the street from us were both canadian embassy employees. and in the end, all four households were diagnosed. reporter: in a nearby neighborhood, tina who worked with kate and doug at the embassy was washing dishes one night in march of 2017. the kids were upstairs playing, and i was standing at the kitchen window and all of a sudden i felt like i was being struck with something. reporter: what was it like? it was gripping it was like i had been seized by some invisible hand and i couldn t move. reporter: tina, kate and doug didn t know it then, but they were among the first victims of a still unexplained phenomenon that has come to be known as havana syndrome. with more than 200 americans around the world, mostly u.s. diplomats and spies reporting neurological and other symptoms. the primary injury i have. what they re calling an acquired brain injury reporter: the kind of brain injury related to a direct phenomenon exposure. what do the neurologists tell you about the ch
by a piercing noise from their backyard. it was a lot worse earlier. it was persistent, kind of at the same level all of the time. very, very loud. it s nothing you could sit with. did anyone else in your neighborhood have this experience at their homes? yeah, on our right was another embassy family, and the people on our left and across the street were both canadian embassy employees. in the end all four households were diagnosed. in a nearby neighborhood, tina who worked with them was washing dishes. i was standing at the kitchen window and all of a sudden i felt like i was being struck with something. what was it like? it was gripping, it was like i had been seized by an invisible hand and i could not move.
nbc news has been told perhaps first used to spy on embassies but now being used as a weapon by one or more hostile countries. for the first time three of the original havana victims are speaking out on television describing the painful symptoms that have caused brain damage in some instances and have cut short many promising careers. let s play it so you can see it here. it was a lot worse earlier. it was persistent kind of at the same level all the time, very, very loud. it s nothing you could sit with. kate, did anyone else in your neighborhood have this experience? yeah, on our right was another embassy family and then the people on our left and across the street from us were both canadian embassy employees. and in the end-all four households were diagnosed. describing what they experienced in havana. he is now based in paris.
tina, she s working at home a couple of hours a day reviewing emails. she was the vice consulate in havana. she had a rising career. all of their careers lost and the fact is we have to figure out how to protect themselves overseas. what is the cause of this? how is it happening? how is it that still all the time later we still don t know? five years later what bill burns the head of the cia has done is notably put the guy who was in charge the officer it is not sure it is covert, the person in charge for the hunt for bin ladden is now in charge of who has hurt our embassy employees and spies. you are going the see more from andrea in her exclusive interview tonight on nbc nightly news as well as throughout the next day in our coverage here on nbc and on msnbc. that does it for us at this hour of hallie jackson reports. as always, thank you for being with us.
another embassy family. and then the people on our left and across the street from us were both canadian embassy employees. in the end, all four households were diagnosed. four households in one havana neighborhood, a diplomatic community. the canadians and the americans. we don t know who is being targeted? is it them? is it their devices? what is it? is it a device or a weapon? it s technology, they believe, that was first invented in russia in the cold war in the 1970s. but it could have been copied by other hostile countries. who and what are doing this? kate s career is over. she cannot work as a diplomat. her husband recovered from the sound we were reviewing. he is now at the embassy in paris. another woman who you will meet tonight on nightly news is,