Recap

Strange Medical Tales

Author Tess Gerritsen returned for a conversation with Art Bell about strange and dreadful medical issues. Among the topics she touched on:

Crooked anesthesiologists sometimes only put patients under lightly. The person being operated might remain fully conscious during the surgery but be completely paralyzed so that they cannot indicate to the doctor that they are awake.

Misdiagnoses of death that occur, when a doctor doesn't hear feint signs of heartbeat and respiration.

Odd things take place at hospitals. For instance, a nun/nurse in a Hawaiian facility was known for going into patients rooms just before they were about to die to pray for them, saying she could smell the scent of death.

Gerritsen also discussed the nature of evil, recounting a case from the 1500's of a Scottish clan of predators who killed people traveling along the road near them. The "family of monsters" were cannibals, she said, and thousands of human body parts were eventually found in their cave. In the 1800's, the "Bloody Benders" of Kansas were another family that killed for their livelihood, she added.

Dr. Gerritsen said she is currently at work on a new novel, in which her main characters try to track down Satan to see if he really exists.

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Tess's Creepy Facts

Tess Gerrtisen has a long standing fascination with strange and morbid details of human existence. Her website offers a page of Creepy Biological Facts, which includes such nuggets as tumors with teeth, maggot therapy, hair eating, and the possible link between vampires and rabies.