- A nightmare so scary you die?
Is that even possible?
Today,
we're taking a look at a series of deaths
throughout history that doctors
are still struggling to explain.
Let's get started.
Bee whoop!
(eerie music)
Rodney Marks was a bright,
young Australian astrophysicist
who remains the only person to potentially
have been murdered on the continent of Antarctica.
It was spring in the year 2000 when Rodney was
working his second stint in Antarctica.
He'd been there a couple
of years before conducting research and enjoyed the work.
He was passionate about his field
and was engaged to a woman at the base.
He was surrounded by intelligent peers
and had plenty of access to food, water,
and alcohol for those cold Antarctic nights.
Life was good.
Chilly, but good.
One May afternoon,
Rodney was walking outside between two buildings,
a walk you'd wanna keep as brief as possible given
that the temperature outside in Antarctic winter
was around negative 80 degrees Fahrenheit.
He found himself struggling to breathe.
Concerned for his health,
he rushed to see the research station physician,
Dr. Robert Thompson,
who was concerned to see the young
and otherwise healthy Rodney in distress.
He attempted to treat him,
but Rodney's condition only worsened.
Over the course of just 36 hours.
Rodney went from walking between stations,
to visiting the doctor,
to hopping on emergency satellite calls
with medical professionals around the world,
to suffering cardiac arrest.
Dr. Thompson was stunned,
but the mystery was just beginning to unfold.
An autopsy would need to be performed to
determine the specific cause of death.
But because Antarctica was heading
into its Southern Hemisphere winter,
flights in and out of the base
would pause for at least six months.
Rodney's body was kept in a freezer
until flights resumed half a year later,
taking him to a medical examiner in New Zealand.
The cause of death, methanol poisoning.
Methanol is a non-drinking type
of alcohol used for industrial purposes.
It's highly poisonous,
with as little as two ounces
being all that's needed to kill an adult.
And those who survive are oftentimes left blind.
The methanol in Rodney's body most likely came
from the cleaning chemicals he used
on the telescopes which he operated.
So what was methanol doing in Rodney's body?
According to the New Zealand pathologist who
tested the contents of Rodney's blood,
the methanol was virtually certain to have been ingested.
Unfortunately, the clarity ends there.
Some speculate that Rodney
had accidentally consumed the chemical
while attempting to brew his own private stash of moonshine.
But with plenty of alcohol available on the base,
this doesn't quite make sense.
The most controversial opinion is that Rodney was poisoned
to death in either negligent homicide or murder.
Investigations into Rodney's death have been deeply,
deeply complicated.
The research station Rodney was working
on was operated by the United States.
The actual land the base was on is claimed
by the country of New Zealand, a claim the US rejects.
Meanwhile, Rodney was an Australian national.
The New Zealand authorities spearheaded an
international investigation into Rodney's death,
but were met with steep opposition
by the US intelligence agencies who refused to
share their own findings.
Of the 49 people stationed at the base,
New Zealand was only able to receive information
from 13 of them with the rest refusing to cooperate.
Not to mention,
aside from a few sentimental personal effects,
Rodney's property and workstation was cleaned out and reset,
eliminating any hopes of a fruitful in-person investigation.
After years and years of digging,
investigators concluded that
while methanol poisoning is what killed Rodney,
how it got inside his body would remain forever unknown.
(eerie music)
The infamous poet and author Edgar Allan Poe
published classic works of chilling American literature,
such as "The Tell-Tale Heart" and "The Raven."
But what happened to Poe was even more terrifying
than anything he put on the page because it was real.
It was a dark,
rainy October afternoon in 1849 when a man stumbled his way
down the street in Baltimore, Maryland.
He was filthy, he was deranged.
He was in fact Edgar Allan Poe.
He was also ignored.
Strangers passed by paying little attention
to the figure they believed to be a drunken vagrant.
Fortunately,
a man named Joseph Walker spotted
Edgar wallowing in the gutter.
Walker, who worked for the "Baltimore Sun" newspaper,
recognized Edgar, got him to his feet,
and took him to a nearby tavern.
Edgar was delirious, speaking nonsense.
He was in horrible shape, and mysteriously,
wasn't wearing his own clothes.
Instead of his classic black wool suit,
he was wearing a cheap ill-fitting suit and a straw hat.
Joseph managed to speak some sense into Edgar
and got him to say the name of a local physician,
Dr. J. E. Snodgrass.
Joseph quickly penned the following letter and sent it off.
"Dear Sir, there is a gentleman,
rather the worse for wear,
at Ryan's 4th ward polls
who goes under the cognomen of Edgar A. Poe.
And he appears in great distress
and he says he's acquainted with you.
He is in need of immediate assistance.
Yours, in haste, Jos. W. Walker."
The letter was received and Edgar was quickly transported
to the hospital where he stayed for several days,
constantly drifting in and out of consciousness.
On October 7th, he died,
doctors just as confused as the day he was brought in.
Several theories do exist regarding what exactly
killed Edgar Allan Poe.
In the aftermath,
a local Baltimore newspaper said he died
of congestion of the brain.
Perhaps they meant a stroke, a cerebral hemorrhage,
maybe a blood clot, maybe an aneurysm.
A diagnosis of congestion of the brain,
especially at that time, was a reasonable diagnosis.
He was acting unusual, he wasn't moving normally.
These are all signs of some kind of neurologic disease.
Actually,
Dr. Snodgrass believe Edgar died of alcohol withdrawal.
Personal accounts of Edgar's life
indicate he was a heavy drinker
and tremors and delirium is a symptom
of someone whose body is withdrawing
from addictive substance like alcohol.
None of this would answer why he was wearing someone
else's clothes and the straw hat
which has led others to believe he was a victim
of some sort of foul play.
Another interesting theory, rabies,
a viral infection often caused by animal bites
that is nearly always fatal, unless you've been vaccinated.
The ups and downs of delirium
are consistent with rabies patients
and hospital records indicate Edgar had trouble drinking.
One of the more unusual symptoms
of rabies is an actual phobia or fear of water.
We'll never actually know what happened to Edgar Allan Poe.
It will forever remain a medical mystery.
Only this and nothing more.
(eerie music)
Jockey Frank Hayes died atop his horse while winning a race.
It was a warm summer day
in 1923 at Belmont Park in New York.
Crowds gathered and bets were placed as horses
and their jockeys prepared for a day of racing.
The most excited of all was Frank Hayes,
a 22 year old jockey.
According to Frank's mother,
he had dreamed of being a jockey since he was a little boy
and had been working as a horse trainer for three years.
Finally, after long paying his dues,
Frank's big opportunity presented itself.
He was given a chance to ride a horse named
Sweet Kiss who was coming in
at five to one odds to take home the gold.
Frank had dreamed of this moment his entire life
and he wanted to make the most of it.
Frank attempted to drop as much as 12 pounds over the course
of a single day,
forgoing water and attempting to sweat
out as much weight as he could to make himself lighter
and give him a winning edge atop Sweet Kiss.
This is actually very common
for those who are boxing or practicing MMA,
but not something recommended by medical professionals
because a sudden drop in water weight can actually
cause an electrolyte abnormality,
causing a person to develop delirium,
kidney disease, or even death.
With the sweltering summer sun bearing down upon him,
Frank and Sweet Kiss took their spot at the starting line.
The smell of freshly cut grass in the infield
and the hum of the crowd filled the air.
Everything Frank had dreamed of was about to come true,
but just as quickly as he would achieve his dreams,
they would also come to an abrupt end.
The gun fired and the horses took off.
Frank and Sweet Kiss barreled ahead as fast as they could,
overtaking their competition.
Hurdle after hurdle, Frank charged forward,
slowly establishing a lead from the rest of the pack.
Faster, faster, faster.
Frank peeked to his sides.
He was ahead by a nose.
Dust from the track flew into the air.
The crowd roared like the Roman Coliseum.
He put his head down and pushed Sweet Kiss even harder.
"Run, baby, run,"
he commanded as Sweet Kiss inched further
and further ahead of the competition.
In the stands, children were dancing, women were cheering,
men were clutching their betting slips,
praying for an underdog payday from Frank and Sweet Kiss.
The horses made their final turn.
They cleared their final steeples.
Sweet Kiss was in the lead.
100 meters, 50 meters, 20 meters,
10, five, Sweet kiss by a head.
In his first race as a jockey, Frank had achieved his dream.
He was a winner, but he was also dead.
The crowd erupted with celebration,
followed by laughter as Sweet Kiss came to a stop
and Frank Hayes fell lifeless to the ground.
They thought he'd been joking.
Maybe he slipped, maybe he was celebrating.
The laughs slowly ceased as Frank laid there
in a heap completely motionless
as a crowd gathered around him.
Dr. John A. Voorhees rushed to Frank's side.
He turned him over.
Almost immediately, Frank was pronounced dead.
According to his mother, Frank Hayes had a weak heart,
which made her worry about his future as a jockey.
It's believed the combination of the extreme exhaustion
he pushed himself to lose weight,
plus the incredible intensity
of the race itself became too much
for Frank's heart to handle
and he suffered a cardiac arrest
before crossing the finish line.
Of course,
this is just speculation
and his exact cause of death will forever remain unknown.
Regardless,
Frank Hayes remains the only jockey
in recorded history to win a race while dead.
His record stands forever at one and oh.
(eerie music)
In the 1970s,
the Southeast Asian nation
of Laos was embroiled in a civil war.
A peaceful mountain society called the Hmong wanted no part
of the conflict and sought asylum around the world.
35,000 Hmong made their way
to America and started new lives, but for some,
the horror they fled back home
followed them to the new world.
They settled in welcoming cities across the US,
places like Missoula, Montana, Providence, Rhode Island,
and Santa Ana, California.
They began the process of picking up the pieces
of their lives, getting new jobs, joining new communities,
and establishing new identities as refugees
looking for peace.
It wasn't easy.
Very few of them spoke English.
In fact,
their native tongue had largely not even been written down.
This made assimilation into American culture difficult.
Unfortunately, the weight became too much for some to bear.
Over the next several years,
dozens of Laotian refugees,
most of them young men with an average age of 33,
died in their sleep.
Autopsies were performed on the deceased,
which led to more questions than answers.
Dr. Michael McGee,
an assistant medical examiner from St. Paul, Minnesota
where several of the deaths occurred said the following:
"I know what they didn't die of.
They didn't die of getting shot in the head,
stabbed in the heart, they didn't fall off the roof,
they didn't get poisoned because we did an autopsy,
and in each case, we got a big zero."
Several of the deaths were witnessed
by those living with the deceased.
While reports differ amongst witnesses,
some claim to have noticed something was wrong
with the persona as they began
breathing abnormally in their beds.
Their limbs would go rigid,
they would salivate excessively,
and were unresponsive 10 to 30 minutes later.
They died.
How do so many otherwise healthy people
from a single community die
without any evidence or apparent cause of death?
There is one theory, their nightmares.
In the Philippines, it's called bangungut.
In Hmong, it's called dab tsog.
In western medical textbooks,
it's called Sudden Arrhythmic Death Syndrome,
or an immediate and unexpected cardiac arrest.
We know that there's times where in immense stress,
the heart can react in a way that it actually stops beating.
But why the Hmong?
Many small, isolated Asian communities practice animism,
or a common belief system
in Indigenous groups that all beings, places,
and things possess a soulful and spiritual presence.
The Hmong community believed
deeply in spiritual experiences,
such as a shaman using spiritual energy to heal them.
The theory goes that the Hmong
experienced significant trauma
whilst fleeing Laos in the form of war and culture shock
upon entering the US,
so much so that it haunted them in their nightmares.
Because of their deep belief
that visions and spirits are impacting their reality,
these nightmares became so overwhelming
that it resulted in cardiac arrest,
killing otherwise healthy and young refugees.
The exact cause of this cardiac arrest is still unknown
nor do we know exactly why it happened specifically
to these young men.
Not to mention,
doctors have never figured out why
later groups of Hmong refugees never suffered the same fate.
It's truly a medical mystery.
(eerie music)
John F. Kennedy, Abraham Lincoln, William McKinley,
and James A. Garfield are all US presidents who
were assassinated on the job.
But was there a 5th?
Allow me to introduce you to Zachary Taylor,
the 12th president of the United States.
Taylor's one and only term in office was cut abruptly short
after only about a year on the job.
On the 4th of July, 1850,
President Taylor was out
on the town celebrating America's birthday
in the streets of Washington DC.
It was a sweltering hot and humid summer,
but not too hot for the President.
He walked amongst the people,
he laughed amongst the people,
he imbibed amongst the people,
specifically on water, iced milk, and many cherries.
And if you ask most doctors and historians,
they'll tell you that's what did him in.
Five short days after the festivities,
Zachary Taylor fell ill.
He was cramping and nauseous,
suffering from dehydration and diarrhea,
killing him in just a few days.
The prevailing theory was Taylor contracted a case
of dysentery or cholera,
a bacterial illness that spreads
in contaminated water and milk.
The Washington DC sewage system was
in its infancy in the mid 1800s,
resulting in regular cholera outbreaks
when the air was hot and humid,
which are ripe conditions for the spread of the illness.
It makes sense this is what killed President Taylor,
but if it's so simple, why is he in this video?
That's because there have been strong conspiracy theories
that Zachary Taylor did not die of cholera,
but that he was poisoned by pro-slavery
Southerners in the eventual lead up to the civil war.
The theory goes that an assassin
poisoned the President's water with arsenic,
an element found naturally in the Earth's crust,
but also made into an inorganic form used
for chemical purposes that is highly poisonous to humans.
Interestingly,
the symptoms of arsenic poison
are very similar to that of cholera.
And considering the frequency that people in DC died
of cholera in the summer,
it would be a perfect cover story,
allowing the assassin to get away
with the crime and a new political agenda to unfold.
This isn't just a tinfoil hat conspiracy either.
It gained so much steam
that the descendants of President Taylor
approved exhumation of his grave in 1991.
His remains were retrieved and tested for arsenic.
The conclusion,
not overwhelming enough to confirm
that President Zachary Taylor was our nation's first
assassinated leader.
But whether it was infected water,
spoiled milk, rotten cherries,
or something else that killed President Taylor,
doctors will never be able to say for sure.
What killed all the other US presidents though?
Click here to check out the video
and learn about the causes of death of all presidents.
Click here.
And as always, stay happy and healthy.
(upbeat R&B music)