his. Rohan lay motionless, still intubated and hooked up to IVs and machines. Hitendra and Rohan's sister, Alicia, sat nervously on the other side of Rohan's bed.

Rohan's doctor was leaning over him, essentially checking the teen for signs of life. He stood and slowly turned to Pushpa and her family. He looked truly sad as he said that Rohan showed no brain activity. Then he said he would give them time to say their goodbyes, and he left the room. Pushpa stroked her son's hand, still unable to accept what was happening. Alicia tucked a teddy bear under Rohan's arms. He'd had it since he was a baby, and still slept with it every night in the corner of his bed. The whole family knew he'd want his bear to be with him now.

For the rest of the afternoon, the family sat in silence as they struggled to say goodbye to Rohan. And then finally, at 5.03pm, Rohan passed away. And Pushpa's heart shattered. But her family did not get much time to grieve, only a few minutes. A doctor entered the room and asked Pushpa and Hitendra to consider donating Rohan's organs. He apologized for how quickly they'd need to make this decision, but organs need to be harvested for transplant as soon after death as possible. The doctor knew it was small consolation, but he said that Rohan's death could very likely save other lives. The doctor knew it was small consolation, but he said that Rohan's death could very likely save other lives. The doctor then held out some lengthy forms. The idea of filling out

paperwork in the same hour that her young son died was repulsive to Pushpa. But she understood, and she knew what decision Rohan would have made. And so she and Hetendra took the forms and agreed to donate Rohan's organs. A few weeks later, Pushpa sat in Rohan's bedroom back at their home outside of London, holding his teddy bear to her chest. It was the only one of his belongings that she'd touched since her son had died. The grief of losing a child was almost more than she could bear. And since his death, something else had really been eating at her. Pushpa still didn't even know what had made Rohan sick.

And because they had donated his organs, there hadn't been time to conduct an autopsy. And so she was really struggling to accept that she'd just never learned what had killed him. Pushpa worried that if what had killed Rohan was something genetic or environmental, his sister Alicia might also be at risk. But more than anything, she wanted to know if something could have been done to save Rohan. It just felt like this huge question mark was looming over her family's head, occupying every waking thought. 13 months after Rohan's death, so in September of 2021, Hitendra ignored Pushpa's running commentary on his wild driving as he weaved in and out of traffic.

They were on the way home from Alicia's university. They'd just finished moving her into the dorms for the fall semester, which felt even more bittersweet than Hitendra had anticipated. He and Pushpa were empty nesters now, but only because Rohan was gone. Hitendra did not want to go home and cook a dinner for just two people. He was about to bring up the possibility of maybe going out to a restaurant when Pushpa's phone rang. It was an unknown number, but for some reason, the hair on the back of Hetendra's neck pricked up and he told Pushpa to please answer it. And so Pushpa did,

and she connected her phone to the car speaker so they could both listen. The man on the other line sounded grim. He explained that he was from the National Health Service Blood and Transplant Team, the people who harvested their son's organs for transplant. Hitendra exchanged a quick surprised glance with Pushpa as this man went on. The man said they needed Pushpa and Hitendra to come into the office for an urgent meeting. Hitendra was confused, but offered to drive straight to the office. They could be there within the hour. The man said that would be great and thanked them. Hitendra felt more curious than alarmed, so he pushed the gas pedal a bit faster as Pushpa reset the GPS to their new destination.

What Pushpa and Hitendra learned at this meeting absolutely shocked them. The National Health Service team member explained that the recipient of Rohan's liver had become gravely ill earlier that year. A biopsy on the liver that had come from Rohan revealed a very dangerous condition with a very complicated name. It's called Ornithine Transcarbamylase Deficiency, or OTCD for short. OTCD is a genetic condition that prevents the body from breaking down ammonia, which can cause the toxic chemical to build up to lethal levels in the bloodstream. The man explained that the recipient of Rohan's liver didn't have OTCD before his transplant surgery, so the illness had to come from the donated liver, Rohan's liver. And so, the team member told the parents that their son almost certainly suffered from OTCD.

Finally, 13 months after Rohan had passed away, his parents knew what had actually killed him. Pushpa and Itendra stared at each other in disbelief. They were relieved to get some answers, but they didn't know anything about OTCD and why it would have suddenly killed Rohan like that, and so they asked for more information. The NHS team member explained that some people with OTCD don't even know they have it because the disease is inactive. However, the illness can be triggered by a big dose of protein. And in Rohan's case, he had drank a huge protein shake on the morning he got sick. He'd never consumed so much protein before so quickly, and his body basically couldn't handle it. And so

that's what prompted him to get sick. Pushpa and Hitendra were obviously devastated. If they'd only known about Rohan's kind of inactive condition, they would have never let him drink protein shakes like that. Now, could that have forever prevented him from getting the disease? They don't know. But certainly, that protein shake is what prompted it. Thankfully though, it does not seem likely that their daughter has OTCD, which affects an estimated 1,000 people in the United Kingdom alone. More studies are being conducted on OTCD,

but as far as we know, it is extremely dangerous, killing about 50% of infants diagnosed with it at birth, and around 10% of people diagnosed with it when they're 16 or older, which was Rohan's age. However, there were no warnings that the protein powder that Rohan ingested could trigger this terrible disease. Rohan's experience ultimately prompted calls for new warnings to be printed on all supermarket-bought protein shakes in the UK. Download the app today. And also, Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries ad-free. Join Wondery Plus today. Before you go, tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at listenersurvey.com.

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 Lan. Our editor is Heather Dundas.

Sound design is by Andre Pluss. Our managing producer is Sophia Martins. And our coordinating producer is Taylor Sniffen. Our senior producer is Alex Benidon. Our associate producers and researchers are Sarah Vytak and Teja Palakonda. 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 Villapondo. Senior producers are Laura Donna Palavoda and Dave Schilling. Senior managing producer is Ryan emergency broadcast system. A ballistic missile threat has been detected inbound to your area. Your phone buzzes and you look down to find this alert. What do you do next? Maybe you're at the grocery store. Or maybe you're with your secret lover.

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