Ep. 74 | Sudden Insanity
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Hey Prime members, you can binge episodes 73 through 80 right now and ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the app today. One August morning in 2019, a widow in her 70s drove in silence with her two adult children to a hospital in New Brunswick, Canada. Although it was a beautiful summer morning, the mood in the car was somber. The previous winter, the woman's husband and the father of her children had suddenly lost his mind and died. It had been almost like he was in the grips of an extremely fast-moving case of Alzheimer's. His mind and body had declined so quickly, ravaged by this frightening and mysterious disease. By the end of May that year, the woman's husband was dead, leaving her and her children both shattered and confused by what they had just witnessed. But the worst part of it was they didn't even know what disease had killed him. His doctor had a pretty good guess, but he wouldn't be sure until an autopsy was performed.
And so now, two months later and after an autopsy was done, the family was going to meet with that doctor about what he discovered. Once the woman and her children were settled in the doctor's office, he got straight to the point. Unfortunately, the autopsy had been inconclusive. Her husband had died from an unknown illness. But before the widow could say a word, the doctor told her that wasn't all. In digging through the hospital's records, the doctor had discovered 20 other patients in just the past few years who were diagnosed with symptoms that were very similar to her husband's. So whatever this disease was, it was not isolated. But the strange thing was, beyond their geographic proximity, there was nothing connecting these patients, not age, not lifestyle, nothing, which left the doctor with a chilling but inescapable conclusion. Something where these people lived was responsible for making them sick, but the doctor had no idea what it could be.
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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, whenever the follow button texts you, only reply with, who dis? This episode is called Sudden Insanity. A few days before New Year's Eve in 2018, a woman in her 70s named Jane Benchley stepped through the front door of her New Brunswick, Canada home after walking her terrier around the block. She called out for her 81-year-old husband, Louis, but the house was quiet. Jane checked their bedroom, then the bathrooms, and even looked in the backyard. And just as she started to worry, she heard Louis' voice from down the hall. She opened the door to what used to be his office. Inside, her husband was hunched over his desk, looking at dusty old accounting logs and muttering to himself. Jane was surprised to find him there. Louis had retired years ago and hardly ever used the office anymore.
When Jane asked him what he was doing, Louis slammed his fist down. Then he shoved the folders to the floor, leapt to his feet, and began shouting about how he'd been cheated. A supplier overcharged him for lumber on a contracting job, and he was furious about it. Jane tried to calm him down by reminding Louis that he'd sold his construction business years ago. Any money conflicts from old projects were water under the bridge now. But Lewis was not having it. He just stood there angrily shaking his head and fell silent. Jane left the office to give her husband some space to sort through his anger on his own. But at dinner later that night, Lewis was still fuming. He barely spoke.
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