WEBVTT

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Hey, listeners, I've got an
announcement. I'm here to tell you about

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an all new suspense driven podcast,
Mister Balin's Medical Mysteries. It's hosted by

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mister Ballin. Everybody knows mister Balin. He's one of the Internet's most popular

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storytellers. Why medical mysteries, Well, we've all been there, turning to

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the Internet to self diagnosed inexplicable pains, debilitating body aches, sudden fevers,

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and strange rashes. Though our minds
spiral to the worst case scenarios, it's

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usually nothing before an unlucky few these
symptoms can start the clock ticking on a

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terrifying medical mystery. Each week on
mister Balin's Medical Mysteries, you can expect

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bizarre, unheard of diseases, miraculous
recoveries, strange medical mishaps, and everything

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in between, like the unexplicable death
of a retired firefighter whose body was reduced

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to ashes even though nothing around him
burned. Or the time when an entire

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town became ill with nausea and chills. The local doctor initially chalked it up

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to being food poisoning until people started
jumping from buildings and seeing tigers on their

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ceilings Tigers. Each terrifying true story
will be sure to keep you up at

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night. Now I'm about to play
a clip for mister Ballin's Medical Mysteries,

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and while you're listening, follow Mister
Ballin's Medical Mysteries on Amazon Music or wherever

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you get your podcasts. Click or
copy and paste the dedicated link and the

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description of this podcast, or just
search for mister Ballin's Medical Mysteries Wonder.

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On a humid summer morning in June
nineteen ninety nine, thirty six year old

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Sanju Bagat was hard at work on
a farm outside of Nagpur, a city

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in central India. The sun had
just risen and the air was already so

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hot that he found it hard to
breathe. Sanju and a group of farm

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hands were hard at work tending to
the soybean crops. He made his way

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through the field, stopping to catch
his breath every few steps. Sanju moved

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a lot slower than his coworkers because
of his massive belly. For the past

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fifteen years, Sanju had struggled beneath
the weight of his ever growing stomach.

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At first, when he was in
his early twenties, his family had thought

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he was just filling out a little, like all young men do when they

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become adults. But Sanju's stomach didn't
stop growing. It kept getting bigger and

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bigger, until it had swelled to
the size of a massive watermelon, but

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his arms and legs stayed stick thin. He never understood why his belly kept

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growing, since he didn't eat much. By the time Sanju reached his early

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thirties, he was in constant pain, and his family desperately wanted him to

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see a doctor, but he couldn't
afford to take time off of work,

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although deep down he had to admit
he was a little scared of what the

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doctor might find. The sun beat
down on Sonju's head and he could feel

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his chest tighten. He tried to
keep working, but today it was harder

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to breathe than usual. No matter
how deeply he inhaled, he couldn't quite

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catch his breath. Finally, he
dropped his shovel and doubled over, gasping

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for air. Sanju gathered what little
strength he had left and stood up straight.

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He could feel other farm worker's eyes
on him as he gathered his tools

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and headed home. It was the
longest walk of Sonju's life. He felt

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humiliated and useless, but he was
also afraid. He could barely take a

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breath. By the time he got
to the small home he shared with his

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family, he nearly fell through the
front door. The last thing he remember

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was falling hard on the tile floor. Early the next morning, doctor a

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Je Mehta had just started his shift
in the oncology ward at Tata Memorial Hospital.

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He was alerted that a new patient
named Sanju Barat had been brought in

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all the way from Nogpor and that
he needed to be seen right away.

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Doctor Meta hurried over to Sanju's room. If someone was rushed in an ambulance

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from so far away, it had
to be a serious emergency. As soon

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as doctor Meta examined Sanju's giant,
swollen belly, he instructed the nurse to

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prepare the operating room for surgery.
Doctor Meta was a specialist in tumor removal

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and he was certain that Sanju had
a massive tumor in his stomach, possibly

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the biggest one he'd ever seen.
The tumor was likely pressing against Sanju's diaphragm,

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which was why he couldn't breathe,
and given how big it was,

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and Sanju's weakened condition, the tumor
had to be removed immediately. While another

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nurse prepped Sanju for the operation,
Doctor Meta gathered his surgical team and headed

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to the operating room. As they
sterilized their hands and put on clean scrubs,

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doctor Meda warned them that the tumor's
sheer size would make this a very

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challenging operation. There was a risk
of damaging the soft tissue in Sanju's stomach,

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his nerve endings, or blood vessels. In the worst case, the

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surgery could cause severe internal bleeding or
even death. A few minutes later,

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Sanju was wheeled into the operating room
on a gurney. Once he was under

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anesthesia, doctor Meida called for a
scalpel. He placed one hand on Sanju's

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stomach for leverage, then he cut
into Sanju's belly. After the blade broke

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through Sanju's skin and opened up his
chest area, doctor Meda expected to see

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blood in a bright red mass of
cancerous cells. Instead, gallons of thick,

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yellowish fluid gushed from Sanju's stomach,
spilling onto the floor. The entire

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surgical team gasped. Doctor Meida jumped
out of the way, trying to avoid

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the surge of bile. It had
a foul odor that made everyone in the

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room start to gag. Nurses ran
toward him with towels, trying to sop

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up the putrid smelling liquid. While
they cleaned up the mess, Doctor Meda

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remained calm and carefully inserted his hand
into Sanju's stomach to locate the tumor.

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At first, all he felt was
thick, jelly like fluids sliding between his

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fingers. Then he grazed something unusual. His eyes went wide as he dove

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a little deeper, his palm wrapped
around something soft but with a brittle core.

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He realized this was not a tumor. Whatever was in Sanju's stomach had

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bones, a lot of them.
Doctor made his jaw dropped as his hand

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explored the object floating in Sandu's stomach. He grabbed onto one of the tiny

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bones and began to slowly pull it
up and out of Sonju's stomach. As

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he lifted the bizarre object into the
air, he could hear more gasps from

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everyone in the room. Hey,
Prime members, you can binge. The

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first eight episodes of mister Balin's Medical
mysteries right now and ad free on Amazon

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Music. Download the Amazon Music app
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