how concerned were you? we were very concerned. and on march 5th, she called me in the morning and said mom, i need to go to the hospital. she says, i could hardly breathe. brigida lived in the country, in a house right next to her parents. yet, that morning, she could not really see her way to their place. and the pain in her legs was so bad that she could barely get into her mother s suv. i tried to help her by raising a leg, but even the touch was painful. she screamed. her mom raced her to the naval hospital in san diego. she said mom, just drop me off as close as you can to the entrance. and. i still remember, i saw her walking. and she walked like, you know like the walking dead? like a zombie? like a zombie, it was horrible. but the navy doctors could also not figure out what was
doctor jeff lapointe did not know for sure was making brigida sick. but there were his toxicologist mind, the symptoms indicated she might have been exposed to a toxic chemical. and he realized, she might not be the only one. there are so many moving pieces, i now have a child in the equation, i have a spouse. let s make sure we are observing them, make sure the child is safe, that they have not been exposed. he had brigida s husband and son admitted to a separate hospital for testing. and for safety sake, they banned all visitors from her hospital room, even immediate family. there was a time where he did not know what was happening with your sister. did you think, this visit, she might be gone already, nobody is telling us? yes, oh yes. i was like a zombie, a walking zombie. just going through the motions, hoping that she is okay. knowing that if they had not
got to have that. she was a huge light in this world, that was taken away, way too soon. just way too soon. that is all for this edition of dateline. i am natalie morales, thanks for watching. i m craig melvin. and i m natalie morales. and this is dateline. she did not deserve this. to kill someone, over months, and months and months. there are a lot of ways to kill someone, but i have never seen anything like this. a devastating mystery illness. she was in a lot of pain, excruciating pain. this is all i wanted. she looks like a zombie? like a zombie. i knew that she was gone. what was happening to this