Author's posts
Medical Mysteries: Dizzy and off-balance, she searched for the cause
Slowly and insidiously, a New York real estate broker developed balance, urinary and memory problems. For years, various doctors performed many tests but overlooked the reversible cause.
Medical Mysteries: Were wedding jitters making her sick?
A young woman’s stubborn weight gain and sudden severe anxiety were attributed to pre-wedding stress by her doctors. The cause was far more dangerous.
Medical Mysteries: He’s lucky his Iceland vacation ended in a hospital
A vacationing former CIA analyst had already spent seven years consulting specialists who ruled out 50 diseases but were unable to make a diagnosis.
Medical Mysteries: Why did a teen collapse mid-jump on a trampoline?
After a teenager collapsed at a Maryland trampoline park, paramedics worried he’d had a heart attack, which is rare in children. The cause was more unusual.
Medical Mysteries: A surgeon’s ominous pain and a question of grilled meat
A retired surgeon suddenly developed violent abdominal pain. After losing 21 pounds, he discovered the unexpected cause that was hiding in plain sight.
Despite treatment for deadly blood clots, his health was going downhill
The devotee of rugged back country skiing would spend the next 16 months trying to discover why he had grown so weak.
The cause of a young runner’s intense leg pain wasn’t what it seemed
A frightening aborted run led to the discovery that previous surgeries had missed the root of the problem.
Loud music was blamed for hearing loss in her 40s. It wasn’t the cause.
Her 18-month quest for a cure involved an allergist, an endocrinologist and two additional ENTS, the second of whom found the underlying and treatable reason for the problem.
She thought anxiety and drinking made her ill. The truth was scarier.
Doctors saw a new mother with anxiety and an alcohol problem. A middle-of-the-night trip to the ER showed that the wrong assumptions had been shaping her care.
For decades, she endured brief blackouts. Then a scary one hit her.
A diagnosis uncovered the potentially deadly reason for the fainting spells and led to major surgery from which the conservation biologist continues to recover.
