When an elderly man in New Brunswick, Canada, dies from what seems to be rapid-onset dementia, his doctor believes he had a rare condition called Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease. But then, dozens of people around the area start experiencing the same awful symptoms, making the doctor fear he’s dealing with something entirely new… and completely terrifying.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
What is the mystery behind the sudden insanity in New Brunswick?
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.
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