What's up, MMers? This story comes to us from Melinda Hardy, a nurse at Stephens Memorial Hospital. She tells us that one of the women she worked with for five years, another nurse (who wished to remain anonymous) told her this story. "[She] was totally the most honest person I have ever met. She wouldn't lie to save her soul," Melinda told us.
The story starts about ten years ago, somewhere around 2010 or 2011. A patient came to see a doctor at a private practice where the other nurse worked before coming to Stephens. This patient suffered from chronic pain due to a motorcycle accident a year prior. He had recovered from his injuries, but the pain still lingered. Ibuprofen wasn't cutting it anymore, so he went to the doctor to get some relief. They tried a number of different prescription pills, but nothing seemed to take. In the end, the doctor gave him something different.
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| What did "Billy's" doctor prescribe him? |
"My friend told me she hadn't seen pills like that before," Melinda said. "She didn't recognize the name, but that's not that uncommon. There's always new varieties coming out. She just assumed it was some new brand that a pharmaceutical rep had given to the doc."
The patient, we'll call him Billy, took the pills. He called the doctor's office two days later claiming he felt better than he had in months. The pain was gone. The doctor was pleased with the treatment and had Billy come back in a month later for a check up.
They continued a treatment of the medication, but the nurse was surprised that Billy kept coming into the doctor's office to get his medication. "Usually a patient gets a prescription filled at a pharmacy, right?" Melinda told us. "Doctors don't usually give out medication directly, but my friend, I guess for as weird as the situation was, she just trusted her doctor."
Two months go by, with Billy taking these pills. Maybe they're experimental, maybe generic, but maybe - as this nurse was beginning to suspect - it was something more illegal. "But the treatment was working, and when you're in healthcare long enough, you start to realize that whatever works is the best medicine," says Melinda. "He tells them that the pain is gone. He feels great, but that he feels a little numb, like he can't feel anything at all. Well, this alarms the doctor, who tells him that loss of feeling could be a possible side effect. He suggests Billy keep taking the medication unless something doesn't feel right, and that at his three month check up, they'll determine whether or not the numbness has gone away and how to treat that."
But Billy never showed up for his three month appointment.
It wasn't until a month later, that the nurse, now concerned because Billy had always been punctual, decided to call the police for a wellness check. They found Billy in his house; he had been dead for over a month.
"It wasn't an overdose, no siree," Melinda told us. "When the police got there, they could tell something was wrong. They call it in or whatever and when they go inside, there's blood all over the kitchen. They find a rotten leg in the kitchen sink."
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It was Billy's leg. They found his other leg in the living room. In the bathroom they found his left arm. They found fingers from his right hand in a trail leading to the bedroom. Billy was on the bed. He had finally bled out. They found the battery operated carving knife he used to sever his limbs.
"He couldn't feel anything, you see?" Melinda told us. "The medication, it made him numb. It took away his pain, but it took away all his pain. He couldn't feel a thing, so when he took the knife to his leg, there was nothing. So he just kept going.
"At least," she added, "that's the way my friend told it to me.
Pretty wild story. It has just the perfect touch of campfire ghost story to it. So, of course, we at Malevolent Maine did our research. It was a little difficult to find out much without specific names. However, we were able to trace Melinda's nurse friend back to a now closed doctor's office. Using that region as our search bubble we came up with one police report of a thirty-something male being found dead in his home. There was no mention of cause of death. A little more digging did uncover reports of a motorcycle accident about two years before the reported death. There weren't any names attached to the news stories, but again the area and physical descriptions seem to match.
So what do you think, MMers? Could there be some sort of pill out there that makes you feel so numb you could hack yourself apart? It's a a bit of a tough pill to swallow, but our guys are telling us it's probably true.
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| Be careful what you put in your bodies, MMers |
Stay safe out there, Maine.
