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Hey listeners, I'm here to tell you about

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an all-new suspense-driven podcast,

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Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries.

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It's hosted by Mr. Ballin, one of the

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internet's most popular storytellers.

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Why medical mysteries? Well,

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we've all been there, turning to the internet

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to self-diagnose inexplicable

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pains, debilitating body aches, sudden

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fevers, and strange rashes. Though

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our minds spiral to worst-case

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scenarios, it's usually

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nothing. But for an unlucky

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few, these symptoms can start the clock

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ticking on a terrifying medical mystery.

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Each week on Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries,

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you can expect bizarre, unheard-of diseases,

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miraculous recoveries, strange

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medical mishaps, and everything in between.

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Like the unexplainable death of a retired

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firefighter whose body was reduced to

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ashes, even though nothing around him

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burned. Or the time when an entire

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town became ill with nausea and chills.

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The local doctor initially chalked

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it up to being food poisoning, until

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people started jumping from buildings and

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seeing tigers on their ceilings. Each

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terrifying true story will be sure to

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keep you up at night. I'm about to play a clip

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from Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries. While

1:14

you're listening, follow Mr. Ballin's Medical

1:16

Mysteries on Amazon Music or wherever you get

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your podcasts.

1:28

On a humid summer morning in June 1999,

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36-year-old Sanju Bhagat

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was hard at work on a farm outside of Nagpur,

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a city in central India.

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The sun had just risen, and the air was

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already so hot that he found it hard to breathe.

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Sanju and a group of farmhands were hard

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at work tending to the soybean crops.

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He made his way through the field, stopping to catch

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his breath every few steps. Sanju

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moved a lot slower than his co-workers because

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of his massive belly. For

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the past 15 years, Sanju Sanju

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had struggled beneath the weight of his ever-growing

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stomach. At first,

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when he was in his early twenties, his family

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had thought he was just filling out a little, like

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all young men do when they become adults. But

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Sanju's stomach didn't stop growing. It

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kept getting bigger and bigger until

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it had swelled to the size of a massive

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watermelon. But his arms and legs

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stayed stick thin. He never understood

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why his belly kept growing since he didn't

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eat much. By

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the time Sanju reached his early thirties, he

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was in constant pain and his family

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desperately wanted him to see a doctor. But

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he couldn't afford to take time off of work. Although

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deep down, he had to admit he was a little

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scared of what the doctor might find.

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The sun beat down on Sanju's head and

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he could feel his chest tighten. He tried

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to keep working, but today it was harder

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to breathe than usual. No matter how

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deeply he inhaled, he couldn't quite

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catch his breath.

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Finally, he dropped

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his shovel and doubled over, gasping for

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air. Sanju gathered what little

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strength he had left and stood up straight.

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He could feel other farm workers' eyes on him

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as he gathered his tools and headed home.

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It was the longest walk of Sanju's life.

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He felt humiliated and useless. But

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he was also afraid. He could barely take

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a breath. By the time he

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got to the small home he shared with his

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family, he nearly fell through

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the front door.

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The last thing he remembered was falling hard

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on the tile floor.

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Early the next morning, Dr. Ajay Mehta

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had just started his shift in the oncology

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ward at Tata Memorial Hospital. He

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was alerted that a new patient, named Sanju

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Bharat, had been brought in all the

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way from Nagpur and that he needed to

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be seen right away. Dr.

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Mehta hurried over to Sanju's room if

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someone was rushed in an ambulance from Sanju.

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so far away, it had to be a

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serious emergency.

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As soon as Dr. Mehta examined

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Sanju's giant swollen belly, he

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instructed the nurse to prepare the operating room

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for surgery. Dr. Mehta was a

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specialist in tumor removal and he

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was certain that Sanju had a massive

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tumor in his stomach, possibly

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the biggest one he'd ever seen. The

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tumor was likely pressing against Sanju's

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diaphragm, which was why he couldn't

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breathe. And given how big it was and

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Sanju's weakened condition, the tumor

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had to be removed immediately.

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While another nurse prepped Sanju for

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the operation, Dr. Mehta gathered

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his surgical team and headed to the operating

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room. As they

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sterilized their hands and put on clean scrubs,

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Dr. Mehta warned them that the tumor's sheer

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size would make this a very

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challenging operation. There

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was a risk of damaging the soft tissue in

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Sanju's stomach, his nerve endings, or

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blood vessels. In the worst case, the

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surgery could cause severe internal bleeding

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or even death.

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A few minutes later, Sanju was wheeled

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into the operating room on a gurney. Once

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he was under anesthesia, Dr. Mehta

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called for a scalpel.

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He placed one hand on Sanju's stomach

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for leverage. Then he cut into

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Sanju's belly. After

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the blade broke through Sanju's skin and opened

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up his chest area, Dr. Mehta

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expected to see blood and a bright red

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mass of cancerous cells. Instead,

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gallons of thick yellowish

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fluid gushed from Sanju's

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stomach spilling onto the floor. The

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entire surgical team gasped. Dr.

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Mehta jumped out of the way trying to avoid

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the surge of bile. Dr.

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Mehta had a foul odor that made everyone in the room

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start to gag. Nurses ran toward

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him with towels, trying to sop up

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the putrid smelling liquid. While

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they cleaned up the mass, Dr. Mehta remained

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calm. and carefully inserted his

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hand into Sanju's stomach to

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locate the tumor. At

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first, all he felt was thick jelly-like

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fluid sliding between his fingers. Then

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he grazed something unusual.

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His eyes went wide as he dove a little deeper.

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His palm wrapped around something soft

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but with a brittle core. He

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realized this was not a tumor. Whatever

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was in Sanju's stomach had bones,

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a lot of them. Dr.

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Madis Jha dropped as his hand

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explored the object floating in Sanju's

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stomach. He grabbed onto one of the tiny

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bones and began to slowly pull

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it up and out of Sanju's stomach.

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As he lifted the bizarre object

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into the air, he could hear more gasps

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from everyone in the room.

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Hey Prime members, you can binge the first eight

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episodes of Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries

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right now and add free on Amazon

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Music. Download the Amazon Music app

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today.