Loading summary
Transcript14 lines
- [00:00]
Mister Ballin
Hey prime members you can listen to new episodes of mister bolland's medical mysteries early and ad free download the amazon music app today on the morning of july thirtieth nineteen seventy six a young doctor examined an elderly veteran at bloomsburg hospital in pennsylvania desperately looking for a way to keep this man alive his lungs were filling up with fluid but no matter how many times the doctor drained them the fluid just kept coming back the man suddenly began to spasm in his bed coughing up a bloody pink froth doctor ernest campbell tried to stay calm but he knew he was running out of options he'd seen people die from respiratory failure before but this had progressed faster and more suddenly than anything he'd ever experienced and this patient was only one of several in the hospital with the same disturbing symptoms in fact doctor campbell had heard about similar cases appearing across the entire state and so he was terrified that this was the onset of a deadly epidemic and if it was there might be no way to stop the show is brought to you by progressive fiscally responsible financial geniuses monetary magicians these are things people say about drivers who switch their car insurance to progressive and save hundreds visit progressive dot com to see if you could save progressive casualty insurance company and affiliates potential savings will vary not available in all states or situations avoiding your.
- [01:44]
Thumbtack Advertiser
Unfinished home projects because you're not sure where to start thumbtack knows homes so you don't have to don't know the difference between matte paint finish and satin or what that clunking sound from your dryer is with thumbtack you don't have to be a home pro you just have to hire one you can hire top rated pros see price estimates and read reviews all on the app download thumbtack today.
- [02:11]
Mister Ballin
From ballin studios and wondry i'm mister ballin and this is mister ballin's medical mysteries where every week we will explore a new baff mystery originating from the one place we all can't escape our own bodies if you like today's story please gift the follow button and all expenses paid vacation but be sure you book them in a hotel that is known for having bedbugs today's episode is called the philly killer the temperature was closing in on a hot ninety degree f in philadelphia pennsylvan as ray brennan pulled open the heavy glass door of the bellevue stratford hotel on july twenty first nineteen seventy six but the heat outside was the last thing on ray's mind he was just excited to be here at the pennsylvania convention of the american legion the nation's biggest veterans group ray a retired air force captain was now back among his people ray was sixty one years old and he had never married but in some ways he was married to the air force his career spanned more than two decades from the eve of world war two until nineteen sixty when heart troubles forced him to retire he never saw combat but he helped save lives by running hospitals for wounded airmen in the korean war ray walked a little taller when he was at these conventions he knew that to an outsider this gathering of more than four thousand legionnaires might look like a bunch of older men and women with graying hair a lot of them wearing uniforms that didn't fit quite as well as they used to but ray knew that the people in the huge marble lobby in front of him were the everyday heroes who had risked their lives serving their country from world war two to the vietnam war and ray was one of them to all these veterans he was captain ray brennan bookkeeper for american legion post number forty two in towanda pennsylvania as ray straightened his shoulders and began his first round of handshakes with old friends he felt a twinge of regret ray knew that if he had not had that second heart attack in nineteen sixty he'd still be on active military duty until mandatory retirement at sixty four years old still trim and fit ray was sure he still had what it took to wear the uniform but ray gave himself a shake to snap out of it he knew he had a good life even his years out of the military were not so bad a passionate seashell collector ray had been asked by the smithsonian institution to help organize the national shell collection he even got a seashell named after him and anyway ray had been looking forward to this convention for months and now that he was actually here he didn't want to waste time regretting the past for the next three days ray had a great time telling stories listening to speeches and catching up with people he loved over dinner and drinks then on july twenty fourth he made the one hundred eighty mile drive back home to tiwanda a town of three thousand people near the new york border two days after he had returned from the convention ray was sitting in his kitchen still talking about the convention to his sister maisie travis when suddenly ray stopped talking mid sentence and clutched his chest he had the shooting pain that felt almost like it was burning and it left ray breathless and struggling to keep from falling out of his chair his sister maisie dropped her newspaper and grabbed her brother by the arm to steady him and she said she would call ray's doctor right away but ray really didn't want the help he was terrified of having another heart attack but this pain it just felt different it felt like his heart was just racing he was sure it would just pass shuffling slowly into the living room ray collapsed into his favorite armchair and he told his sister that he was just worn out from all the socializing and eating too much rich food and staying up too late swapping war stories and that he really just needed to close his eyes and let this thing pass and before long ray fell asleep but when he woke up from his nap maisie could tell that ray was worse not better his face was pale and it was getting harder for him to breathe by the afternoon he was literally gasping for breath which really frightened maisie so maisie sat down next to him in his armchair and insisted that he go to a hospital ray still hated the idea but his breathing was getting so labored that he was getting scared too and so he reluctantly agreed they slowly walked out to her car and then after getting inside maisie drove him to a hospital in the next town over when they arrived a nurse immediately placed an oxygen mask over ray's nose and mouth then she took his temperature and saw that he was running a fever of one hundred two degrees fahrenheit the nurse helped ray onto a gurney and wheeled him into the emergency room for more tests which would include chest x rays ray felt grateful that he could just lie down a little while later maisie stood at ray's bedside and held his hand as an emergency room doctor walked in with a very concerned look on his face the x ray they had taken showed that ray had a dangerous buildup of fluid in his lungs that's why ray was gasping for breath the doctor asked maisie to please step out for a moment and then once she had the doctor told ray that he was going to drain the fluid in his lungs himself the doctor helped ray sit up and lowered his gown to expose his rib cage and then the doctor grabbed a long hollow needle from a nearby instrument tray ray winced in pain as the doctor inserted that long needle between ray's ribs and into the space around his lungs and then soon the doctor was using that needle to suction out some of the fluid relieving the pressure ray was feeling and for a few minutes after this procedure ray breathed a lot easier but it didn't last within a half hour ray was gasping again and spitting up pinkish foam from deep inside of his lungs the doctor drained the fluid again and again but each time the liquid came right back the doctor had never seen anything like it it was almost like ray was drowning in his own fluids the doctor explained to maisie that her brother's heart condition had already weakened him and now his respiratory system was crashing and there was little doctors could do if they couldn't remove the fluid his condition would only get worse and so the doctor told maisie that he did not think ray would live much longer maisie choked back tears as the thought of losing her sweet natured brother sunk in ray had always been so careful of his health ever since his heart problems forced him to retire young how could he now be at death's door less than a week later and eighty miles away doctor ernest campbell stood in an examination room in bloomsburg hospital his patient a forty eight year old world war two veteran named sam morris was running a high fever and having difficulty swallowing doctor campbell feared that sam might have typhoid fever a brutal and extremely rare disease that often comes from swallowing sewage contaminated water campbell had seen a lot of this disease when he was working for the peace corps in kenya but it was almost unheard of in the united states the doctor asked sam what he'd been doing prior to getting sick and sam would say that he had attended a convention in philadelphia and while he was there he suffered a terrible headache and decided to come home early as he spoke sam mentioned that two other veterans who'd attended the same convention had also been admitted to bloomsburg hospital in fact he'd seen one of them being wheeled past his room maybe they should be checked out too sam suggested doctor campbell paused for a moment wondering if there might be a link between the three men's illnesses after he finished examining sam the doctor looked up the other two veterans he found that they all had very similar symptoms and one of the men an eighty two year old widower named bill baird was even sicker than sam it was all but impossible for all three men to have typhoid fever campbell knew something else maybe something doctors had never even seen before was preying on these men doctor campbell consulted with the other men's doctors and ordered the same tests for all three veterans the lab promised they would get the results back as soon as possible but before the results came back the elderly veteran bill got worse no matter what doctor campbell tried bill's lungs kept filling up with bloody foam doctor campbell felt powerless as he watched his patient's life drain away and then early on the morning of friday july thirtieth bill died he'd only been in the hospital for a couple of days later that day doctor campbell was back in his office trying to figure out how to treat the two remaining veterans in his care he was just thankful that the two patients were younger and stronger than bill had been he hoped their bodies would be able to fight off the disease on their own while doctor campbell looked over their charts a nurse knocked on his door she had the veteran's test results doctor campbell eagerly grabbed them from her desperate for any indication of what he was fighting but as he looked the results over doctor campbell's hope drained away the results were inconclusive there was nothing telling him how he could treat this mystery disease doctor campbell realized he was not capable of tackling this disease on his own whatever had infected the veterans was extremely deadly if it was contagious it could be the start of a massive epidemic he put down the test results then picked up the phone and quickly dialed the number for the federal health authorities he knew he had to get through and tell someone before this situation got even worse doctor campbell had barely put the phone down before the news media began to hear rumors about a mysterious disease that seemed to be striking veterans who attended this american legion conference in philadelphia the COVID pandemic was decades in the future but even then the public was anxious about the possibility of a disease that could spread wildly potentially killing millions of people the chicago tribune newspaper compared this philadelphia outbreak to a popular movie at the time the andromeda strain that imagines a disease from outer space that comes to a small town on earth and sets off a tidal wave of sickness and death and so after that news story broke doctors all across the country started getting all these calls from patients reporting respiratory symptoms and wondering if they too had the mystery disease many did not they just had chest colds but their panicky calls jammed up the emergency lines from coast to coast three days after doctor campbell called for help doctor david sencer rushed through the front doors of the centers for disease control and prevention in atlanta georgia the cdc was home to the world's foremost disease detectives with a mission to prevent outbreaks both in the united states and also abroad the fifty one year old head of the agency doctor sencer had gotten word over the weekend of an emerging health crisis in pennsylvania doctor campbell at bloomsburg hospital was one of the first people who had called it in the cdc took campbell's call very seriously especially as a flood of other calls about sick veterans around the state poured in despite the early hour the building was buzzing with activity phones were ringing off the hook and staff were running around passing documents to each other doctor sencer reached his office where several senior officials were waiting for him he sat down at his desk and they briefed him on everything they had learned over the weekend a mysterious epidemic had spread like wildfire so far the agency knew that a total of thirty seven people throughout pennsylvania had been hospitalized with headaches chest pains fever and lung congestion thirteen of them had died doctor sencer rubbed his forehead and let the information sink in he asked if they'd made any progress on identifying the cause of the disease but everyone in the room just shook their heads they didn't even know if this disease was caused by a bacteria a virus or something else the only thing they knew was that almost everyone who got sick had attended that veterans conference at the bellevue stratford hotel from july twenty first to the twenty fourth forth but this clue only raised more questions not everyone who was sick had actually been inside of that hotel a bus driver from western pennsylvania who had simply dropped passengers off in front of the hotel and a female bank teller who worked across the street from the hotel had both died that morning neither of them had entered the hotel or participated in the conference but they both shared the exact same symptoms as the veterans doctor sencer frowned he knew there was no way this was a coincidence if other people had contracted the disease by just being near this hotel it meant that whatever was infecting people was highly contagious an outbreak like this could be catastrophic his thoughts of a worst case scenario were interrupted when another health officer walked into his office this officer had just talked to a representative from the veterans group that had hosted this now infamous convention another man had apparently just died now fourteen people were dead from this mystery illness the officer handed doctor sencer several autopsy reports and as he read them doctor sencer's face drained of color the reports described the victim's lungs as being covered in a thick bacteria filled layer that looked like brillo pads this layer prevented some antibiotics from penetrating the lungs which made it very difficult to treat this infection and so with medicine basically unable to help fight this disease the victim's only slim hope was for their own bodies to somehow overcome the attack on their own doctor sencer looked up at all the people gathered in his office and he wasted no time telling them what to do they had to get a team of scientists to philadelphia as soon as possible and find out what was killing so many people that evening one of the cdc's senior investigators a thirty two year old man named doctor fraser broke through a gauntlet of reporters posted in front of the cdc headquarters they shouted questions at him but doctor fraser kept his head down and walked past all of them he didn't have any answers yet and he didn't want to give out any wrong information but he hoped that would change soon doctor fraser was going to lead twenty members of the cdc's epidemic intelligence service to investigate this outbreak this would be one of the most intensive searches for the cause of a mass outbreak in world history whatever the disease was it was moving fast in the few hours since doctor sencer had ordered doctor fraser to assemble a team ten more people had died and thirty nine more were seriously ill doctor fraser met doctor sencer in a quickly assembled war room filled with photos and maps of the area and victims and nearly all of them being military veterans after doctor sencer gave him an update doctor fraser outlined his plan for the investigation he would lead one team in philadelphia collecting samples from the hotel while another team would travel throughout pennsylvania interviewing patients who had been hospitalized with this disease he was confident that they would be able to figure out any common patterns between the various patients and find whatever was causing this doctor sencer agreed that this was the best approach and so he shook doctor fraser's hand wished him luck and sent him home to pack.
- [18:08]
Anna Richardson
The town of agda in france is famous for sun sand sea and sex but lately life on the coast has taken a step a strange turn the town's mayor a respected pillar of the community has been arrested for corruption his wife claims he's been bewitched by a beautiful clairvoyant then there's the mysterious phone calls that local people have been getting i am the archangel michael the whole town has been thrown into chaos.
- [18:40]
Mister Ballin
As the mayor is unable to carry out his duties i would like to address you all legal proceedings have been.
- [18:46]
Anna Richardson
Initiated join me anna richardson and journalist leo chic for the mystic and the mayor as we investigate a story of power corruption and magic binge all episodes of the mystic and the mayor exclusively and ad free right now on wondery start your free trial in apple podcasts spotify or the wondery app did you.
- [19:08]
Greenlight Advertiser
Know that parents rank financial literacy as the number one most difficult life skill to teach meet greenlight the debit card and money app for families with greenlight you can send money to kids quickly set up chores automate allowance and keep an eye on your kids spending with real time notifications kids learn to earn save and spend wisely and parents can rest easy knowing their kids are learning about money with guardrails in place try greenlight risk free today at greenlight dot com wondery.
- [19:40]
Mister Ballin
The next day doctor fraser and his team of investigators wore gloves and protective masks as they entered the grand lobby of the bellevue stratford hotel just two weeks earlier it had been packed with veterans and their families today it was nearly empty except for a few startled looking staff members doctor fraser figured that nobody wanted to stay at this hotel until the cause of the outbreak was identified the investigators footsteps rang out on the marble floor as they walked to the reception desk and explained their to gather physical evidence inside of this hotel that could be tested for the disease the team went to work doctor fraser instructed them to gather samples from every surface and object in the hotel then he reached into his satchel and pulled out a small plastic test tube he unscrewed the top which held a cotton swab soaked in a special solution he carefully rubbed the swab on the reception desk and then placed it back into the test tube and labeled it he wasn't going to overlook anything throughout the lobby the eis investigators were doing the same thing one of them was on his hands and knees painstakingly swabbing different sections of carpet another woman pulled off air conditioning grates to check the vents once they were done in the lobby doctor fraser and his team went through every location in the hotel that had been used by the veterans during this convention they swabbed door handles elevator buttons and furniture they moved through the hotel's kitchens and bars swiping the insides of water pitchers coffee pots and silverware they collected bits of food and the ashes from the bottom of ashtrays and then several hours later doctor fraser led a team up to the roof of the hotel twenty stories above the city the hot august sun beat down on all of them as they scraped up bird droppings next to a large cooling tank doctor fraser thought that sick pigeons might have carried the virus and maybe somehow transmitted it to the veterans and so that's why they had to check the droppings a little while later the team was relieved to return to the cool lobby of the hotel they sealed their samples in a container to be sent back to the laboratory for examination the answer to what caused the deadly disease had to be somewhere inside one of those test tubes once the samples were collected they were sent straight to the cdc's lab in atlanta doctor sencer had assembled some of the country's best scientists to test them for every disease imaginable one of those scientists was a young microbiologist named joseph mcdade doctor mcdade specialized in animal borne illnesses and it was his job to test for rare diseases such as q fever which could be transmitted from farm animals like goats sheep and cattle so far there wasn't any evidence that the veterans had interacted with any of those animals but doctor sencer didn't want to take any chances unfortunately doctor mcdaid couldn't just look at the samples under a microscope and see if the bacteria that caused q fever was present there would be too many other microscopic organisms present instead he had to isolate the bacteria and get a big enough sample to examine it was an absurdly drawn out process first doctor mcdaid had to take lung tissue from someone who died from the mystery disease inject it into the abdomen of a guinea pig and then wait for two weeks if the animal developed a fever that likely meant it had q fever doctor mcdade thought q fever was a long shot but he agreed with doctor sencer that it was important to rule out every possible disease so he went ahead and started the testing process and much to his surprise the guinea pig did come down with a fever but it came down with it after only two days which meant this disease wasn't q fever it was something worse but when he looked at the samples under the microscope doctor mcdade saw nothing except for a few scattered bacteria the sample was completely clean just to be sure he repeated the process testing for other types of bacteria but nothing showed up doctor mcdade assumed that whatever was causing the guinea pig's fever was not a bacteria but figuring out what it really was landed outside of his expertise and so he passed along his results to doctor sencer hoping someone else could make more sense of it if they didn't he wasn't sure how they'd solve the deadly infection but over the next few weeks no answer emerged on august twentieth nineteen seventy six so almost three weeks after the first cases of this mystery disease were reported cdc head doctor sencer sat in his office in atlanta he looked at the inconclusive test results that were spread across his desk despite the cdc's best efforts they weren't any closer to solving this mystery doctor sencer had other teams scour over doctor mcdade's guinea pigs bacteria samples but nothing out of the ordinary had appeared david fraser's samples from the bellevue stratford hotel had also revealed nothing and they had conducted extensive interviews with patients to check for commonalities but those interviews had not offered any new clues either although they'd been able to rule out certain diseases like typhoid the plague and miscellaneous viruses they were no closer to figuring out what was causing this outbreak aside from a few bacteria that naturally occurred in the environment they had found no evidence of anything unusual and in the meantime people kept getting sick all told two hundred twenty six people had been infected by this mystery disease and the death toll had now climbed to thirty four the public was getting more scared by the day an assistant brought in a stack of newspapers and magazines doctor sencer groaned when he saw the headlines an article from time magazine called the disease quote the philadelphia killer end quote the cdc's inability to provide an answer to the terrifying illness only fueled people's fears and some began to turn to conspiracy theories doctor sencer eyed the thick stack of pink messages on his desk the cdc had been flooded with calls ever since the investigation began people from all over the country phoned in with questions tips and general panic some wondered if it was an attack from a foreign adversary even the fbi had called while there was no sign it was an act of bioterrorism it couldn't be completely ruled out either and that made people nervous doctor sencer couldn't blame them but after launching the largest medical field investigation in its history they had hit a brick wall there were no more samples to test either from the hotel or from sick patients david fraser's team in philadelphia had done everything they could to investigate the outbreak the only silver lining was that the number of people becoming ill had abruptly stopped which meant this mystery illness was not transmissible from person to person and so the general population was not in any danger of a massive pandemic but doctor sencer didn't take much comfort from that without knowing what was behind this disease there'd be no way to stop it if it happened again still he was out of ideas doctor sencer let out a deep breath and picked up the phone to call doctor fraser it was now unfortunately time to call off the investigation.
- [27:05]
Wild Planet Advertiser
Wild planet is sustainable seafood the way nature provided it because nothing beats wild wild is pole and line caught hand cut and hand packed tuna it's small fish like sardines and anchovies that are lower on the food chain and help to preserve ocean habitats it's less processing and more delicious clean nutrients like thirty three grams of protein in a serving of wild planet albacore tuna what's wild tastes better and is better for the planet which is why we ask you to go wild wild caught wild wild planet wild planet premium canned seafood is available at major retailers nationwide if you're shopping while working.
- [27:44]
Rakuten Advertiser
Eating or even listening to this podcast then you know and love the thrill of a deal but are you getting the deal and can cash back rakuten shoppers do they get the brands they love savings and cash back and you can get it too start getting cash back at your favorite stores like target sephora and even expedia stack sales on top of cash back and feel what it's like to know you're maximizing the savings it's easy to use and you get your cash back sent to you through paypal or check the idea is simple stores pay rakuten for sending them shoppers and rakuten shares the money with you as cash back download the free rakuten app or go to rakuten dot com to start saving today today it's the most rewarding way to shop that's r a k u t e n.
- [28:29]
Mister Ballin
Rakuten dot com five months later in december of nineteen seventy six joseph mcdade the microbiologist who had conducted the q fever tests poured himself a drink at a holiday party in atlanta doctor mcdade was ready for the year to end the past few months had been deeply frustrating ever since the investigation had been called off in august doctor mcdade and his colleagues at the cdc had been under severe scrutiny the head of the cdc doctor david sencer had even been accused by congress of running a sloppy investigation public confidence in the health organization was at an all time low and doctor mcdaid didn't know how they could get anyone to trust them again as doctor mcdaid chatted with some friends someone tapped him so hard on the shoulder that he almost spilled his drink doctor mcdaid turned around and saw that it was one of his neighbors the man was red in the face and he was holding a glass of whiskey in his hand and so doctor mcdaid could tell you know this guy was drunk but before he could say anything the neighbor jabbed doctor mcdaid in the chest with his other finger and said he knew doctor mcdaid worked for the cdc then the neighbor ranted about how badly the cdc had failed the american people and that people like him doctor mcdade were why the philly killer had claimed so many lives doctor mcdade took a step back totally stunned and then before he could respond the neighbor had turned and walked away doctor mcdade turned back around to his friends but he couldn't focus on the conversation anymore he wasn't angry at the confrontation the man had been harsh but he was right doctor mcdaid felt an overwhelming sense of failure for not being able to help crack the case for the rest of the week that feeling of failure stayed with doctor mcdaid until he couldn't take it anymore one day during the week between christmas and new year's doctor mcdaid headed to his lab at the cdc no one else was there doctor mcdaid stood alone in a dark room surrounded by lab tables and microscopes a string of blinking lights on the ceiling and a half empty gift basket were the only reminders that it was the holidays doctor mcdaid wanted to look at the tissue samples again from philadelphia just to kind of clear his conscience and make sure he didn't miss anything so he pulled out the samples that he'd tested back in august and he slid them one by one under the lens of his microscope and once again they were completely clean except for a few stray bacteria shaped like little rods over the summer he'd assumed these stray bacteria had accidentally gotten mixed into the samples it was impossible to avoid some level of contamination now doctor mcdaid wasn't so sure and wondered if there was more to them he grabbed a few more slides from deep storage that he hadn't examined before but they all looked the same there were just a few rod shaped bacteria floating around in each sample but then doctor mcdaid examined one last slide from the lung tissue of a deceased veteran and when he looked at it he saw something that shocked him to his core there weren't just a few of the rod shaped bacteria there was a giant cluster of them far too many to be random contaminants the answer had been in front of him the entire time these little rod shaped bacteria that he had written off had caused the outbreak but before he could tell anyone he had to be one hundred percent sure he was right so doctor mcdaid grabbed more slides from the freezer and started running more tests two weeks later in january of nineteen seventy seven doctor sencer sat in his office eager to hear what joseph mcdaid had apparently discovered during the holiday break and doctor mcdaid would announce that he had identified the actual organism responsible for the outbreak he described his findings to doctor sencer who was totally stunned they had tested for every disease they could think of but even the cdc's top minds could never have guessed it would be something like this doctor sencer agreed that doctor mcdaid's discovery was a significant breakthrough but they needed to gather more samples from the bellevue stratford hotel just to be certain and so a few days later doctor sencer sent out one more team of medical detectives to philadelphia and during this search the crew went straight to the roof of the hotel and there they took a sample from a very specific area and there on a cold winter day six months after it first started the mystery was finally solved the veterans convention had taken place in july a hot and sticky month in philadelphia the hotel's cooling system ran full blast for the three days of the convention the cooling towers up on the roof were old and hadn't been maintained recently allowing the water inside that was used for air conditioning to grow warm and stagnant it had created the perfect environment for new bacteria to thrive in a thin coating of slime commonly known as pond scum normally the bacteria in pond scum doesn't make people sick because people don't inhale it that's why you can usually swim in lakes ponds and other freshwater sources without coming down with this particular deadly disease it's only deadly if it becomes aerosolized which means being turned into a spray and in the summer of nineteen seventy six that's exactly what happened when the hotel's air conditioning system kicked on the bacteria which had grown in the cooling tower's warm water was transported down through the system's pipes it was then sprayed out as cooled air all over the thousands of veterans inside the hotel everyone who inhaled the air at the convention was breathing in bacteria ridden water droplets that included people like the bus driver and bank teller who had both died they hadn't even gone into the hotel but they had been exposed to the infected mist that had come off the cooling tower and fell onto the sidewalk below not everyone who inhaled the mist got sick including most of the hotel's employees and other guests this was likely because they were younger or did not have any other health risks that made them more susceptible to this bacteria now nobody knew about this deadly mist because right after the convention the air conditioning filters at the hotel had been cleaned that's why the team of eis investigators didn't find bacteria when they scoured the hotel for samples but after joseph mcdaid's discovery they finally tested the cooling tank's interior which had been missed before when they were doing all those samples in the slime coating on the inside of the tower they found the deadly bacteria that doctor mcdaid had originally seen under his microscope this bacteria was named legionella in reference to the convention's attendees the mostly male veterans who were all members of the american legion the condition they developed is now known as legionnaires disease and while there are still occasional outbreaks today thanks to the efforts of the cdc joseph mcdade and even the angry neighbor at the holiday party this disease is now treatable and much less fatal but that all came too late for captain ray brennan the conference attendee who had to retire early from the service because of his heart issues surrounded by his two brothers and four sisters including maisie ray died just before sunrise on july twenty seventh nineteen seventy six holding one of his beloved seashells in his right hand the official cause of death was listed as a heart attack but he went down in history as the first of the twenty nine victims of legionnaires disease follow mister bolland's medical mysteries on the wondery app amazon music or wherever you get your podcasts you can listen to new episodes of mister bolland's medical mysteries early and ad free right now by joining wondry plus in the wondry app apple podcasts or spotify or by listening on amazon music with your prime membership before you go tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at wondry dot com survey from ballin studios and wondry this is mister ballin's medical mysteries hosted by me mister ballin a quick note about our stories we use aliases sometimes because we don't know the names of the real people in the story and also in most cases we can't know exactly what was said but everything is based on a lot of research and a reminder the content in this episode is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice diagnosis or treatment this episode was written by lauren delill our editor is heather dundas sound design is by andre plus coordinating producer is sophia martins our senior producer is alex benedon our associate producers and researchers are sarah vitac and tayshia palakonda fact checking was done by andrew rosenblum for ballin studios our head of production is zach levitt script editing is by scott allen and evan allen our coordinating producer is matub zaire executive producers are myself mister ballin and nick witters.
- [38:04]
Liberty Mutual Advertiser
And doug limu and i always tell you to customize your car insurance and save hundreds with liberty mutual but now we want you to feel it cue the emu music limu save yourself money today increase your wealth customize.
- [38:19]
Mister Ballin
And save we save that may have.
- [38:23]
Liberty Mutual Advertiser
Been too much feeling only pay for what you need at libertymutual com liberty liberty liberty liberty savings very underwritten by liberty mutual insurance company and affiliates excludes massachusetts.