Ep. 73 | Darkness in Donora
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What is the story behind the 1948 Donora tragedy?
Hey Prime members, you can binge episodes 73 through 80 right now and ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the app today. On the afternoon of Saturday, October 30th, 1948, a teenage boy wearing an orange and black uniform ran across his high school's football field. He searched the sky for a pass from his quarterback, but a thick layer of fog had rolled in that made it impossible to see.
What happened during the football game in Donora?
As the boy waved his arms, the ball bounced off his helmet and fell to the ground. But before he could even jog back to his teammates, the boy heard the school's announcer call his name over the loudspeakers. The announcer sounded urgent and told the boy to report to the sidelines right now. And when he got there, his coach told him he had to head home right away. His mother needed him. So the boy just took off his helmet and ran home through the fog. When he burst through the door, he saw his father lying on the couch with the doctor standing over him. And his mother was standing by, weeping. The doctor told the boy that he was very sorry, but his father had just died. The boy just stood there, stunned. His father had been fine that morning.
He didn't understand what could have happened. However, what this boy did not know was that his father was not the first person in town to die that day, and he would not be the last, because this community was in the middle of a medical disaster that would change the course of American history.
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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 like today's story, please go to a store the follow button is currently shopping at and page them over the intercom to tell them their car is being towed.
Who was Helen Stack and what did she experience?
When they run out to go deal with it, steal their shopping cart. This episode is called Darkness in Donora. On the morning of Friday, October 29th, 1948, a young woman named Helen Stack woke up inside her modest home in the small town of Donora, Pennsylvania. And as soon as Helen opened her eyes, she started coughing. Her throat had been sore for a few days, but this morning it felt even worse. She thought she might be coming down with a cold, but Helen was not the kind of person to let a minor illness slow her down. So she still got out of bed, got dressed, and then drank some coffee and ate breakfast before starting her walk to work. From where her house stood near the top of a hill, Helen could sometimes see the entire town.
Donora sat inside of a valley right on the banks of the Monongahela River, surrounded on three sides by 400-foot-tall cliffs. On the fourth side were rolling hills that stretched off into the distance. That morning, though, Helen couldn't see any of Donora's natural beauty because fog was blocking her view. In fact, low gray clouds had been hanging over the town for the past four days. But that was actually normal because Donora was inside of basically a natural bowl in the earth. The surrounding cliffs and hills blocked the wind, so the fog would accumulate and then get stuck in the valley. To Helen, this was just part of life in Donora. And while it was sort of frustrating at times, it was easy to ignore, because there were so many other good things about living there.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the story behind the 1948 Donora tragedy?
0:00–0:30
2
What happened during the football game in Donora?
0:30–2:45
3
Who was Helen Stack and what did she experience?
2:45–9:46
4
How did the doctors in Donora respond to the crisis?
9:46–14:43
5
What was Dr. Roth's experience during the Donora smog?
14:43–35:02