MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries

A little girl falls prey to a disease so deadly and rare, the CDC fears it might be an act of bioterrorism. Investigators scramble to find the source, but the answer comes from somewhere nobody was expecting.

Follow MrBallen's Medical Mysteries on Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes publish for free every Tuesday. Prime members can binge episodes 41-48 early and ad-free on Amazon Music. 

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A college student in Mississippi has to put his life on hold when his hips literally begin to die. Facing a life of unbearable pain, he must dig deep into his past to find a cure.

Follow MrBallen's Medical Mysteries on Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes publish for free every Tuesday. Prime members can binge episodes 41-48 early and ad-free on Amazon Music. 

Wondery+ subscribers can listen ad-free--join Wondery+ in the Wondery App or on Apple Podcasts.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

A man vacationing in Germany becomes violently ill, and no medicine is helping. The solution may be hidden somewhere on the man’s home of Vancouver Island… where a deadly outbreak is spreading.

Follow MrBallen's Medical Mysteries on Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes publish for free every Tuesday. Prime members can binge episodes 41-48 early and ad-free on Amazon Music. 

Wondery+ subscribers can listen ad-free--join Wondery+ in the Wondery App or on Apple Podcasts.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

A teenage boy suffers pain and embarrassment when his leg becomes grotesquely swollen and infected. His doctors can’t stop it from getting worse, and the problem spirals out of control. But his teacher refuses to give up on him. Working together, they make a startling discovery.

Follow MrBallen's Medical Mysteries on Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes publish for free every Tuesday. Prime members can binge episodes 41-48 early and ad-free on Amazon Music. 

Wondery+ subscribers can listen ad-free--join Wondery+ in the Wondery App or on Apple Podcasts.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

A couple in Colorado is accused of child abuse when their infant daughter is diagnosed with multiple fractures in her legs. The ordeal threatens to break the family apart – and there may be no putting them back together.

Follow MrBallen's Medical Mysteries on Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes publish for free every Tuesday. Prime members can binge episodes 41-48 early and ad-free on Amazon Music. 

Wondery+ subscribers can listen ad-free--join Wondery+ in the Wondery App or on Apple Podcasts.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Seemingly out of nowhere, an otherwise healthy man’s body starts filling with a thick, lemon meringue-like liquid that is slowly drowning him in his own fluids. His family is terrified, both for him, and for themselves – because this mysterious disease might come for them too.

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One night, two girls from the same school are rushed to the hospital with the same deadly disease. At first, doctors worry the girls’ entire school was exposed to the same disease. But soon they realize that the problem is even bigger.

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 In late 1976, a terrifying new disease that causes eyes to bleed grips the country of Zaire. Doctors from all over the world arrive to search for the cure… if one exists at all.

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“A Step Too Far”

A man in Scotland suffering from crippling breathing difficulty is mystified when his doctors can’t figure out what’s wrong with him. As he grows weaker and weaker, he worries that one day he’ll go to bed… and never get up. 

“Dying of Boredom”

After undergoing ankle surgery, an Australian high schooler is dreading a summer stuck inside. But when he suddenly starts struggling for breath, his couch-bound recovery becomes the least of his problems.

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A boy in Minnesota is rushed to the emergency room with one of the worst food poisoning cases the doctors have ever seen. A short while later, a little girl shows up with the same illness. Soon, cases are popping up throughout the state, leaving some on the brink of death as doctors scramble to figure out why. 

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When a young mother’s baby is suddenly hospitalized, doctors accuse her of intentionally harming him. Desperate to prove that she’s innocent, the mother seeks an answer before she loses her son forever.

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In December 1979, young women all over Wisconsin fall ill with a mysterious disease that starts with a bright red rash – and sometimes leads to death. Soon, it’s happening to women all over the United States – and nobody knows why.

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A doctor in the early 1900s is tasked with discovering the cause of a sometimes-fatal disease ravaging the American South. But in order to figure it out, he has to conduct a dangerous experiment that puts people’s lives at risk.

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A 9-year-old girl in Hawaii suddenly loses vision in one eye, and nobody knows why. And by the time she gets an answer, it might be too late to save her eye at all.

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“Look Closely”

A teenage boy suddenly falls into critical condition while on vacation with his family in Orlando, Florida. When his doctors find out what’s wrong with him, they fear the worst – this disease is almost always fatal. In order to save him, they’ll have to act faster than they ever have before.

“Burning From the Inside”

After a young woman crushes her hand in a workplace accident, she begins experiencing debilitating pain throughout her entire body. Will she be able to endure it long enough for her doctors to save her?

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When a woman’s five-year-old son in Niagara Falls, New York, suddenly develops epilepsy, she becomes determined to figure out what made him sick. What she finds leads her to one of the biggest cover ups in American history.

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A mother in Fresno, California races her young son to the emergency room after he goes limp and his eyes roll back in his head. It turns out, the boy was poisoned. And the true culprit was something no one ever saw coming.

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A semi-pro tennis player nearly drowns in the pool when she suffers sudden, cramping pain in her midsection. Her doctors fear she has cancer, but then they realize that other people are showing the exact same symptoms.

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In the summer of 1999, a mysterious outbreak rages through New York City, paralyzing and even killing its victims. Doctors scramble for a solution, not realizing the answer is lying at their feet.

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A young woman working on a fishing vessel in Alaska begins experiencing a strange burning sensation in her eye. What she finds inside her eyelid makes her skin crawl.

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In the summer of 1846, a young doctor is thrilled to join Austria’s prestigious Vienna General Hospital. But he soon discovers that new mothers in one of the hospital’s maternity wards are dying at a disturbing rate. He desperately seeks an answer for why it’s happening… and what he finds changes the field of medicine forever.

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“Gut Instinct”

In the summer of 2021, a doctor celebrates his retirement with a rafting trip in the Grand Canyon. But shortly after he gets back, he begins experiencing debilitating stomach pain. Desperate to figure out what’s wrong with him, he tries to diagnose himself. He suspects the answer is a horrible disease that people rarely survive. 

“Into the Woods”

After a camping trip in the summer of 2009, a woman develops a gruesome rash that covers her body with painful welts and makes her mouth bleed. Multiple doctors can’t figure out what is wrong with her – because the answer is something few physicians would ever suspect.

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On Christmas Day, 2008, a surfer living in Hawaii wakes up with a splitting headache and itching all over his body. Soon, the man is comatose and nearly brain-dead in a hospital as doctors struggle to understand what’s happening. His doctors don’t think he’ll recover, but his mother refuses to give up hope – will her belief be enough to save him?

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In 2012, a healthy high school volleyball star suddenly has to fight for every breath she takes. Within a few weeks, she’s on the list for multiple organ transplants and needs a refrigerator-sized machine to keep her alive. Her doctors have no idea why this is happening to her – until the answer comes from a place nobody ever expected.

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In 2007, a worker at a pork processing plant in Minnesota suffers nerve damage so severe that he can no longer move his legs. Within a few months, his co-workers begin to develop similar alarming symptoms. Investigators search for a common thread, and what they find is more disturbing than anything they could have imagined.

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“Life in Paradise”

In 1993, a man living in a retirement community in Tennessee falls ill with what he thinks is the flu. But, within hours, he’s comatose and suffering from multiple organ failure. His doctor is stunned, and becomes even more perplexed when the man’s neighbor shows up with the same symptoms. Is it all just a coincidence? Or is a silent killer lurking in the community’s manicured grounds?

“The Stranger”

One day in 2014, an elderly Frenchman comes home to find a stranger hiding in his bathroom. The intruder doesn’t seem dangerous, although something about him feels…off. And when the man discovers who it is, it changes his life forever.

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In 1944, nearly a dozen men show up at a hospital in New York. All are violently ill and passing out – and they all have bright blue skin. A medical investigator rushes to figure out what is making them sick… and what is causing their bizarre appearance. 

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In 1983, an Italian man finds himself completely unable to sleep, and when he looks in the mirror, his own eyes frighten him. A sense of doom washes over the man. He knows that within a year, he’ll be dead – because he’s just fallen prey to a centuries-old family curse.

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In September 2007, a meteor strike leaves a massive crater in the high Peruvian desert, drawing curiosity seekers from miles around. Shortly after, people from the nearby town of Carancas start becoming violently ill. Some residents fear a curse has befallen them, but the truth might be much more frightening.

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Throughout the United States, the summer of 1976 is a celebration of two hundred years as a nation. That is, until attendees of a veterans’ conference in Philadelphia start dying of a frightening new disease. As the CDC scrambles to stop the outbreak, the country’s joy turns to terror. Will they stop the spread before a new pandemic emerges?

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In late 2002, a 26-year-old single mother and her children take a DNA test as part of a welfare application. The results are shocking: they say she is not the mother. She has to find a way to prove the children really are hers or risk having them taken away from her forever.

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In September of 1998, people throughout Malaysia start dying of a disease that attacks their brains. The authorities think they know what it is, but one scientist believes they are making a dangerous mistake. It’s up to him to convince his superiors before the outbreak spirals out of control.

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In 1998, a new mother begins experiencing intense full-body aches, unstoppable itching, and crushing fatigue. But everyone she talks to says it’s all in her head and the woman feels like she’s losing her mind. Will someone be able to figure out what’s wrong with her before it’s too late?

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In the spring of 2009, Dr. Benjamin Gilmer takes over a country medical practice in Fletcher, North Carolina. His predecessor is no longer running the clinic because he’s serving a life sentence for murdering his father. But, as Benjamin learns more about the case, he begins to wonder if the man is truly a cold-blooded killer or if there’s another explanation for his terrifying crime.

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In the spring of 1993, young, healthy people of the Navajo nation start dying from a mysterious disease that fills their lungs with so much fluid that they suffocate. The CDC’s best scientists scramble to uncover what’s causing it before it spreads – and the answer might lie in a story from ancient Navajo legend.

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In 2005, a high-powered attorney starts falling asleep for dangerously long periods at a time. No matter what she tries to keep herself awake, she constantly needs sleep, like an addict craves a fix. It gets so bad, she fears that one day she’ll fall asleep and never wake up again.

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In 2020, a career-driven young woman in Ohio begins to hallucinate strange sounds and feels phantom sensations in her body. She believes she’s going insane. But the real reason is far more disturbing. 

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“The Shadow”

When a woman’s unexplainable heart condition threatens her life, surgeons turn to a rare and dangerous operation. They have less than an hour to operate and find the cause of her condition. What they discover is jaw-dropping.

“The Experiment”

A New York City radio producer in her early 40s falls mysteriously ill after having dinner with friends. She goes to the doctor, but he can’t find anything wrong. As her symptoms worsen, she decides to take matters into her own hands and run a dangerous experiment on herself. Her discovery changes her life forever.

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One night in 1944, over 300 patients at a mental hospital in Oregon become violently sick after eating dinner. Many of them die. An investigation is quickly launched to determine the source of this deadly illness. Was there something wrong with the food itself? Or could it have been the work of a deranged killer?

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In September 2004, a 15-year-old girl is suddenly struck with fatigue and blurred vision. When she’s rushed to the hospital, she’s given a grim diagnosis: she’s dying and there’s nothing medical experts can do. But one doctor has a desperate last-minute idea: an experimental treatment that could save her life… or lock her into a fate worse than death.

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“Sanju’s Belly”

For decades, a 36-year-old Indian man has been plagued by a mysterious swelling in his belly. He refuses to see a doctor, until one day, he’s rushed to the hospital with breathing problems. When doctors operate, what they find inside him is horrific.

“One by One”

A family in 1860s London is struck by a mysterious illness that claims three of their children. When the city’s finest physician is brought in to treat the family's last surviving child, a three-year-old girl, he is baffled by her symptoms. But as he digs deeper he realizes the true killer has been staring him in the face all along.

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On a hot September day in 1986, a family in Goiania, Brazil, suddenly begin feeling sick after a celebration. The symptoms are horrific: vomiting, diarrhea, and bleeding. But one family member suspects something far worse. Her hunch soon leads to a devastating discovery.

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In 1951, dozens of people in the small French town of Pont St. Esprit fall ill with nausea, chills, and stomach pains. At first, the local doctor suspects food poisoning, but when the symptoms turn into hallucinations, violence, and even suicide, he realizes that something much more sinister is at play.

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In the Spring of 1986, a man discovers that his elderly father has been trapped inside his home that was devastated by a fire. But no one can figure out what caused the fire – or what exactly happened to the man’s father. When medical science can’t explain it, one investigator turns to a strange phenomenon to find answers.

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Follow MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge the first 8 episodes, early and ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today.

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