MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries - Ep. 7 | The Shadow/The Experiment

Episode Date: November 21, 2023

“The Shadow”When a woman’s unexplainable heart condition threatens her life, surgeons turn to a rare and dangerous operation. They have less than an hour to operate and find the cause of her condition. What they discover is jaw-dropping.“The Experiment”A New York City radio producer in her early 40s falls mysteriously ill after having dinner with friends. She goes to the doctor, but he can’t find anything wrong. As her symptoms worsen, she decides to take matters into her own hands and run a dangerous experiment on herself. Her discovery changes her life forever.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 woman lay on an operating table with surgical drapes neatly placed around her chest. She had no pulse, her heart had stopped, there was no blood flowing through her veins, and she had no brain activity. Medically, she was dead. But her lifeless condition had actually been induced on purpose by doctors. It was part of their desperate attempt to save her. But now that she was prepped, they would only have a little bit less than an hour to unravel the mystery of what was wrong with her. If they couldn't figure it out in that time, then she would die for real. 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.

A family of murderers, a ruthless mobster, a bomb maker, a baby thief. The American dream has a dark side and my podcast American Criminal exposes it all. Search for American Criminal in your podcast app now for deep dives into our country's worst, American Criminal. 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 stories, the next time the follow button is really thirsty and asks for a drink,

give them a nice tall frothy glass of Malortz. In this episode, we're taking you on a journey to two wildly different places, the backwoods of Texas and the heart of New York City. The people in these medical mysteries get sick under very different, unique circumstances, but at the end of the day, they all end up in hospital beds feeling scared, helpless, and confused. Their stories remind us of this chilling truth. No matter where you live, anything can happen. The first story is about a woman from rural Texas who goes to the hospital after feeling

some pressure in her chest. But after doctors take a closer look, they see something very strange and so she ends up undergoing one of the riskiest surgeries ever invented. The second story is called The Experiment. It's about a woman living in Brooklyn, New York, and she starts having mysterious reactions to something in her environment, and she has to figure out what's causing it before it kills her. Now, here's our first story called The Shadow. In a rural area of southwest Texas in 2016, a 49-year-old woman was out walking her dog.

We don't know her name, so we'll call her Rhonda, and we don't know her dog's name, so the dog will be Max. Hiking with Max was Rhonda's way of unwinding and letting go of the day. As she walked, she took a moment to breathe in the fresh scent of pine trees and listen to the dried leaves crunch underneath her shoes. There was nobody else around, so Rhonda let Max off his leash. He ran ahead and played in the bushes, happy to be free after a day spent cooped up inside. But after a little while, a sharp yelp from Max cut through the quiet evening air. Rhonda sprinted down the path to where she last saw him and began shouting out his name. There were plenty of dangerous animals hiding in the tall brush.

Snakes, kissing bugs, porcupines, even feral hogs were known to be spotted in this area. Max could have run into any one of them. Rhonda yelled again and again for Max, but she didn't hear anything. Then she heard whining, and Max came running toward her with his tail between his legs. Rhonda immediately clipped on his leash, relieved that he didn't have any visible injury. Rhonda decided to end the walk right there and head home. And then once she got there, she could clean Max up and make herself some dinner. The next few days were uneventful, but towards the end of that week, Rhonda started

to feel under the weather. She didn't have much of an appetite, and it hurt whenever she swallowed cold drinks. She figured she might have a mild flu or maybe a sore throat, but as the days went by, she kept feeling worse and worse. She couldn't catch her breath and her chest hurt, and no matter what she did, Rhonda just could not get comfortable, especially when she laid down. Rhonda had high blood pressure, which had caused symptoms like this in the past, but she had been faithfully taking her blood pressure medication so she didn't understand why she was now feeling this bad

she decided not to take any chances and went to the emergency room of a nearby hospital as rhonda sat in the waiting room all she could think about was the pain in her chest whatever this was it didn't feel like a simple blood pressure issue. A nurse asked Rhonda some basic background questions, like whether she drank alcohol or used tobacco. She admitted to having the occasional drink, but she said she never smoked. She said she didn't do any drugs either. Then Rhonda was given an electrocardiogram, which is a simple test that records the electrical activity of the heart and indicates any problems with the heartbeat. After the test was done, a doctor came in and read through the results. He said everything looked perfectly fine, but Rhonda told him she was scared. She was certain

there was something going on, but he just shook his head and told her she should stay calm. She was probably just having some sort of panic attack, but despite her protests, Rhonda was just given a prescription for anxiety medication and then sent home. But as the week progressed, her pain only got worse. Rhonda couldn't take two steps without feeling nauseous. She felt like something heavy was sitting on her chest, trying to squeeze out her breath. Even her dog Max seemed to sense her pain, whining every time she sat up in bed, trying to catch her breath. Rhonda decided to go back to the ER, but this time she went to a different hospital. She didn't want to be sick, but she also didn't want a potentially dangerous condition to go untreated.

And the doctors at this hospital were much more willing to listen to Rhonda. In addition to the same test she got at the other ER, this ER also ordered a CAT scan of Rhonda's chest, which is a procedure that uses a series of x-rays to create detailed images inside the body. This time, when the doctor came to Rhonda's bedside to go over her test results, Rhonda could instantly tell something was wrong. The doctor told Rhonda that there was fluid collecting in her chest. This fluid was putting pressure on her heart and causing her to feel tired and breathless. He didn't know why this fluid was collecting, but they needed to keep a close eye on it. If the pressure built up too much, Rhonda's heart could be permanently damaged. Rhonda was then officially moved from the ER to a room in the hospital itself. She was nervous but also relieved. They might not know

exactly what was wrong with her yet, but at least they weren't insisting that it was just an anxiety attack. By early the next morning, Rhonda's symptoms had not improved, and even with the pain medication, she could barely sleep. Her chest still hurt too much. A nurse came into Rhonda's room to draw blood, but right after the nurse inserted the needle into Rhonda's arm, something strange happened. Rhonda's feet and hands started turning blue. At the same time, her heart rate slowed and her blood pressure plummeted. The pain in Rhonda's

chest grew worse and she tried not to groan. Instead, she clenched her hands into fists so tight her nails almost cut through her skin. She thought of poor Max waiting for her at home. All she wanted was to cuddle with him and feel his wet nose on her face. As doctors rushed in, Rhonda could tell that things were just getting worse. The doctors measured her heartbeat and then gave her an injection to increase her heart rate and blood pressure. Once Rhonda was stabilized, her cardiologist arrived at her bedside. He could see that the excess fluid around Rhonda's heart was exerting more pressure. It was getting so intense that it could stop her heart from beating.

There was no time for the doctor to make a precise diagnosis. Rhonda needed surgery right now. That fluid had to be drained or she was going to die. They could figure out what was actually wrong with her afterwards. Rhonda was rushed into surgery and doctors removed almost two cups of fluid from the sack surrounding Rhonda's heart. They also put in a chest tube that would help keep the fluid from building back up. Her cardiologist hoped that the procedure would be enough to stabilize her.

Right away, Rhonda started to feel better. Her vital signs improved and she was able to eat a little bit and even check in with her dog sitter. After almost two weeks of feeling totally sick and now 48 hours in the hospital, Rhonda told herself that this terrible ordeal might finally be over. Over the next couple of days, she improved enough for her doctors to remove the chest tube that was draining the excess fluid from her heart. But just after getting the chest tube removed, Rhonda again started feeling intense pressure in her chest. More tests were done and they revealed that fluid was re-accumulating around her heart at an alarming rate. Rhonda's blood pressure suddenly dropped and her body went into shock. Her surgical team sprang back into action. Once again, she was wheeled into

surgery to drain the fluid from around her heart. This time, almost four cups were removed, twice as much as the first time. Rhonda's cardiologist and his team placed three chest tubes around Rhonda's heart to keep the waves of pressure from killing her. After surgery, Rhonda was returned to the ICU exhausted and barely conscious. But even all those tubes couldn't stop the fluid from building back up. Instead of getting better, Rhonda remained in critical condition. They were running out of time to save her. Her doctors watched over her with a sense of dread, wondering how they could possibly stabilize her if she crashed again. Six terrifying days later, doctors drained her heart for the third time.

This time, though, her cardiologist noticed something strange in the bloody liquid they drained out of her chest. He examined it and realized that the liquid was full of blood clots. Rhonda must be bleeding internally. If one of those clots made its way into her heart, it could block an important artery. This would cause cardiac arrest and kill Rhonda in seconds. Her cardiologist ordered more scans and then carefully studied each one. And that's when he noticed something truly puzzling. Rhonda's aorta, which is the large artery connected to the heart, showed a small, thin

shadow. The cardiologist was baffled by it. He knew it had to be connected to the bleeding, but he couldn't tell what it was, and he had to find out. To do this, he needed to see Rhonda's heart completely still and without any blood to obscure the view. While it sounded impossible, there was a way to do this. He needed to perform an incredibly dangerous surgery, the kind of surgery that he would only do when there was no other choice. He dreaded reaching this decision, but it was the only way to save her life. Rhonda would have to be put into a state called Total Circulatory Arrest. The surgical team would do this by first drastically lowering her body temperature.

Then they would have to stop her heart from pumping. Rhonda would be in suspended animation with no pulse, no blood pressure, and no signs of brain activity. She would basically be no different from someone who was actually dead. Putting Rhonda into the state would allow her doctors to see what was wrong with her heart, but it only gave surgeons an extremely short window of time to work, about 40 minutes. If it went on any longer, they might not be able to bring Rhonda back. As the surgical suite was prepped for the procedure, the cardiologist and his team went through every minute detail of the operation. Then the surgeon took a deep breath and began the process of putting Rhonda

into deep hypothermic circulatory arrest. A cooled saline solution was slowly injected into Rhonda's blood. This lowered her body temperature to somewhere between 64 to 68 degrees Fahrenheit and caused her blood to stop flowing. A machine took over her breathing. Once all her body functions had stopped, the cardiologist called for a scalpel and made his first incision. The entire surgical team watched as he cut through the sac surrounding Rhonda's heart,

carefully pushing aside tiny blood vessels until he was able to make an incision in the aorta. Wearing specialized magnifying glasses, he carefully examined Rhonda's heart. Within moments, he was stunned to see an object deeply embedded inside of her aorta. He carefully removed it with micro forceps and dropped it in a specimen jar. Then he cut out the damaged part of the aorta, repaired it with the synthetic graft, and closed Rhonda back up. Then the team slowly and carefully raised Rhonda's body temperature. Her heart was restarted with a defibrillator. In minutes, blood was pumping through her veins again, and color started to return to her face. As Rhonda was wheeled back to the ICU to recover, the object that had been pulled out of her aorta was already being closely examined by pathology.

By the next day, Rhonda's medical team knew the very risky surgery had worked. The fluid had stopped accumulating around Rhonda's heart and she said she was starting to feel better. Over the next several days, the lab analyzed this object that had been pulled out of her that had basically pierced a hole through her aorta. Rhonda was in her hospital room chatting with some family when her cardiologist entered, holding something in a small glass jar. He told her that the pathology department had a little present for her. They knew what had caused her near-death crisis.

The object from her aorta that had nearly killed her was an inch-long, black and extremely sharp porcupine quill. But now the question was, how had it gotten inside of her? It happened more than a month earlier, on the day she went for a walk with her dog Max in the woods. When Max ran into the brush and began whimpering and whining, he had encountered an angry porcupine. Later, when Rhonda got home, she saw several quills sticking out of Max's fur. Rhonda had painstakingly removed them, but while she was doing this, she had accidentally swallowed a porcupine quill and somehow didn't notice. The quill poked a hole in her esophagus and then made its way to her aorta where it caused her to bleed into the sack around her heart.

Since she had no idea that she had swallowed a quill, she never thought it was necessary to tell her doctors about the incident with her dog and the porcupine. Three weeks after she was first admitted to the hospital, Rhonda made a full recovery and went home. She still went on long walks with Max and still let him run free into the brush. She wasn't the kind of person who lived in fear, but her heart always started to beat a little faster whenever Max ran out of sight for more than a few minutes. Somewhere out there in the brush, there might still be a stubborn porcupine with a few missing quills waddling around. I'm Tristan Redman, and as a journalist, I've never believed in ghosts. But when I discovered that my wife's great-grandmother was murdered in the house next door to where I grew up,

I started wondering about the inexplicable things that happened in my childhood bedroom. When I tried to find out more, I discovered that someone who slept in my room after me, someone I'd never met, was visited by the ghost of a faceless woman. So I started digging into the murder in my wife's family, and I unearthed family secrets nobody could have imagined. Ghost Story won Best Documentary Podcast at the 2024 Ambees, and is a Best True Crime nominee at the British Podcast Awards 2024. Ghost Story is now the first ever Apple Podcasts series essential. Each month,

Apple Podcasts editors spotlight one series that has captivated listeners with masterful storytelling, creative excellence, and a unique creative voice and vision. To recognize Ghost Story being chosen as the first series essential, Wondery has made it ad-free for a limited time, only on Apple Podcasts. If you haven't listened yet, head over to Apple Podcasts to hear for yourself. And now here is our second story called The Experiment. On a spring evening in 2014, 43-year-old Amy Pearl looked out the kitchen window of her neighbor's Brownstone in Brooklyn, New York. About 20 people were packed into the tiny backyard for a cookout. Amy was making a vegetable dish, so she was sautéing some wild onions that she'd picked

from her mother's garden. After the onions were ready, she headed outside to join the party, where the host was now cooking a giant rack of lamb on a charcoal grill. Amy mingled with her friends until it was time to eat. Then they all sat down at a long table. The lamb, wild onions, and assorted roasted vegetables made for a delicious meal. Amy even sneaked some meat to her dog, a brown and white pit bull mutt named Cola. Amy couldn't help but think about how lucky she was. She was a successful radio producer living just minutes away from Manhattan in a city full of things to do and

great food to eat, and she had a group of amazing friends to enjoy it with. A few hours later, the party ended, so Amy said her goodbyes and headed back to her own apartment with her dog. After she got home, Amy went to bed. It was midnight and she was ready to get some sleep. But a couple of hours later, she woke up and just felt totally strange. A wave of anxiety hit her, but she wasn't sure why. She decided to get up and go to the bathroom.

When she walked in and flipped on the light, she took a look at her face in the mirror. She was shocked when she saw her reflection. Her face looked misshapen and her eyes were swollen. Amy could barely recognize herself and immediately knew something was wrong. Then she was hit by this awful dizzy spell. In a daze, Amy walked back toward her bedroom. She was so dizzy she had to hold on to the walls for support, but she managed to get back to her room and climb into her bed. As soon as she lay down, she felt like she was going to pass out. Amy stood back up and attempted to walk off her dizziness as her dog, Cola, followed her around the apartment.

As she paced around, Amy started to have these intense stomach cramps. Her mind began to race and she wondered what was happening. Amy wondered if she had accidentally poisoned herself with something she ate from the dinner party. She thought maybe there might have been a snail hidden on the wild onions or maybe the onions themselves were just poisonous. She was worried she might have poisoned her friends too. So far, no one had texted or called her though, so she hoped everything was okay. As her anxiety intensified, Amy got up and returned to the bathroom and splashed cold water on her face, which helped calm her down a bit. She dried her face off with a hand towel and realized she no longer felt dizzy.

Amy told herself that maybe a night's rest would just fix everything, so she returned to her bedroom and finally fell asleep. The next morning, Amy woke up feeling much better. Her stomach had stopped hurting and her face looked normal again. However, she wanted to figure out what had happened. She figured the best way to start was to check in on her friends who had gone to the same party the night before. Amy picked up her phone and dialed the neighbor who had hosted the cookout. She didn't want to alarm them by talking about her symptoms, so she just asked them how they

felt the party went. The host was very happy with everything and thanked Amy for making the wild onions. Amy got off the phone feeling totally relieved, and so she called some more people who attended the party, and again, everyone just seemed fine and had a great time. Amy was left totally bewildered and without any answers about what had happened to her, but she ultimately just chalked up the whole thing to an upset stomach and tried to move on. A week later on a Saturday night, Amy decided to stay in with her dog Cola instead of going out with her friends. She decided to make a cheeseburger and french fries for dinner, so she pulled a frozen patty out of the freezer and turned on the stove.

When the burger was done, Amy placed a slice of cheese right on top and watched it melt. Then she put the burger on a bun and added the fries that she had cooked in the oven. Amy grabbed a can of soda from her fridge. She sat down on the couch next to Cola and took her first bite of the burger. The patty was a pink medium rare, the cheese was melted and gooey, and the fries were perfectly salted. Amy savored every bite and then watched a movie. Two hours later, as the credits of the movie began to roll, Amy hugged her dog. As he licked her face, she started to feel light-headed. She stood up too quickly and nearly fell over. Amy braced herself against the wall and struggled to catch her breath. Her chest began to tighten, and she started breathing faster and faster, and so kind of in a panic, Amy began trying to take deep breaths to calm herself down.

And as her breathing did begin to settle, all she could think about was what had happened to her after her neighborhood party a week earlier. But this felt different and much worse. Amy made her way into the bathroom and just like last week, she looked in the mirror and her face looked swollen and now she noticed there was also a rash on her hands. She lifted her shirt and saw that her stomach was also covered in swollen red hives. She didn't know what to do. Her only thought was to make her way to the living room and unlock her front door,

just in case she needed to call 911, but passed out before paramedics arrived. Then she staggered into her bedroom as Cola followed along. Amy wondered if there was a virus going around or if maybe she was allergic to a new pollen, or worse, maybe she was allergic to her dog Cola. Amy Amy didn't want to think about that possibility because she loved her dog. She remembered how helpful sleep had been the last time this happened, a week earlier,

so she decided not to call 911 just yet. She relocked her front door and made her way back to her room. Exhausted, she collapsed onto her bed and she fell asleep. Just like the last time she got sick, Amy woke up the next morning feeling much better. The swelling on her stomach had gone down and the hives were less noticeable, but she was still worried, so she grabbed her laptop off the floor. She opened a web browser and typed all of her symptoms into the Google search bar. A list of articles and links popped up. Amy scanned the list, her eyes widening as she saw a particular article. She clicked that link and read more. It was about a man in Florida who had experienced the same sudden symptoms as her. She wasn't sure what it all meant, but maybe

it was connected to what was happening with her. Amy printed out the article because she felt like she was onto something. A few days later, Amy was seated on the examination table as her doctor stood close by. Her hives had disappeared by the time her appointment had arrived, and the doctor didn't seem too worried. Despite this, Amy described the two incidents and her various symptoms in great detail as the doctor took notes. But the entire time Amy was thinking about the article she had printed out, she had even brought it with her to the appointment. Amy hesitated to bring up the article to her doctor.

She didn't want to sound like one of those people who self-diagnosed based on what they read online. Instead, when she was on her way out of the appointment, she left the article with the receptionist and asked them to please give it to her doctor. The next day, Amy called the doctor and asked whether she could be tested for the condition the article mentioned. The doctor said he had read the article and that in his opinion, it just wasn't possible.

Amy had nothing to worry about and he didn't think she needed to do any special testing. He was confident that it was just not a problem. Amy felt kind of defeated and no closer to knowing what had actually happened to her. A few days later, Amy was back to feeling basically like herself. She was at the local supermarket, pushing a cart full of groceries down the aisle. She had the food in her cart and was struck with an idea. Her doctor had seemed so sure there wasn't anything wrong with her, but Amy wasn't as certain, so she decided to run a test on herself.

She would go to her mom's house and do the experiment there, just in case something terrible happened. Later that afternoon, Amy's mother, Susan Von Eggers, stood at the island in her kitchen in Danbury, Connecticut, about two hours away from Brooklyn. Susan was cutting up vegetables from her garden when she heard a knock at the door. She walked over to let in Amy, and then she gave her a hug. As Susan led her daughter back to the kitchen, Amy told her about this experiment she had planned. She was going to cook some food and eat it as a test, then wait to see if she got sick. Susan didn't know what to make out of Amy's experiment,

but she was determined to help her daughter figure out what had made her so sick. Susan walked out into the spacious backyard where she fired up the grill and then they cooked their meal. Shortly after, they took a seat at the patio table. It was time for the experiment. Susan watched closely as Amy took her first bite of food. Her daughter slowly chewed and swallowed. They both waited, but so far, nothing out of the ordinary happened. Then Susan began eating. She soon noticed that Amy had barely touched the rest of her food. Amy said she was just too nervous and didn't want to eat anymore. Susan felt bad for Amy.

Normally, her daughter had a healthy appetite and a deep appreciation for food. But the next two hours went by and Susan and Amy relaxed in the backyard, chatting and enjoying the sunshine, and Amy just seemed totally fine, which was a huge relief for Susan. But several minutes later, she noticed Amy became very quiet and then grabbed at her stomach. She quickly excused herself to the bathroom. Susan watched, unsure what to do, as Amy jogged to the back door and disappeared inside. Twenty minutes later, Amy returned and looked very pale. She asked if her mother could drive her to the emergency room. Susan's stomach dropped, and for a split second, she couldn't think straight. She jumped up and said she needed to change her clothes. Even as she said it, she

realized how absurd it sounded. She frantically ran to her bedroom, but a minute later, she heard something slam against her door. Susan opened the door and saw that Amy had collapsed on the floor in the hallway. Susan immediately felt so bad for delaying getting Amy to the hospital. She ran over and kneeled down and leaned close to her daughter's face, and she could tell that Amy was still breathing. Susan found Amy's phone on the ground next to her. She realized that Amy must have thrown it at her door to get her attention. Susan picked up Amy's phone and she dialed 911. Paramedics arrived and immediately took Amy to the hospital. She was conscious when she arrived at the emergency room a few minutes later. She was immediately given a shot of a drug called epinephrine to prevent her from going into

anaphylactic shock. Anaphylactic shock is a severe allergic reaction that can result in fainting, difficulty in breathing, and even death if it's not treated right away. Amy was able to speak, so she was able to tell the ER doctor what her theory was for what was going on with her. Amy wasn't sure the doctor believed her, but the doctor promised to run the necessary tests to prove or disprove Amy's theory. Amy was stabilized and moved to a hospital room. Her mother was by her side, and they waited anxiously for the results of the tests. A couple of hours later, the ER doctor rushed in. He said he knew exactly what was happening and that Amy had been right. The article

Amy had found two weeks ago was about a man who had developed a meat allergy. The doctor who Amy had first shown this article to just didn't believe that it was possible that Amy could have this allergy and so did not think the test was necessary. But Amy was determined to find out, so she attempted that experiment, which unfortunately worked. She and her mom had grilled that porterhouse steak at her mom's house. Amy had only taken a couple of bites, but it was enough to set off an allergic reaction that almost killed her. And now the doctor in the ER confirmed it for her. Amy had a life-threatening allergy to red meat. Finally, Amy understood exactly what was wrong with her. But even though she had a diagnosis, she still

wasn't satisfied. In fact, it led Amy to a bigger question. How could she have suddenly become allergic to something she had eaten without any issues her entire life? When her doctor explained the reason, it all made sense to her as crazy as it sounded. It all started a few weeks before the neighborhood cookout, when Amy woke up one morning. The back of her arm felt itchy, and when she scratched it, she discovered a tick. She knew exactly where it had come from, her dog Cola. The tick had clearly been on her dog and then hopped onto Amy in the middle of the night while Cola was sleeping in bed with her. When Amy was bitten by that tick, she developed a new allergy to red meat called alpha-gal syndrome. The tick carries a sugar molecule called alpha-gal, which is found in the blood of the animals

the tick usually bites, such as cows, sheep, rabbits, deer, or pigs. When a tick bites a human, it automatically transmits alpha-gal into that person's body. After Amy was bitten, she developed a sensitivity to alpha-gal. This meant that her body now saw this sugar molecule as a foreign invader and attacked it. So every time Amy ate red meat, which contains alpha-gal, she would become progressively sicker. Her body would release histamines, which cause allergy symptoms such as hives, swelling, and difficulty breathing, as well as anaphylactic shock. It just so happens that Amy's symptoms were particularly severe. It is estimated that almost 450,000 people in the United States have developed alpha-gal allergy in the same way as Amy, which would make it the 10th most common allergy in the

entire country. Up to 60% of people with red meat allergies can experience severe symptoms. There is currently no cure. After Amy learned about her diagnosis, she realized she could never eat red meat again, which included beef, venison, pork, and lamb. They had been her favorite foods since she was a kid. After being released from the hospital, she decided to go on a strict vegetarian diet for personal reasons. She continues to go see her allergist for testing to see if anything has changed, but her alpha-gal antibody levels are still present in her bloodstream. Now, Amy has made peace with the lifestyle change and has even learned to appreciate it,

especially considering her deep love of animals. From Ballin Studios and Wondery, this is Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries, hosted by me, Mr. Ballin. A quick reminder, the content in this episode is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. This episode was written by Matt Marinovich and Tanner Marcusello. Our editor is Heather Dundas.

Sound design is by Ryan Petesta. Coordinating producer is Sophia Martins. Our senior producer is Alex Benidon. Our associate producers and researchers are Sarah Vytak, Natalie Bettendorf, and Tasia Palaconda. Fact-checking was done by Sheila Patterson. For Ballin Studios, our producer is Alyssa Tomineng. Our head of production is Zach Levitt. Executive producers are myself, Mr. Ballin, and Nick Witters. For Wondery, senior managing producer is Ryan Lohr. Our head of sound is Marcelino Villapondo. Our producer is Julie Magruder.

Senior producers are Laura Donna Palavoda and Dave Schilling. Our executive producers are Aaron O'Flaherty and Marshall Louis for Wondering. people out of $10 million. But infamy comes with a price. If we don't have our money by tomorrow morning, you will be gutted like a fish in Newport Harbor. Lady Mafia. Available now on The Binge. Search for Lady Mafia wherever you get your podcasts to start listening today.