Hey, listeners, I wanted to thank you for listening to Ghost Story. We really hope you enjoyed it. If you did and are looking for another podcast that will keep you up at night, you should check out Mr. Ballin's Medical mysteries, the new podcast from Master Storyteller, Mr. Ballin and WNDY. Every story shared on Mr. Ballin's medical mysteries is surgically calibrated to make your blood run cold. You can expect to hear all about bizarre, unheard of diseases, miraculous recoveries, strange medical mishaps, and everything in between. I'm about to play a clip from Mr. Ballin's medical mysteries. Follow Mr. Ballin's medical mysteries wherever you get your podcast. Prime members can listen early and ad-free on Amazon Music.

On a humid summer morning in June 1999, 36-year-old Sanju Bagat was hard at work on a farm outside of Nagport, a city in central India. The sun had just risen, and the air was already so hot that he found it hard to breathe. Sanju and a group of farm hands were hard at work tending to the soyabean crops. He made his way through the field, stopping to catch his breath every few steps. Sanju moved a lot slower than his coworkers, workers because of his massive belly. For the past 15 years, Sanju had struggled beneath the weight of his ever-growing stomach. At first, when he was in his early 20s, his family had thought he was just filling out a little, like all young men do when they become adults. But Sanju's stomach didn't stop growing. It kept getting bigger and bigger until it had swelled to the size of a massive watermelon. But his arms and legs stayed stick thin. He never understood why his belly kept growing since he didn't eat much. By the time Sanju reached his early 30s, he was in constant pain, and his family desperately wanted him to see a doctor.

But he couldn't afford to take time off of work. Although deep down, he had to admit he was a little scared of what the doctor might find. The sun beat down on Sanju's head, and he could feel his chest tighten. He tried to keep working, but today it was harder to breathe than usual. No matter how deeply he inhaled, he couldn't quite catch his breath. Finally, he dropped his shovel and doubled over, gasping for air. Sanju gathered what little strength he had left and stood up straight. He could feel other farm workers' eyes on him as he gathered his tools and headed home. It was the longest walk of Sanju's life. He felt humiliated and useless, but he was also afraid. He could barely take a breath. By the time he got to the small home he shared with his family, he nearly fell through the front door. The last thing he remembered was falling hard on the tile floor. Early the next morning, Dr. Ajay Meyta had just started his shift in the oncology ward at Tata Memorial Hospital. He was alerted that a new patient, named Sanju Barat, had been brought in all the way from Nagport, and that he needed to be seen right away.

Dr. Mehta hurried over to Sanju's room. If someone was rushed in an ambulance from so far away, it had to be a serious emergency. As soon as Dr. Mehta examined Sanju's giant swollen belly, he instructed the nurse to prepare the operating room for surgery. Dr. Mehta was a specialist in tumor removal, and he was certain that Sanju had a massive tumor in his stomach, possibly the biggest one he'd ever seen. The tumor was likely pressing against Sanju's diaphragm, which was why he couldn't breathe. And given how big it was and SanJu's weakened condition, the tumor had to be removed immediately. While another nurse prepped SanJu for the operation, Dr. Meyta gathered his surgical team and headed to the operating room. As they sterilized their hands and put on clean scrubs, Dr. Meyta warned them that the tumor's sheer size would make this a very challenging operation. There was a risk of damaging the soft tissue and Sanju's stomach, his nerve endings, or blood vessels. In the worst case, the surgery could cause severe internal bleeding or even death. A few minutes later, Sanju was wheeled into the operating room on a guinea. Once he was under anesthesia, Dr.

Mejda called for a scalpel. He placed one hand on Sanju's stomach for leverage. Then he cut into Sanju's belly. After the blade broke through Sanju's skin and opened up his chest area, Dr. Mejda expected to see blood and a bright red mass of cancerous cells. Instead, gallons of thick yellowish fluid gushed from Sanju's stomach, spilling onto the floor. The entire surgical team gasped. Dr. Mejda jumped out of the way trying to avoid the surge of bile. It had a foul odor that made everyone in the room start to gag. Nurses ran toward him with towels trying to sop up the putrid, smelling liquid. While they cleaned up the mess, Dr. Mejda remained calm and carefully inserted his hand into SanJu's stomach to locate the tumor. At first, all he felt was thick, jelly-like fluid sliding between his fingers. Then he grazed something unusual. His eyes went wide as he dove a little deeper. His palm wrapped around something soft but with a brittle core. He realized this was not a tumor. Whatever was in Sanju's stomach had bones, a lot of them. Doctor made his jaw dropped as his hand explored the object floating in Sanju's stomach.

He grabbed onto one of the tiny bones and began to slowly pull it up and out of Sanju's stomach. As he lifted the bizarre object into the air, he could hear more gasps from everyone in the room.

Hey, Prime members, you can binge the first eight episodes of Mr. Bollin's medical mysteries right now and add free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today.