toxic metal, thallium, to his patient, brigida uto. for tense hours and days, the doctor and his team fought to save brigida s life. she consumed more than enough thallium to kill her. and yet, i do not know why i am here. but [laughs] i do not know why i am still alive, and that is scary. [laughs] meet brigida, she is still with us. did you feel like you were dying? i, i did. i did, but i was too afraid to admit it to myself. what kept you alive at that time? well, my son. wanting to see my son. as the antidote took effect, brigida, in essence, woke up. she found herself in a hospital bed with only wisps of hair on her head. but she could not walk or
sent out brigida s samples. brigida, in pain the whole time. finally, the lab results came back. just as he suspected, it was thallium. a lot of it. brigida husband and young son seemed to be clear of the toxic metal, but she was in serious danger. her levels were off of the charts? they really were. more than 1000 times the acceptable level. wow, that is unbelievable. a hospital staffer had driven through the night to get hold of prussian blue pills. doctor lapointe started brigida on them immediately. but, with so much thallium in her system, dr. lapointe worried that prussian blue would not be enough to save her. he also put her on dialysis to filter her blood. it was a slow process. when fbi special agent john deal arrived to question her, brigida was still desperately
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
list. cancer does not make you lose your hair, it s the therapy that makes you lose your hair. doctor lapointe knew he had to solve this mystery fast. brigida was fading. the clock was ticking. when i saw her and i knew that she was dying, she was in a lot of pain. she was in excruciating pain. and i remember being in the hospital room and i was like, i want to be close to my sister. so she put herself through an insane amount of pain just to turn her body to look at me. how close was she to dying? i watched my sister almost die, i knew that she was gone. a family anguish deepens, and the race to unravel this mystery shifts into overdrive. coming up. your daughter is getting weaker, and weaker. she was losing her vision? she was losing everything. for her husband and young son, were they in danger as well? i have a child in the equation now, i have a spouse. let s make sure the child is
wounds or no obvious signs of infection and yet when doctor jeff lapointe examined her she was critically ill, very ill. so began an unusual detective story. first, the doctors had to unravel a medical mystery. soon enough, real detectives would be on the case as well. but at that moment we saw someone was almost apathetic, didn t have a personality, she could barely talk and tell us anything it was hard to get history. looking for clues, the doctor dove into her medical records, and they were extensive. brigida have been suffering for months. nausea, fatigue, excruciating pain. she had been in and out of dr. offices and ers repeatedly. her sister olga says brigida s illness will come on suddenly. she was often violently sick. she had to call from work, and was sick for days.