Hey, listeners, I've got an announcement. I'm here to tell you about
an all new suspense driven podcast, Mister Balin's Medical Mysteries. It's hosted by
mister Ballin. Everybody knows mister Balin. He's one of the Internet's most popular
storytellers. Why medical mysteries, Well, we've all been there, turning to
the Internet to self diagnosed inexplicable pains, debilitating body aches, sudden fevers,
and strange rashes. Though our minds spiral to the worst case scenarios, it's
usually nothing before an unlucky few these symptoms can start the clock ticking on a
terrifying medical mystery. Each week on mister Balin's Medical Mysteries, you can expect
bizarre, unheard of diseases, miraculous recoveries, strange medical mishaps, and everything
in between, like the unexplicable death of a retired firefighter whose body was reduced
to ashes even though nothing around him burned. Or the time when an entire
town became ill with nausea and chills. The local doctor initially chalked it up
to being food poisoning until people started jumping from buildings and seeing tigers on their
ceilings Tigers. Each terrifying true story will be sure to keep you up at
night. Now I'm about to play a clip for mister Ballin's Medical Mysteries,
and while you're listening, follow Mister Ballin's Medical Mysteries on Amazon Music or wherever
you get your podcasts. Click or copy and paste the dedicated link and the
description of this podcast, or just search for mister Ballin's Medical Mysteries Wonder.
On a humid summer morning in June nineteen ninety nine, thirty six year old
Sanju Bagat was hard at work on a farm outside of Nagpur, a city
in central India. The sun had just risen and the air was already so
hot that he found it hard to breathe. Sanju and a group of farm
hands were hard at work tending to the soybean crops. He made his way
through the field, stopping to catch his breath every few steps. Sanju moved
a lot slower than his coworkers because of his massive belly. For the past
fifteen years, Sanju had struggled beneath the weight of his ever growing stomach.
At first, when he was in his early twenties, his family had thought
he was just filling out a little, like all young men do when they
become adults. But Sanju's stomach didn't stop growing. It kept getting bigger and
bigger, until it had swelled to the size of a massive watermelon, but
his arms and legs stayed stick thin. He never understood why his belly kept
growing, since he didn't eat much. By the time Sanju reached his early
thirties, he was in constant pain, and his family desperately wanted him to
see a doctor, but he couldn't afford to take time off of work,
although deep down he had to admit he was a little scared of what the
doctor might find. The sun beat down on Sonju's head and he could feel
his chest tighten. He tried to keep working, but today it was harder
to breathe than usual. No matter how deeply he inhaled, he couldn't quite
catch his breath. Finally, he dropped his shovel and doubled over, gasping
for air. Sanju gathered what little strength he had left and stood up straight.
He could feel other farm worker's eyes on him as he gathered his tools
and headed home. It was the longest walk of Sonju's life. He felt
humiliated and useless, but he was also afraid. He could barely take a
breath. By the time he got to the small home he shared with his
family, he nearly fell through the front door. The last thing he remember
was falling hard on the tile floor. Early the next morning, doctor a
Je Mehta had just started his shift in the oncology ward at Tata Memorial Hospital.
He was alerted that a new patient named Sanju Barat had been brought in
all the way from Nogpor and that he needed to be seen right away.
Doctor Meta hurried over to Sanju's room. If someone was rushed in an ambulance
from so far away, it had to be a serious emergency. As soon
as doctor Meta examined Sanju's giant, swollen belly, he instructed the nurse to
prepare the operating room for surgery. Doctor Meta was a specialist in tumor removal
and he was certain that Sanju had a massive tumor in his stomach, possibly
the biggest one he'd ever seen. The tumor was likely pressing against Sanju's diaphragm,
which was why he couldn't breathe, and given how big it was,
and Sanju's weakened condition, the tumor had to be removed immediately. While another
nurse prepped Sanju for the operation, Doctor Meta gathered his surgical team and headed
to the operating room. As they sterilized their hands and put on clean scrubs,
doctor Meda warned them that the tumor's sheer size would make this a very
challenging operation. There was a risk of damaging the soft tissue in Sanju's stomach,
his nerve endings, or blood vessels. In the worst case, the
surgery could cause severe internal bleeding or even death. A few minutes later,
Sanju was wheeled into the operating room on a gurney. Once he was under
anesthesia, doctor Meida called for a scalpel. He placed one hand on Sanju's
stomach for leverage, then he cut into Sanju's belly. After the blade broke
through Sanju's skin and opened up his chest area, doctor Meda expected to see
blood in a bright red mass of cancerous cells. Instead, gallons of thick,
yellowish fluid gushed from Sanju's stomach, spilling onto the floor. The entire
surgical team gasped. Doctor Meida jumped out of the way, trying to avoid
the surge of bile. It had a foul odor that made everyone in the
room start to gag. Nurses ran toward him with towels, trying to sop
up the putrid smelling liquid. While they cleaned up the mess, Doctor Meda
remained calm and carefully inserted his hand into Sanju's stomach to locate the tumor.
At first, all he felt was thick, jelly like fluids sliding between his
fingers. Then he grazed something unusual. His eyes went wide as he dove
a little deeper, his palm wrapped around something soft but with a brittle core.
He realized this was not a tumor. Whatever was in Sanju's stomach had
bones, a lot of them. Doctor made his jaw dropped as his hand
explored the object floating in Sandu's stomach. He grabbed onto one of the tiny
bones and began to slowly pull it up and out of Sonju's stomach. As
he lifted the bizarre object into the air, he could hear more gasps from
everyone in the room. Hey, Prime members, you can binge. The
first eight episodes of mister Balin's Medical mysteries right now and ad free on Amazon
Music. Download the Amazon Music app today