Donora

…And unfortunately, the town only had a single ambulance, and it was booked solid. And so one after another, Helen took down these people's names and addresses and added them to the growing list of patients the doctors needed to visit. Helen had no idea what was going on in Donora, but it certainly felt like all hell had broken loose inside of her normally q…

…Whenever the fog in Donora got really thick, people's asthma tended to flare up. So Dr. Kohler gave his patient the usual asthma treatment for 1948, which was a shot of adrenaline. Adrenaline is a hormone that can help open a person's airway when they're having trouble breathing. Once the adrenaline shot took effect and the man caught his breath again, Dr.…

…And today, like most days, she was the first one to the office. She turned on the lights and opened up the blinds in the waiting room, then began sweeping up the thin layer of soot that had blown in through the air vents and settled on the floor overnight. Like the fog in Donora, the soot was also very annoying, but totally normal to Helen. She knew it came…