July 23, 2025 • 65 mins
Efren Saldivar, a respiratory therapist at Glendale Adventist Hospital, confessed to murdering over 50 patients between 1989-1998 before later recanting his confession on national television. What followed was a groundbreaking forensic investigation that would eventually prove his guilt and reveal his disturbing motive: he killed patients when he felt overworked or short-staffed.
Resources:
https://www.nlm.nih.gov/exhibition/visibleproofs/galleries/cases/saldivar_image_5.html
https://napavalleyregister.com/
https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/fl-xpm-2003-12-17-0312160617-story,amp.html
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hospital-worker-admits-40-50-killings/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
go amanda how are you doing?
I'm great I'm I'm doing good.
I'm still like kicking thissummer cold situation, like
feeling better generally, but Ihave a little sniffly nose, so
sorry for your future editingendeavors and yeah oh, it's fine
(00:27):
.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Yeah, a little now and then just makes us more
human.
Listen, guys, we don't get paidfor this we did out here with
the sniffles.
If you want to have a reallygood editing, you know, pony up
with some support or some spotsto our sponsors out there and
then maybe we got Jen out hereworking 10 hour days, five days
(00:50):
a week and then coming home todo it and I'm like it's almost
my bedtime, are you ready?
We have to get out, we have toget our clocks aligned a little
on Mondays.
But, oh my goodness, today atwork people kept staring at me
really weirdly.
I was like, do I have somethinglike right here in my teeth?
Or like what's going on?
No, they were staring at myarms and, just like I could tell
(01:12):
when I'm I do a lot of gestures.
When I talk, I'm gesturing now.
I know this is an auditorymedium but and so I'm gesturing
wildly and people were just likeentranced by my arms and not
listening to what I had to say.
So I looked down in the uberbright fluorescent lighting of
(01:33):
the clinic and realized that Ihave full-on.
I don't know if you can seethis, amanda, because I like
mood lighting in my room, but Ilook like I got into a very
engaged wrestling match you do,you got some scratches.
I mean, I have scratcheseverywhere and I didn't even
realize it, because I've beentrying to grow raspberries for
(01:53):
years and I usually get, likeyou know, maybe six at a time,
and it's just like I hand themout to family members and then
hoard the remaining two or threeto myself, like this is how
much I want these things.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
She's like here's six and I've got two.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Yeah, and this year, oh my God, I picked four pounds
in one go.
Oh my gosh, wow, way to go.
So what happened was theneighbors had some, but they
decided to spread over to myside of the yard.
Thank you, neighbors.
Hope you're listening, notlistening, listening, not
(02:31):
listening.
And I have this bumper cropthis year.
Oh, it's amazing.
So four pots of jam later, I'msitting pretty and.
I think I might even get anotherharvest, but my daughter's like
mom, you look horrendous, youlook absolutely ridiculous.
Because I said do you thinkthis is bad?
Speaker 2 (02:47):
people yeah, I can see why.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
So she's gonna make me some leg warmer, arm warmer,
type things.
Oh, that's nice.
Like she's gonna cut some socksso I can still use my hands
because I don't want to usegloves.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Yeah, I mean or you could wear a long shirt.
Yeah, that's breathable yeah,plus.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Yeah, I've got to eat some as I'm doing it.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
So you know I'm dance-free.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
So that's where I'm at.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
Yeah, your arms do look bad, now that you mention
that.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Can you tell I can?
Yeah, oh yeah, oh fun, oh fun,oh fun.
So here is me thinking oh, I'veeither got something in my
teeth or I'm just exudingsomething charm some kind of
attractiveness today?
And it wasn't.
It was horror like is she okay?
Speaker 2 (03:32):
they were like should we ask her if she feels safe at
home?
you're like, it's theraspberries, right it's like no,
my cat and I don't get along soI spent my day working on this
case because I told you guyslast week that we were going to
be covering a serial killernurse and you know I just I
(03:55):
didn't have time to finish.
I actually am reading two booksfor that case and I got to the
point where I probably couldhave finished it, but I felt
like I was just kind of rushingand not really doing it justice,
just kind of ending because ithad to end, and so I thought,
well, I'll just do somethingelse.
And then I picked a new casethis morning and then, as I'm
(04:17):
like on page five of research,I'm like why did I do this to
myself?
Speaker 1 (04:23):
That's so work in one day.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Yeah, and so like I'm on summer break mode, so this
was a full day of work for me,so I am just toasted right now.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
Oh well, I'm excited.
What are we?
Speaker 2 (04:35):
going to hear about yeah, we are going to be talking
about the angel of death todaywhich there are a few
self-proclaimed angel of death,so we'll be talking about one in
particular that we'll get intohere shortly.
But first I do want to hit thecorrection section.
You may notice from last weekthat we were just bantering away
(04:59):
together at the end la la, la,happy day.
And then all of a sudden Ilooked at my computer screen
while I was reading the lastsponsor and if you guys are Mac
users you know the rainbow wheelof death and how frightening
that is, especially when you'rein graduate school and you're
(05:19):
working on something and youhave a rainbow wheel of death
and you're like oh my God, no.
But also when you're recordinga podcast and you see that and
you're like oh my God.
So I finished reading thesponsorship and I told Jenna I
don't think my thing is workinganymore, like this is what my
recording's at, and so to likecontrol, alt, delete, like open
(05:41):
the task manager it would onlylet me do that.
If I chose to not save it, itwould close and I was like damn
it.
So then I was like maybe I cantrick my computer and like hard
restart my computer and thenlike everything will pop back up
where it was.
And so she finished the episode.
Thank you for carrying usthrough the end there.
Cause I was gone.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
Well, you were in my ear the whole time, so I don't
know if listeners know how thisworks, but we're on FaceTime
with each other.
I got hearing aids.
You probably have AirPods orsomething.
Oh yeah of course you do, youlittle Apple freak.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
I'm just a little Apple girl.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
So you were telling me no, I'm going to do it.
I forget what you were tellingme.
I was like, and next week Ithink she's gonna and you're in
my ear going no, I'm gonna dothat.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
I'm in her ear Like I put a quote on there.
I put a quote on there.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
Read the quote from this angel, I was like where
they're still talking to you asit's recording and so, yeah,
that probably did sound a littleweird.
Yeah, I don't know hownewscasters do it News anchors
because they always have like,oh, oh, you know, here's the
latest.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
I don't think I could do that yeah, and so they're
all like oh, breaking news, blah, blah.
Someone's in my ear I'm stilltalking.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
Yeah, they're talented go newscasters yeah,
they must not have adhd, ormaybe they do, maybe they have
extra, maybe they have extrabecause mine ain't enough.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
yeah, so anyway, long story short.
Luckily for jen, my hardrestore on the computer was
enough to trick its brain and itdid reopen my audio file, so we
did not have to rerecord, thankGod.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
Well, listen, it was my, I mean you, you're, I owe
you one.
I mean I lost mine that oneweek, so we had to redo it.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
So you know you get a pass if it ever does happen.
But let's hope.
Let's hope not so.
Dear mac computer, you arefully charged.
I know you are old, but you area trusty baby and please hang
in there with us tonight.
No rainbow wheel of death, yeahhang in there, girl.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
When I saw rainbow wheel of death I was like, oh,
is this the topic?
I was thinking, is it an lbgtqia murder thing?
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Sure, I mean, that does sound very intriguing, but
yeah, no, it's a Mac thing.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Okay, all right, that's better than a.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
I feel like if I was just listening to this and I
heard them say Rainbow Wheel ofDeath and Mac, I'd be like, oh
my god, the anxiety that inducesjust thinking about that little
wheel spinning.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
Grad school.
Listen, I had an electrictypewriter in grad school.
So that's our age gap here.
Uh, yeah, so anyway, I guessluckily for me I have that, just
be grateful you were able tohave the privileged rainbow
wheel of death and you didn'thave to use whiteout and try and
retype over your mistakes theprivileged rainbow wheel of
(08:25):
death, didn't have to.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Yeah, yeah, true, you have to use white out and try
and retype over your mistakesand stuff.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
Oh God, I'm dating myself, okay, um.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
So if you're feeling dated and you need to forget
about it, you could probablytake.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
Nice.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
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Stay suspicious, all right, sono trigger warnings for this
(09:53):
episode.
Shall we just get into it?
Let's do it all right, I'mready.
Okay.
It all started with a chillingconfession.
In 1998, a respiratorytherapist at a Glendale hospital
in California told police thathe had murdered 50 patients.
What Efren Saldivar stated?
(10:19):
That he had deliberatelyoverdosed patients with
pancuronium bromide, known asPavulon or succinylcholine
chloride, which I will becalling SUCC, because I ain't
saying that the whole time.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
But also that acronym is lovely SUCC.
You could just call it SUCC.
I know SUCC.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
I mean, if the audience doesn't mind, I'm just
going to call it SUCC.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
He sucks, that's for sure.
Yes, he does.
Have you heard of this case?
No, not at all.
But I mean, we're right out ofthe gate where he's talking
about murdering 50 people.
Yeah, he's a douchebag.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
Okay, but he later recants his confession and
police are forced to release himfor lack of evidence.
And police are forced torelease him for lack of evidence
.
Experts then referreddetectives to the Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratory'sForensic Science Center,
sometimes called the Lab of LastResort.
There, dr Brian Andresen saidthat pavillon might still be
(11:18):
detectable in the victims'bodies, and if so, police could
prove that murder had beencommitted.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
Dun, yeah, how are they going to do that?
They have to go and figure outhow many people died on his
watch or something.
Oh, sorry, you're going to tellus.
I know, sorry, it's going to bea journey okay, it'll be a
journey.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
efren saldivar was born to immigrants in
brownsville, texas, in 1969.
His family relocated to the theLos Angeles area when he was
two years old.
His father worked as a handymanand his mother was a seamstress
.
Such classic jobs for the time,am I right?
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (11:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
Efren was known to be outgoing and smart, although he
never, admittedly, tried veryhard at school, and we hear that
about people that are reallysmart.
Right, school is boring, yeah,and I'm not sure if this was the
case for Efren, but perhaps itwas so.
After failing to graduate highschool, he got an equivalency
certificate and enrolled at theCollege of Medical and Dental
(12:20):
Careers in the spring of 1988.
And dental careers in thespring of 1988.
He wanted to be a respiratorytherapist.
Why, well, it's not someheartfelt, touching story like
the rest of us usually gushabout when we're asked why we
joined our fields of practice nono, efren wanted to become a
respiratory therapist because hequote liked the uniforms.
(12:44):
End quote a respiratorytherapist because he quote liked
the uniforms end quote dude,they're scrubs.
I mean, how many different andI'm I'm sorry guys, yes, I'm
like the only respiratorytherapist I have ever worked
with also just wore scrubs, solike I guess I've never been in
(13:05):
the room with them during anassessment.
So like, please excuse me ifI'm missing something cooler
than scrubs and like, yeah, anddon't get me wrong Like we all
love a scrubs moment, but bro.
Heck, yeah, I'm wearing themright now, yeah, a lot of
careers afford the opportunityto wear scrubs, so I just
thought that's an interestingchoice I mean he could have been
(13:28):
a hairdresser.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
Well, no, we don't want to put more yeah, yeah,
okay, anyway and just likethat's so funny.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
Okay, oh god, efren, you big da.
Okay.
So in 1989, which entered meinto the world, he was certified
.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
You're such a baby.
You're so small.
That was the year I graduatedfrom high school.
I'm just saying.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
Hey, I made the 80s.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
I almost made 88.
You can say you're an 80s child.
Yeah, oh.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
You're a preemie, almost Ohemie.
Oh, no, full term.
I'm just saying like it justwas right into the beginning of
oh, I have an early birthday,yeah, yeah, anyway, enough about
me.
Back to efren.
Yeah, in 1989 he was certifiedby the state of california as a
respiratory care practitionerand was hired at glendale
adventist.
Yes, sorry, she rose her hand.
(14:24):
Yes, is there a difference?
Speaker 1 (14:26):
I'm raising my hand.
I'm so polite all of a sudden.
That doesn't normally happen.
What's the difference between arespiratory care practitioner?
Speaker 2 (14:34):
No clue, I think it's just like sometimes they're
called this and sometimesthey're called that.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Like when they say like a dish technician or
something, for somebody whowashes dishes, dish technician.
They're just trying to fancy,they're trying to fancify
something.
Yeah, I don't know, that's justwhat the document sounds
already, he's a.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
He's a respiratory therapist, I don't know, it
sounds fancy.
Okay, he's an rt.
So anyway, he was hired atglendale adventist Center and he
most typically worked overnightshifts, commonly known as the
graveyard shift, a term thatwould become horrifically
literal over the next nine years.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
Oh no.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
Repetorial as a respiratory therapist, Efren.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
Oh, now he's a care therapist.
You wrote respiratory caretherapist.
That's why I skipped it.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
You guys.
I intentionally skipped that.
She's reading it.
Get off my document.
Sorry, I've been off yourdocument as a respiratory
therapist, efren, was authorizedto administer medication to
help patients with breathingproblems.
And, like I don't know if Marcyever listens to this, but I
just like, the whole time I wasdoing this I wanted to be like
(15:48):
hi, mercy oh, I know we have ourfriends.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
We have some lots of respiratory therapy therapy,
friend, down the hall from usevan was described as a pretty
nice guy and that he seemednormal okay, I'm sorry, I'm
gonna stop interrupting afterthis well maybe not.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
But if you have to say somebody's pretty nice, that
means he's probably not niceand they're just gonna be nice
that or like maybe you're kindof a loner and like no one
really talks to you anyway, sothey don't really know a lot
about you, but you, you've neverbeen like ugly to them or
anything, so like I don't know,I think he's like a pretty nice
guy, okay.
Okay, two sides of the coin.
Maybe it's a cube, maybethere's more sides, I don't know
(16:30):
.
And it would be three yearsuntil efren would decide to
start taking the lives ofpatients.
Oh, and you may ask yourself,how does one just decide to
start doing this?
And I'm sure that murderershave many forms of inspiration,
but for efren, our buddy efren,the inspiration came from a 2020
(16:50):
new segment of 60 minutes.
She's got her hand up folks.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
I have to point out the pun.
Is this the?
Speaker 2 (16:57):
same, or is?
Speaker 1 (16:58):
it because he's a.
He's a respiratory therapistand you use the word inspiration
twice in that sentence todescribe.
Yeah, I was totally trying tobe punny Love that.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
Okay 2020.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
60 minutes I was not trying to be punny, I did not do
it, get it.
Inspiration Expiration Okay, Ijust blew into the microphone.
I'm making my job really hard.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
She's going to regret that later.
I just blew into the microphone.
I'm making my job really hard.
She's going to regret thatlater.
The episode reported on atherapist in Chicago who was
killing patients.
He would later confess toauthorities.
He felt encouraged by othertherapists at the hospital who
would sometimes give him roomnumbers of patients who needed
lethal injections.
I know that was odd to me, soodd that I almost took it out,
(17:44):
but it's something he said.
So maybe they were just likethis guy doesn't mind if people
die, you can go to it.
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
But why are we doing lethal injections?
I don't know.
I didn't think that was allowed.
I don't know.
Maybe if somebody's brain dead,maybe you know what.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
I mean, yeah, but don't they just take them off?
Speaker 1 (18:02):
support then, and wait for nature to take its
course, can you keep yourselfalive without being hooked up to
stuff, and without?
No, I don't know, that doesn'tmake sense.
Maybe it was a typo orsomething and they would give
him room numbers of patientsthat needed injections and he
(18:23):
turned them to be lethal.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
Yeah, yeah, I'm going to go with that?
Speaker 1 (18:28):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
Yeah Well, anyway, regardless, his colleagues
started to grow suspicious ofhim and they noticed that he was
storing medications in hislocker, along with a magic
syringe, as they called it.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
Okay, guys, if you see something, say something.
Am I right?
Speaker 2 (18:45):
Well, you're right, but someone does explain later
why they didn't say something.
Okay, the Glendale policedepartment received a tip on
march 2nd 1998.
The hospital had called toinform them that they received a
call from someone named grant,and grant stated that there was
a respiratory therapist who waskilling patients by lethal
(19:05):
injection.
The caller alleged that on orabout February 16th a therapist
named Efren Saldivar at GlendaleAdventist Medical Center helped
a patient die fast.
This Grant character said thathe wanted $50,000 before he'd
share more information.
(19:26):
The initial thought was thatsomeone was just trying to
extort the hospital for money.
But what if it was true?
Thought was that someone wasjust trying to extort the
hospital for money.
But what if it was true?
So authorities went to Grant'shouse and he shared that he was
friends with a woman who workedat the hospital and that he had
overheard a conversation, thatthere was someone on staff that
they believed was intentionallykilling patients and he told
them which is also contradictoryof what was said that he said
(19:49):
if you can give me a list of allof the respiratory therapists
at the hospital, I can tell youwhich one it was, so that the
name was shared with thehospital before.
But whatever, I wasn't there.
I was like in fourth grade Iwas I.
I was graduating with mymaster's degree I don't know if
(20:12):
I was in fourth grade, butanyway.
So a list was shared and hepointed out the name Efren
Salvador.
Authorities went to thehospital to start an
investigation, wanting to, ofcourse, keep things close to the
chest, in an effort that, ifthe news of the investigation
would get out, that it would notget back to Efren.
Bob Baker was one of therespiratory therapists that was
(20:34):
interviewed.
He indicated that he was alsosuspicious of Efren.
Bob didn't want anyone to seehim talking to authorities.
In fact, he asked to meet inthe parking lot and was just
puffing away at cigarettes whenthey talked, which I also
thought was wild, because you'rea respiratory therapist.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
He's a respiratory freaking therapist.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
And you're smoking.
I guess he was just likepuffing heaters and he was like
looking around as if he wasworried that he would be caught.
Suspicious heck, yeah.
So Bob told them that Efren waskilling patients and that had
started many years ago.
He explained that hisconfidence in this information
(21:17):
came from finding medication inefren's locker and he explained
that he found the medicationsand never said anything because
he was playing a practical joke.
So the joke was that he wasgoing to switch things from
efren's locker with someoneelse's locker.
But when he pried open Efren'slocker he found the controlled
substances that are monitored bythe hospital and, you know,
(21:39):
only specific individuals shouldhave them.
None of them, being arespiratory therapist, should
never have access or be inpossession of them.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
Well, not in your personal locker.
Yeah, not in your locker.
But again, so he didn't sayanything yeah, not in your
locker.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
But again so he didn't say anything because he
went into his locker withoutpermission.
He broke into his locker.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
Yeah, I'm sorry, but he could have just said I was
pranking him and I found thisyeah, See something, say
something, yeah Right.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
So the police had nothing at this point but a name
.
So they decided to call Efrendown to the station for some
questions.
And when he got there heappeared very anxious upon
arrival, like he needed to getsomething off of his shoulders.
And so they told him you know,there are some allegations that
you are killing patients.
And after they said that, efrenseemed to clam up a little bit.
(22:28):
So Detective Curry was worriedhow much he would get out of
them, because really they hadnothing.
He said that one way that theycan clear his name is by a
polygraph.
But Efren did not want to do apolygraph because he said the
results would be inconclusive.
He said they would beinconclusive because he was
(22:49):
responsible for the death of apatient in 1989.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
Clever.
Yeah, that was clever of him,though, to get out of it that
way.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
He shared that six months after he started his job,
which was nine years earlier, apatient had been taken off of
life support and the doctor hadtold the family, you know, the
patient was dead.
So Efren explained that when hewent into the room 45 minutes
later, the patient was stillalive and he thought well, we
can't have this.
So he suffocated him by joiningthe respirator breathing tubes,
(23:21):
blocking the flow of fresh airand causing the patient to die
in about 15 minutes oh okay, Itake back what I said.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
Yeah, I didn't understand that he'd actually
caused this guy to die.
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
So detective curry thanked him for sharing and knew
he needed to get him chattingsome more, and in the end efren
did agree to do a polygraph exam.
Curry was listening fromoutside of the door as efren
relayed the same test concernsto the examiner.
But then he also shared withhim another incident that
(23:57):
happened in august of 1997, whenhe injected a patient with a
medication that caused paralysis, ultimately leading to the
patient's death.
The polygraph examiner askedefren if he considered himself
an angel of death and he repliedyes.
After hearing yet anotherconfession, curry knew that he
(24:19):
needed to keep him talking, andso he brought in one of his
colleagues, detective TonyFuchsia.
But first things first, efrenwas arrested on charges of
murder and read his Mirandarights, in which he waved and
continued to confess detailedaccounts of all of the deaths.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
Oh my goodness, I interviewed.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
Efren at length and he told me that he had caused
between 40 and 50 deaths at GAMCsince he was employed there in
1989, curry stated.
Efren said that some of thedeaths were by lethal injections
(25:02):
of the Pavulon or SUCC, both ofwhich caused paralysis.
He also admitted to causingdeaths by decreasing oxygen of
patients who were on aventilator.
This is chilling, but heexplained to Curry that the
criteria for patients beingkilled were as follows they had
to be unconscious, they had tohave a DNR order and they had to
(25:25):
look like they were ready todie.
Efren said that he quote pridedhimself in having a very
ethical criteria as to how hepicked victims.
End quote.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
So he's playing God and he's convinced himself that
he's saving them from sufferingMm-hmm.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
Yeah, oh, my gosh.
Detectives asked Efren to getinto more specifics like room
numbers, patient names etc.
So that they'd have somethingmore concrete to go off of.
He said that he stoppedcounting how many deaths he had
caused after 50 or 60 patientsthat he had used pavulin and
(26:05):
that his motive was more to helpthem die the whole angel of
death thing, more to help themdie the whole angel of death
thing.
So once he was booked in jail,detectives only had 48 hours to
get concrete evidence to makecharges stick, and if they
couldn't do that within 48 hourshe would have to be released
imagine the pressure you wouldfeel, like you know this guy
needs to be taken off thestreets and I feel like we're
(26:29):
always so disappointed whenwe're like, oh you, you didn't
arrest him and they're like, no,we need more concrete
information or it's never gonnastick, and like here's the case
where he was arrested because hedid admit to killing people,
but it's like we don't actuallyhave any evidence.
Now we only have 48 hours andthere I don't think I put this
in there, but there were a lotof things where detectives and
(26:53):
authorities were like this wasliterally a backwards case, like
we had a confession but we hadto find what the crime was.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
Oh my gosh, it's crazy.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
So a search warrant was obtained for his locker at
work which revealed that he wasdoing some sample testing on a
machine at work.
And to do tests on the machinehe had to put a name into the
machine, and the name he choseto use was Dr Kevorkian.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
Subtle Real subtle dude no one will figure that out
.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
So Dr Jack Kevorkian, if you don't know, was
assisting people with suicide bylethal injection or medication,
and so this was a look intoEfren's state of mind for
authorities that there was somevalidity into what they were
investigating.
A team also went to his house toexecute a search warrant and
they took anything that wasrelated to the medical field,
(27:47):
one of these items being a drugcalled Versed, which we know,
one of these items being a drugcalled versed, which we know.
Yeah, versed is a controlledsubstance used by
anesthesiologists or doctors tohelp relax patients and let them
be drowsy for a procedure.
Again, not something arespiratory therapist should
have in their possessionspecifically at their house or
(28:07):
even use at the hospital.
Investigators were gettingclose to their 48-hour time
frame, and they knew that theyweren't going to be able to
gather enough concrete evidenceby that time.
So, at the very least, theycalled the board to have his
license revoked so that he wouldbe kept out of work while they
continued to dig deeper.
And, yes, he was released after48 hours, unfortunately, but
(28:30):
the board did suspend hislicense to practice and he was
also fired from the hospital.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
Well, thank goodness, at least yeah, for that small
mercy.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
Small victories, yep.
So the hospital also launchedan internal investigation and
put all of the respiratory staff, which was about 40 people, on
paid leave pending theinvestigation.
Staff, which was about 40people, on paid leave pending
the investigation.
This has been an all-out searchfor the truth for this hospital
, said hospital spokespersonmark newmeyer.
We do not know at this point ifany wrongdoing has been
(29:02):
committed.
We did bring the police inimmediately.
I'm like lol, that's suchayour-ass statement from a
hospital spokesperson.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
But also what's going to happen when somebody needs a
respiratory therapist?
Speaker 2 (29:17):
I know I guess they're just relying on the
doctors Starting tohyperventilate, oh my gosh.
I'm sorry guys, you have toplace your own ventilators
because the RTs are out rightnow.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
My goodness Wow the.
Speaker 2 (29:30):
RTs are out right now .
My goodness, wow.
So investigators fully immersedthemselves in the case,
cross-referencing a list ofpatients that had died with
those that were treated by Efren, and can you even imagine that
undertaking?
All of the deaths at thehospital to be looked at for a
whole ass decade.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
Oh my God, that's so long.
That's gotta be so manythousands oh, my gosh, yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
And it didn't take long for media to get a hold of
the story.
It was all over the news and soa hotline was shared for the
public to call if they believedthey knew someone who might be
involved in a mysterious case ofdeath at the hospital.
And they received 500 calls inthe first day.
Oh cause, you know, everyonesaw that and they were like,
(30:19):
yeah, my Thelma shouldn't havedied.
Speaker 1 (30:21):
Yeah, oh my God, what a, what a nightmare.
Oh gosh, what a.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
PR nightmare First of all, but then yeah, they
couldn't even do this work Likenightmare first of all.
But then, yeah, they couldn'teven do this work, like it was
so much they couldn't even doall the work at the police
station and they were kind ofgetting some gruff from their
colleagues of, like you guys arechasing a pot of gold at the
rainbow, you know, like this isa waste of time kind of thing,
like there's no concreteevidence and so there's not
(30:48):
gonna be any if you don't digfor it right.
And so there was a house by thehospital that was owned by the
hospital that, like, residentslive in, and it was empty at the
time.
So the hospital letinvestigators shack up there and
make that their likeinvestigation home site.
So that was kind of cool.
Oh, that's good, yeah.
So now we're in April of 1998.
(31:09):
And Efren decided, you know,he's going to go on national
broadcast shows and he took partin an interview with 2020 where
he recanted no, he didn't, oh,he did.
Where he recanted his allegedconfession, claiming that it was
a suicidal plea.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
Oh, come on, Efren, you're a narcissist.
Oh, oh my god, how much of anarcissist is this guy?
Speaker 2 (31:36):
holy cow, the meter is off the charts.
He said that he was under theinfluence of valium when he came
in for the interview and thathe was depressed.
So he yeah, you know yeah, I'vehad valium before.
Speaker 1 (31:50):
I definitely go to the police station if I'm on
Valium and tell the police Ikilled 50 people.
Come on, dude.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
Well, you know so he said he was depressed and he
wanted to commit a crime that he, so he wanted to confess to
committing a crime he didn'tcommit, he said.
He said he lied.
He wanted the system to do tome what I couldn't do to me.
He said I was looking to die.
I figured, you know, one deathisn't going to be enough for the
death penalty.
(32:19):
So I said two, and then Istarted to cry because I was
ending my life.
Speaker 1 (32:23):
End quote, which I'm like you didn't say two, you
said 50 in the rod dude, getyour facts right at least.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
Come on, math it a little you're on 2020, bro, get
your shit together.
But after he did this interview, then the public seemed to
believe him and a morning talkshow host even called out the
police department for harassinghim.
I was like what, how dare youcame to the station and admitted
(32:50):
to killing over 50 people.
Like it's not harassment, it'scalled an investigation, sweetie
.
Like how do you not look intothat?
But okay, and when theinvestigators would be at the
hospital, there would be doctorslike passing in the hall who
would even ask them are wereally going to be wasting
taxpayers' money on this?
Speaker 1 (33:10):
Yes, yes, we are, Because the public needs to be
safe from serial killers.
Yes, come on guys.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
How about stay in your lane?
You save lives.
How clever is this.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
How clever is this dude, though I mean he knows
he's, he can manipulate people.
Oh my God, I hate him so muchyeah.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
So, before we get any more into that, we are gonna
head into a little chart.
No, welcome to the chart notesegment where we learn about
what's happening in medicine andhealth care.
Have you seen that tiktokactually, where it's like for
(33:52):
$50, blah, blah, blah.
I can't even remember the exactwords right now, but people are
like mimicking this likesomething that's on sale and
it's like you can get two forthe price of one.
I don't know, I felt very like.
Speaker 1 (34:04):
Welcome to the chart note segment.
Yeah, I mean I feel like yougot it down pat.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
Yeah, if only I could know the actual words.
Okay, so today we're going tobe talking about menstrual AI.
Speaker 1 (34:20):
Excuse me, you mentioned that.
You just throw that out therelike I'm supposed to know what
that means.
So Can we have robots haveperiods for women?
That'd be awesome.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
that would be awesome yeah, it's like, if you're not
having babies, like what thefuck do I need this thing for
for real?
So, anyway, menstrual ai,turning menstrual blood into a
powerful health diagnostic tool.
So every month, around 1.8billion people menstruate,
(34:56):
that's a lot, holy smokes.
Yet the potential of menstrualblood as a valuable health
resource remains largelyuntapped.
While venous blood has longbeen a cornerstone of medical
diagnostics, menstrual blood,which contains hundreds of
proteins and biomarkers, isstill primarily viewed as waste
or used only for fertilitytracking.
(35:18):
A team of researchers at ETHZurich, led by Professor Ng
Herman and doctoral studentLucas Dasnan, is working to
change that.
Their innovation, MenstruAI Ithink.
Menstruai is afirst-of-its-kind, non-invasive
health monitoring tool builtdirectly into a sanitary pad.
(35:39):
The smart pad uses apaper-based lateral flow assay,
Assay, Assay, Assay, Assay Iknow now I can't stop saying ass
.
So apparently this flow assayis similar to COVID-19 test
strips to analyze menstrualblood for biomarkers associated
(36:02):
with various diseases, includinginflammation, infections,
endometriosis and cancer.
It's an entirely novel way tointegrate diagnostics into
everyday life, right where noone expected in a menstrual pad.
Exactly wow, yeah.
So how it works is obviouslyyou wear the pad that's embedded
with the non-electronic sensor.
(36:24):
After use, a photograph of thepad is taken using a smartphone
and there's an app that you havedownloaded already to your
smartphone that analyzes thecolor changes using machine
learning trained on hundreds oftest strip images.
So, inside the pad, a flexiblesilicone chamber ensures a
controlled flow of blood reachesthe embedded test area,
(36:46):
preventing smearing andmaintaining accuracy.
When menstrual blood contactsgold nanoparticle-coated
antibodies on the test strip, avisible color change occurs.
The darker the color, thehigher the concentration of
specific proteins like CRP.
So C-reactive protein, which isa general inflammation marker.
Cea, carcinoembryonic antigen,which is a tumor marker often
(37:10):
elevated in cancers.
Embryonic antigen, which is atumor marker often elevated in
cancers, and CA-125, linked toendometriosis and ovarian cancer
.
Wow, the smartphone app notonly provides a visual readout,
but can detect subtle variationsin protein concentration,
making the results objectivelymeasurable even without lab
equipment.
Speaker 1 (37:30):
That's incredible.
Speaker 2 (37:31):
Yep.
So it's accessible, affordableand designed for real life, and
we love that.
So the technology is currentlyundergoing further field testing
with over 100 participants.
After a successful proof ofconcept study, the research team
is investigating how thecomposition of menstrual blood
carries excuse me varies acrossindividuals and throughout the
(37:52):
menstrual cycle, which isessential for clinical
validation.
They are also evaluatingmaterials for biocompatibility
and regulatory approval as theyprepare for potential
commercialization.
I wrote a whole bunch morestuff about this, but I don't
think we need to talk about thepads anymore.
So just to conclude, it's morethan a smart pad.
(38:14):
It's a paradigm shift.
By leveraging the hiddenpotential of menstrual blood and
combining it with ai poweredanalysis, this innovation has
the potential to democratizehealth monitoring, particularly
for those who have historicallybeen excluded from timely
diagnostics.
It offers a discreet,affordable, affordable and
revolutionary new way to keeptrack of one's health, one cycle
(38:34):
at a time.
Speaker 1 (38:36):
I love this.
I mean because you don't haveto give blood or go anywhere or
do anything.
It's like you're alreadybleeding anyway, so like here.
Yeah, yeah, god, I would haveloved this.
Like I just feel like it's,it's like a small little perk,
like a little silver lining,like, yeah, I'm suffering once a
month.
What the hell, god, it sucks tobe a woman.
(38:58):
Sometimes I feel that way, youknow, and then it's like but you
know what I get to monitor myhealth because I do this?
Right, that's, that's part ofit, is the emotional impact, but
also like yay, because I thinkit's going to reach people who
otherwise wouldn't, especiallyyoung people that only go in
when something's falling off orbleeding, you know, right, so,
(39:20):
and not, not menstruallybleeding, but, like you know, I
think this is great.
Speaker 2 (39:24):
Let's say you're a busy person and you live in like
a medical wasteland wherethere's nowhere to go, but you
can have pods delivered to yourhouse.
Speaker 1 (39:33):
This access is amazing.
Speaker 2 (39:34):
I love this, yeah that's so cool, thank you, for
sharing that of course.
Okay, back to the story.
Speaker 1 (39:42):
I don't know why I feel like that is necessary.
You said that like a SpongeBobepisode.
Three hours later.
Speaker 2 (39:52):
That's the only way I want to say it for the rest of
my life.
Excuse me.
Investigators narrowed down thelist of patients to be reviewed
by medical experts.
They found a trend where theywould be getting better and then
suddenly they died.
In order to charge him withmurder, they needed to then find
(40:16):
patients that were notprescribed pavulin but had it in
their system oh yeah, clutter.
So pavulin again.
We've said it's a relaxer, butwhat it's used for in their work
is to relax respiratory musclesduring surgery.
So once administered, patientscannot breathe on their own.
(40:36):
So if not put on a ventilator,they will suffocate and die.
Speaker 1 (40:41):
Oh, my goodness.
Speaker 2 (40:43):
Dr Dale Issef was the physician appointed to be the
investigative expert.
He went through one chart at atime.
Speaker 1 (40:52):
I can't imagine how long that took Bless his
ever-loving heart.
Speaker 2 (40:57):
So if the patient had stable vitals and the nurse's
note indicated that the patientwas doing well.
But then the next noteindicated that the patient was
found dead in bed.
That was pretty suspicious, andthis Dr Issaif Issaif Issaif
Was a cardiologist, so he wasable to show investigators look,
they were doing good.
(41:18):
But then this happened X Y Z,and this would indicate that a
paralyzing agent may have beengiven, and this paralyzing agent
being pavulin.
The problem was that there wasno known test to detect if
pavulin was in the body,especially bodies that had been
in the ground for a year or more.
They were then given the nameof Dr Brian Andresen, who was
(41:41):
the director at LawrenceLivermore National Laboratory.
At Lawrence Livermore NationalLaboratory, dr Andresen was told
that pavulin and SUCC were themolecules confessed to be used
in the killings.
Andresen explained that,because SUCC breaks down very
quickly into chemicals that arenormally found in human tissue,
the testing would, or should, beconcentrated on pavulin, which
(42:04):
is a potent synthetic musclerelaxant administered to
patients on artificialrespiration.
The compound is very powerfuland is given at very low levels,
and it was previously thoughtto dissipate quickly in the body
.
So Andresen said that he keptan open mind when looking at the
samples.
But he wasn't sure exactly whathe would be able to find.
(42:26):
So he first took to thetextbooks to learn everything he
could about the molecule, andnext he put pavulin into tissue
samples to isolate it out ofdecomposing tissue samples.
He worked 18 hour days forweeks and weeks doing laboratory
work.
Speaker 1 (42:41):
Oh, honey, honey, you gotta sleep, you gotta eat.
Speaker 2 (42:44):
No, this guy is a badass, I badass I mean yes,
that is so much work.
So, yes, he put a lot of effortinto creating an analytical
procedure because he got thefeeling from police that this
really could be something, anddr andresen was able to
successfully replicate findingswith a protocol he created.
So investigators worked ondetermining which bodies they
would need to exhume for testing.
Speaker 1 (43:06):
That's amazing, oh my goodness.
Speaker 2 (43:08):
So this laboratory?
I had never heard of it, butit's, like I mentioned earlier,
like the last resort lab.
So when there are big thingsthat happen, like the Unabomber
or the Twin Towers, these arethe folks that they go to.
Oh, wow.
Speaker 1 (43:25):
How cool would it be to work there right or to know
the people that work there Iknow.
Speaker 2 (43:30):
So it's like it's amazing.
Yeah, I know I thought that waslike super obviously sad that
they had to reach out to thislab for this case, but super
cool that that's a resource thatthey were able to tell these
people are there and they're sodedicated.
Speaker 1 (43:42):
I mean, basically, they give up their own lives.
Speaker 2 (43:46):
Literally 18 hours a day yeah.
Speaker 1 (43:49):
To find a solution.
Speaker 2 (43:50):
Wow.
So while Dr Andresen was hardat work in the lab,
investigators were also workinglong days into nights, combing
through thousands and thousandsof patient files.
It took them 14 months tocomplete going through all of
the files.
There had been a total of 171patients who died while efren
was working at the hospital.
(44:11):
54 of these cases wereeliminated because the bodies
had been cremated.
Of the remainder, 20 deathswere determined to have been
suspicious and their bodieswould be exhumed.
They first had to contact thefamilies and let them know what
was going on and that they'd beexhuming the body of their loved
ones, which was not a fun task.
Speaker 1 (44:30):
Can you imagine having to tell a family that,
and can you imagine being thatfamily member?
Being told that no, oh my gosh.
Speaker 2 (44:40):
After the bodies were exhumed, they were taken to the
coroner to have tissue samplesremoved, and those samples were
directly driven to Dr Andresenat the lab every Thursday.
He spent hundreds of hours moregoing through the samples and
three months later, while at thelab, dr Andresen found pavulon
in one of the tissue samples.
So investigators and DrAndresen celebrated this finding
(45:03):
but knew that there was morework to do, and so in the end,
of the 20 patients exhumed, sixof them had pavulin in their
tissues that were neversubscribed the medication.
Speaker 1 (45:15):
I mean we're at 30% now, so what?
How many people died?
171 patients 171.
Speaker 2 (45:21):
So 30, or 171.
Speaker 1 (45:24):
So 30% of that.
Speaker 2 (45:26):
Well, and also, though, they couldn't test 54
because they've been cremated,so I feel like we have to take
that off of the 171 yeah, so Ithink I think there's easily
definitely 50, but easily 60 ormore patients, right, oh yeah?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, if you lookat that percentage.
(45:47):
Well, yeah, yeah, yeah.
So now investigators felt likethey had enough to charge efren
with maida and detectives havebeen tracking his whereabouts
throughout the investigation sothat when they had any sort of
breakthrough they would be ableto nab him and bring him in.
And so, on january 9th 2001, hewas arrested and charged with
(46:11):
six counts of first-degreemurder.
Once at the station, he wasforthcoming with the interview
in comparison to his first theygot into talking about motive,
which investigators assumed himto say you know, these were
mercy killings, blah, blah, blah.
But what shocked him was hethen blamed it on the workload.
What, yeah?
(46:32):
So he basically was like ifwe're too busy and I'm
short-staffed, fuck it, theygotta go.
So he, he said the criteria thathe used to try and kill people
was not if they were a nuisanceto him or had been annoying him
or something.
It simply sometimes came downto a crime of opportunity
(46:53):
Someone that would get in theway of him getting something
done that he needed to do thatday.
That person would just be offedIf he needed to complete a task
.
But he was called away to see apatient.
Nope, he said they're old andit's time for them to die I hate
him so much yeah I'll wait tillyou see a picture of this dweeb
(47:13):
too.
Oh my god.
So yes, he explained.
If there were not enoughrespiratory therapists on staff
for the shift, someone had todie, which I'm like.
We all hate being short-staffed, but like what right?
I'm just like imagining in mycaseload like oh, so-and-so is a
pain in the butt, they're gonnatake me longer than I have time
(47:46):
for I god, so okayinvestigators, you know, during
this time also learned how heobtained medications in the
first place and he explainedthat if a code blue was called a
respiratory, therapist is oneof the people on the team
because oftentimes they have toput a patient on a ventilator to
assist with breathing.
So the crash cart that isbrought to a code blue holds the
(48:09):
medications to aid inintubating the patient, and
prior to intubating they want toobviously stop the gag reflex,
so medications such as the SUCCor the pavlovin were used.
Efren explained that after thepatient was stabilized.
there was never anyone left atthe scene other than the
respiratory therapist.
And why?
Because the patient's on aventilator.
(48:31):
Everyone like they're stable.
Yeah, and so the people, theother people apparently, or they
the respiratory therapist, Idon't know.
He said that they were supposedto dump the rest of the drug
down the sink, but either theydidn't do that or he didn't do
that.
Either way, it went to hislocker.
The drugs were just left on thetray and then to the locker.
Speaker 1 (48:53):
Oh my gosh, that explains so much.
Speaker 2 (48:55):
Right.
So on March 12, 2002, efrenpleaded guilty to six counts of
first-degree murder and onecount of attempted murder.
Wait what?
Attempted murder and one countof attempted murder.
Speaker 1 (49:09):
Wait what.
Speaker 2 (49:09):
Attempted murder you ask.
That's right I do, I do, I do,I do.
One woman was lucky enough tosurvive his attempt.
Her name was Jean Coyle and shewas known by family and friends
to be a happy lady, alwayslistening to music, going to the
beach, horse races, justgenerally having a good time.
And her kids called her GypsyJean because she was always oh,
(49:31):
I love her.
I know Because she was alwaysgoing from place to place and
hooking up her U-Haul and movingfrom here to there.
Speaker 1 (49:39):
Oh, she had free spirit.
Speaker 2 (49:41):
She's so sweet.
Jean had been a heavy smokerfor most of her life and quit in
her 50s.
So she thought she had asthmabut was diagnosed with COPD and
after being hospitalized in theICU for breathing treatments she
suddenly coded.
Luckily she was able to beresuscitated, but Jean called
her daughter and told her thatsomeone had come to her bedside
(50:03):
and did some stuff and the nextthing I knew she was out.
She also reported thisencounter to other hospital
staff but sadly at the time thiswas taken just for wild talk,
which I feel like we hear that alot right like oh, these
patients are delusional, they'rein the icu, they're just saying
whatever you know.
But lucky for her she was nevervisited by that someone again,
(50:25):
and that someone being efrenSaldivar, who did recall exactly
who Gene Coyle was when he wasasked.
Speaker 1 (50:32):
Oh my goodness, that fucker.
Speaker 2 (50:36):
Ugh yeah.
So Efren avoided the deathpenalty by a plea deal, which I
thought was a little funnybecause his initial reason for
recanting his confession wasbecause he wanted to die.
But okey dokey, apparently, hedoes that, apparently, you don't
Okay, change of heart.
Change of heart, yes, okay,okay.
So he is currently serving andwe're going to be happy about
(50:59):
this guys.
He is serving six consecutivelife sentences at California
State prison, corcoran, withoutthe possibility of parole oh,
good riddance so he's nevergetting out.
Thank goodness he like got moresentencing than like 10 other
murderers combined, yeah and youknow what, we don't do this
(51:23):
enough for murderers.
Speaker 1 (51:24):
But also like I can.
I can kind of get behind theangel of death, like the angel
of mercy type mentality.
I mean I don't, I don't supportit, but like I can at least
understand that there is somesort of empathy or humanity
behind putting someone out oftheir misery or someone who's
asking to be put out of theirmisery yeah, but he was like I
(51:48):
like the uniforms and he's likefuck yeah, these scrubs are
awesome I look hot in thesescrubs.
It's like actually once you seea picture of me like you're
never fucking hot.
Speaker 2 (52:01):
Actually, zero percent chance in any outfit oh.
Speaker 1 (52:07):
And then he's like oh my god, I got too much work to
do, it's your time.
Speaker 2 (52:12):
She's like fucking marcia called in sick.
Fuck this, I gotta kill someone, that's it that's it.
Speaker 1 (52:16):
That's it, number 102 you're, you're out, you're out.
Speaker 2 (52:20):
I mean that's so sorry you hit your call button
today, sweetie angel of death onthat is not even laughable.
Speaker 1 (52:28):
I shouldn't be joking about it, no, but it is.
It's like how could someonehold life so cavalierly in their
hands?
It's disgusting and I'm gladhe's put away forever.
Forever and ever you will belocked up, you stupid mother
(52:49):
fucker.
Stupid ass hat.
Thank you, hey alley cats.
You know we're getting on thefence, we're getting squirrely,
we are Listen.
Thank God that you brought thiscase to our attention and that
(53:09):
we have handful sports brashonestly, I do thank god for
them every day because I do wearthem.
Speaker 2 (53:15):
I'm like it's time to purchase more honestly.
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Speaker 1 (54:13):
Stay suspicious suspicious, oh my goodness.
Well, thank you for that.
Shall we lighten things up alittle bit with a medical mishap
?
I think we shall.
Shall I read it, or do you wantto?
Speaker 2 (54:31):
It's up to you.
Speaker 1 (54:34):
I feel like I need to get in there.
Speaker 2 (54:36):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (54:38):
It says Hi, ladies, loving the pod, thank you and
looking forward to Wednesdayswhen life gets busy.
I get to binge listen and, andthat's fun too, I work in an ER.
Oh, bless your cotton socks,whoever you are.
But yeah, and wanted to share acautionary tale with you all.
Bring it.
It was around 2 am when a mancame stumbling into the ER, one
(55:02):
eye tightly sealed shut I can'tbe good Red and watering.
He sheepishly admitted that hegrabbed the wrong tube from his
night.
Oh no, he grabbed the wrongtube from his nightstand.
Assume, oh no, a super gluetube instead of this
prescription?
Speaker 2 (55:20):
eye drops dude.
Speaker 1 (55:21):
Why are you putting glue by your bed.
I'm just like.
Speaker 2 (55:26):
What are we?
Speaker 1 (55:27):
What are we lying?
Speaker 2 (55:28):
in bed at night going .
Speaker 1 (55:29):
you know what I need?
This Sir.
What have we been gluing?
I mean, yeah, exactly.
What do you have in your bed?
Speaker 2 (55:35):
I know I'm trying to think right here I have Tums, my
phone charging stand and abottle of water, and then remote
control to my fan Classic stuffClassic stuff, nothing needs to
be glued.
Speaker 1 (55:47):
I have a little bit of lip, you know chapstick type
stuff I'm.
I have some allergy meds incase I forgot to take them.
But like, seriously, okay,we'll go back to no glue, no
glue you know, no glue and no,no need for glue, really really
what?
What are you doing?
So he tilted his head back andsqueezed twice before realizing
(56:09):
that something was off.
Dude, I don't know the rest ofthis.
No, his eyelid was sealed also,don't you smell it?
yeah, that stuff stinks.
His eyelid was sealed to hiseyelid and his eyelashes were
fused together in a stiffcrunchy mess.
(56:32):
I hate this.
I hate this so much you workedin ophthalmology for a while.
Did you ever see that come intoyour?
Speaker 2 (56:41):
clinic?
I did not, but I will say theonly thing that I can think of
that could, like mistakenly,maybe be confused, especially at
the 2 am hour.
Again, I don't know why gluewas on this man's table, but
they have like gel eye drops andthey're much thicker and when
(57:04):
you do use them your vision doesgo blurry for a time before you
know whatever, yeah, so I'mlike that could maybe have felt
similar to what super.
Speaker 1 (57:17):
Yeah, because aren't certain antibiotics or things
that you know for viruses,mm-hmm, yeah, yeah, gel.
Speaker 2 (57:25):
Yeah.
So I'm like maybe that, likethe initial feeling was like I
have the right thing, I don'tknow, but that now I can't get
past that, remembering thatsuper glue stinks.
Speaker 1 (57:35):
So the er team used to yeah, I mean, bless I, I.
I should have made you readthis.
I have an eyeball problem, likeoh my god, I went in, I went
into ears for a reason like I,eyeballs oh I thought you meant
you currently have an eyebrowproblem no, no, I just eyeballs
kind of I'm squeamish about,like give me your earwax yeah I
(57:59):
feel like, give me your.
Give me your.
You know your poor, whateverI'm like, give me your hearing
loss.
Give me your.
You know your pore, whateverI'm like, give me your hearing
loss.
Give me your earwax, but don'tgive me your eyeball problems.
So the ER team used acombination of mineral oil,
acetone how would you putacetone on an eye?
And painstakingly slow tools topry everything apart.
(58:23):
Good Lord, thankfully nopermanent damage.
But he left with an eye patch,an ophthalmology appointment and
a new rule no keeping glue nextto the medications.
Yeah, good rule.
Speaker 2 (58:37):
Yeah, dude, golden rule.
Speaker 1 (58:40):
Oh, my goodness, Thanks for reading.
If you do Well, thank you,Stephanie, Because it says take
care, Stephanie.
Thank you Stephanie.
Speaker 2 (58:45):
Thank you Stephanie for making us slam our eyeball
shut if you do well, thank you,stephanie, because it says take
care, stephanie.
Thank you, stephanie.
Thank you, stephanie, formaking a slammer eyeball shot
and so thankful we don't glue onour night slam them shut.
Speaker 1 (58:55):
Thank you for that horror story, yeah thank you for
sharing, stephanie yeah, butthank you, yeah, yeah no thank
you're not going to crap on you.
I mean, I enjoyed the fact thatyou said send us all your ER
stories, stephanie.
Yeah, we need more stuff.
We need more, send them in.
Speaker 2 (59:16):
So, jenna, what can we expect to hear next week,
unless you're going to flip thescript on us, like I did, and
say you're going to hear about anurse and then, lol, it's mr
respiratory therapist douchebaglisten.
Speaker 1 (59:27):
I love that.
I loved that it was a surprise.
I love that it was arespiratory therapist.
We haven't covered them so far,so thank you for that.
Speaker 2 (59:35):
I enjoyed it immensely here's.
Speaker 1 (59:39):
Here's my deal, so I did probably the worst case on
the planet I thought you'regoing to do a lighthearted after
the pedophile.
That's what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (59:48):
I did the worst case on the planet.
My last case, yeah.
Speaker 1 (59:52):
So I promised I was going to do something
lighthearted, but then I waslike oh Okay, so here's the
thing.
We're going to get a mixed bagNext week.
We're going to cover Dr Bev,which is a lighthearted little
story about a teenager, and youdon't need to know any more.
Otherwise, I've basically toldthe whole story, which is my
(01:00:13):
whole point.
For why I need a little bitmore content?
Because, you know, while funnyand lighthearted, dr Love
doesn't last the whole episode,so we are going to be also
talking about something that'smaybe not as lighthearted.
Well, there's no, maybe Not aslighthearted.
In fact, it's pretty dark andit's called Killer MRIs.
Speaker 2 (01:00:36):
Oh.
Speaker 1 (01:00:37):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (01:00:38):
Well, I'll look forward to this essentially
little two-part series in oneepisode Maybe.
Speaker 1 (01:00:43):
I'll start.
Should I start with the MRIsthat kill and then do the Dr
Love?
Speaker 2 (01:00:48):
Yeah, I think so, we'll see yeah.
Or you could do Dr Love, thenMRIs, then we got medical mishap
.
Speaker 1 (01:00:55):
That's true.
Speaker 2 (01:00:56):
All right, listen if you guys want to know how's it
going to play out?
Speaker 1 (01:01:06):
What are we?
Speaker 2 (01:01:07):
going to feel lighthearted?
Are we going to be superdepressed?
Tune in next week, you neverknow.
Are you going to hate your life?
Speaker 1 (01:01:09):
are you going to be excited.
So don't miss a beat.
Subscribe or follow doctor inthe truth wherever you enjoy
your podcasts for stories thatshock, intrigue and educate.
Trust, after all, is a delicatething.
You can text us directly on ourwebsite at doctor in the
truthuthatbuzzsproutcom.
Email us your story ideas andcomments and medical mishaps at
(01:01:32):
doctorinthetruthatbuzzsproutcom.
That's all blurring together.
Doctor in the Truth.
Speaker 2 (01:01:37):
You've got to make the font bigger.
Speaker 1 (01:01:39):
I know right, I think I'm with you there on that.
I'm on 11.
Oh my gosh, no, I need there onthat.
I'm on 11, like oh my god no Ineed to double that sucker.
Be sure to follow us oninstagram at doctor in the truth
podcast and on facebook atdoctor in the truth, and we're
on tiktok at doctor in the truthand ed odd pod, which I always
say in a weird I always say in aweird accent.
(01:02:02):
I don't even know what that is,but it's ed aud pod.
Don't forget to download, rateand review so we can be sure to
bring you more content next nextweek.
Speaker 2 (01:02:14):
Until then, stay safe and stay suspicious hey guys we
did not get a rainbow wheel ofdeath bye that sounded like your
(01:02:36):
stomach grumbling.
go amanda how are you doing?
I'm great I'm I'm doing good.
I'm still like kicking thissummer cold situation, like
feeling better generally, but Ihave a little sniffly nose, so
sorry for your future editingendeavors and yeah oh, it's fine
(00:27):
.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
Yeah, a little now and then just makes us more
human.
Listen, guys, we don't get paidfor this we did out here with
the sniffles.
If you want to have a reallygood editing, you know, pony up
with some support or some spotsto our sponsors out there and
then maybe we got Jen out hereworking 10 hour days, five days
(00:50):
a week and then coming home todo it and I'm like it's almost
my bedtime, are you ready?
We have to get out, we have toget our clocks aligned a little
on Mondays.
But, oh my goodness, today atwork people kept staring at me
really weirdly.
I was like, do I have somethinglike right here in my teeth?
Or like what's going on?
No, they were staring at myarms and, just like I could tell
(01:12):
when I'm I do a lot of gestures.
When I talk, I'm gesturing now.
I know this is an auditorymedium but and so I'm gesturing
wildly and people were just likeentranced by my arms and not
listening to what I had to say.
So I looked down in the uberbright fluorescent lighting of
(01:33):
the clinic and realized that Ihave full-on.
I don't know if you can seethis, amanda, because I like
mood lighting in my room, but Ilook like I got into a very
engaged wrestling match you do,you got some scratches.
I mean, I have scratcheseverywhere and I didn't even
realize it, because I've beentrying to grow raspberries for
(01:53):
years and I usually get, likeyou know, maybe six at a time,
and it's just like I hand themout to family members and then
hoard the remaining two or threeto myself, like this is how
much I want these things.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
She's like here's six and I've got two.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
Yeah, and this year, oh my God, I picked four pounds
in one go.
Oh my gosh, wow, way to go.
So what happened was theneighbors had some, but they
decided to spread over to myside of the yard.
Thank you, neighbors.
Hope you're listening, notlistening, listening, not
(02:31):
listening.
And I have this bumper cropthis year.
Oh, it's amazing.
So four pots of jam later, I'msitting pretty and.
I think I might even get anotherharvest, but my daughter's like
mom, you look horrendous, youlook absolutely ridiculous.
Because I said do you thinkthis is bad?
Speaker 2 (02:47):
people yeah, I can see why.
Speaker 1 (02:50):
So she's gonna make me some leg warmer, arm warmer,
type things.
Oh, that's nice.
Like she's gonna cut some socksso I can still use my hands
because I don't want to usegloves.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Yeah, I mean or you could wear a long shirt.
Yeah, that's breathable yeah,plus.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Yeah, I've got to eat some as I'm doing it.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
So you know I'm dance-free.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
So that's where I'm at.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
Yeah, your arms do look bad, now that you mention
that.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Can you tell I can?
Yeah, oh yeah, oh fun, oh fun,oh fun.
So here is me thinking oh, I'veeither got something in my
teeth or I'm just exudingsomething charm some kind of
attractiveness today?
And it wasn't.
It was horror like is she okay?
Speaker 2 (03:32):
they were like should we ask her if she feels safe at
home?
you're like, it's theraspberries, right it's like no,
my cat and I don't get along soI spent my day working on this
case because I told you guyslast week that we were going to
be covering a serial killernurse and you know I just I
(03:55):
didn't have time to finish.
I actually am reading two booksfor that case and I got to the
point where I probably couldhave finished it, but I felt
like I was just kind of rushingand not really doing it justice,
just kind of ending because ithad to end, and so I thought,
well, I'll just do somethingelse.
And then I picked a new casethis morning and then, as I'm
(04:17):
like on page five of research,I'm like why did I do this to
myself?
Speaker 1 (04:23):
That's so work in one day.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
Yeah, and so like I'm on summer break mode, so this
was a full day of work for me,so I am just toasted right now.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
Oh well, I'm excited.
What are we?
Speaker 2 (04:35):
going to hear about yeah, we are going to be talking
about the angel of death todaywhich there are a few
self-proclaimed angel of death,so we'll be talking about one in
particular that we'll get intohere shortly.
But first I do want to hit thecorrection section.
You may notice from last weekthat we were just bantering away
(04:59):
together at the end la la, la,happy day.
And then all of a sudden Ilooked at my computer screen
while I was reading the lastsponsor and if you guys are Mac
users you know the rainbow wheelof death and how frightening
that is, especially when you'rein graduate school and you're
(05:19):
working on something and youhave a rainbow wheel of death
and you're like oh my God, no.
But also when you're recordinga podcast and you see that and
you're like oh my God.
So I finished reading thesponsorship and I told Jenna I
don't think my thing is workinganymore, like this is what my
recording's at, and so to likecontrol, alt, delete, like open
(05:41):
the task manager it would onlylet me do that.
If I chose to not save it, itwould close and I was like damn
it.
So then I was like maybe I cantrick my computer and like hard
restart my computer and thenlike everything will pop back up
where it was.
And so she finished the episode.
Thank you for carrying usthrough the end there.
Cause I was gone.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
Well, you were in my ear the whole time, so I don't
know if listeners know how thisworks, but we're on FaceTime
with each other.
I got hearing aids.
You probably have AirPods orsomething.
Oh yeah of course you do, youlittle Apple freak.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
I'm just a little Apple girl.
Speaker 1 (06:17):
So you were telling me no, I'm going to do it.
I forget what you were tellingme.
I was like, and next week Ithink she's gonna and you're in
my ear going no, I'm gonna dothat.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
I'm in her ear Like I put a quote on there.
I put a quote on there.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
Read the quote from this angel, I was like where
they're still talking to you asit's recording and so, yeah,
that probably did sound a littleweird.
Yeah, I don't know hownewscasters do it News anchors
because they always have like,oh, oh, you know, here's the
latest.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
I don't think I could do that yeah, and so they're
all like oh, breaking news, blah, blah.
Someone's in my ear I'm stilltalking.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
Yeah, they're talented go newscasters yeah,
they must not have adhd, ormaybe they do, maybe they have
extra, maybe they have extrabecause mine ain't enough.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
yeah, so anyway, long story short.
Luckily for jen, my hardrestore on the computer was
enough to trick its brain and itdid reopen my audio file, so we
did not have to rerecord, thankGod.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
Well, listen, it was my, I mean you, you're, I owe
you one.
I mean I lost mine that oneweek, so we had to redo it.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
So you know you get a pass if it ever does happen.
But let's hope.
Let's hope not so.
Dear mac computer, you arefully charged.
I know you are old, but you area trusty baby and please hang
in there with us tonight.
No rainbow wheel of death, yeahhang in there, girl.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
When I saw rainbow wheel of death I was like, oh,
is this the topic?
I was thinking, is it an lbgtqia murder thing?
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Sure, I mean, that does sound very intriguing, but
yeah, no, it's a Mac thing.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Okay, all right, that's better than a.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
I feel like if I was just listening to this and I
heard them say Rainbow Wheel ofDeath and Mac, I'd be like, oh
my god, the anxiety that inducesjust thinking about that little
wheel spinning.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
Grad school.
Listen, I had an electrictypewriter in grad school.
So that's our age gap here.
Uh, yeah, so anyway, I guessluckily for me I have that, just
be grateful you were able tohave the privileged rainbow
wheel of death and you didn'thave to use whiteout and try and
retype over your mistakes theprivileged rainbow wheel of
(08:25):
death, didn't have to.
Speaker 2 (08:25):
Yeah, yeah, true, you have to use white out and try
and retype over your mistakesand stuff.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
Oh God, I'm dating myself, okay, um.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
So if you're feeling dated and you need to forget
about it, you could probablytake.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
Nice.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
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(09:00):
cocktail bitters and cleaningredients, so no added sugars,
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They are available in boldflavors like ras lime, as we've
talked about, would be my go-toto try.
I think chai, cherry, ginger,orange and the one that jenna
said probably tastes like a rope, just hemp I'm like yeah uh,
(09:23):
shimmerwood, hey, we're notselling it with that.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
They're probably, if they could hear us thank you.
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Stay suspicious, all right, sono trigger warnings for this
(09:53):
episode.
Shall we just get into it?
Let's do it all right, I'mready.
Okay.
It all started with a chillingconfession.
In 1998, a respiratorytherapist at a Glendale hospital
in California told police thathe had murdered 50 patients.
What Efren Saldivar stated?
(10:19):
That he had deliberatelyoverdosed patients with
pancuronium bromide, known asPavulon or succinylcholine
chloride, which I will becalling SUCC, because I ain't
saying that the whole time.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
But also that acronym is lovely SUCC.
You could just call it SUCC.
I know SUCC.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
I mean, if the audience doesn't mind, I'm just
going to call it SUCC.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
He sucks, that's for sure.
Yes, he does.
Have you heard of this case?
No, not at all.
But I mean, we're right out ofthe gate where he's talking
about murdering 50 people.
Yeah, he's a douchebag.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
Okay, but he later recants his confession and
police are forced to release himfor lack of evidence.
And police are forced torelease him for lack of evidence
.
Experts then referreddetectives to the Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratory'sForensic Science Center,
sometimes called the Lab of LastResort.
There, dr Brian Andresen saidthat pavillon might still be
(11:18):
detectable in the victims'bodies, and if so, police could
prove that murder had beencommitted.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
Dun, yeah, how are they going to do that?
They have to go and figure outhow many people died on his
watch or something.
Oh, sorry, you're going to tellus.
I know, sorry, it's going to bea journey okay, it'll be a
journey.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
efren saldivar was born to immigrants in
brownsville, texas, in 1969.
His family relocated to the theLos Angeles area when he was
two years old.
His father worked as a handymanand his mother was a seamstress
.
Such classic jobs for the time,am I right?
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (11:56):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:58):
Efren was known to be outgoing and smart, although he
never, admittedly, tried veryhard at school, and we hear that
about people that are reallysmart.
Right, school is boring, yeah,and I'm not sure if this was the
case for Efren, but perhaps itwas so.
After failing to graduate highschool, he got an equivalency
certificate and enrolled at theCollege of Medical and Dental
(12:20):
Careers in the spring of 1988.
And dental careers in thespring of 1988.
He wanted to be a respiratorytherapist.
Why, well, it's not someheartfelt, touching story like
the rest of us usually gushabout when we're asked why we
joined our fields of practice nono, efren wanted to become a
respiratory therapist because hequote liked the uniforms.
(12:44):
End quote a respiratorytherapist because he quote liked
the uniforms end quote dude,they're scrubs.
I mean, how many different andI'm I'm sorry guys, yes, I'm
like the only respiratorytherapist I have ever worked
with also just wore scrubs, solike I guess I've never been in
(13:05):
the room with them during anassessment.
So like, please excuse me ifI'm missing something cooler
than scrubs and like, yeah, anddon't get me wrong Like we all
love a scrubs moment, but bro.
Heck, yeah, I'm wearing themright now, yeah, a lot of
careers afford the opportunityto wear scrubs, so I just
thought that's an interestingchoice I mean he could have been
(13:28):
a hairdresser.
Speaker 1 (13:29):
Well, no, we don't want to put more yeah, yeah,
okay, anyway and just likethat's so funny.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
Okay, oh god, efren, you big da.
Okay.
So in 1989, which entered meinto the world, he was certified
.
Speaker 1 (13:49):
You're such a baby.
You're so small.
That was the year I graduatedfrom high school.
I'm just saying.
Speaker 2 (13:56):
Hey, I made the 80s.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
I almost made 88.
You can say you're an 80s child.
Yeah, oh.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
You're a preemie, almost Ohemie.
Oh, no, full term.
I'm just saying like it justwas right into the beginning of
oh, I have an early birthday,yeah, yeah, anyway, enough about
me.
Back to efren.
Yeah, in 1989 he was certifiedby the state of california as a
respiratory care practitionerand was hired at glendale
adventist.
Yes, sorry, she rose her hand.
(14:24):
Yes, is there a difference?
Speaker 1 (14:26):
I'm raising my hand.
I'm so polite all of a sudden.
That doesn't normally happen.
What's the difference between arespiratory care practitioner?
Speaker 2 (14:34):
No clue, I think it's just like sometimes they're
called this and sometimesthey're called that.
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Like when they say like a dish technician or
something, for somebody whowashes dishes, dish technician.
They're just trying to fancy,they're trying to fancify
something.
Yeah, I don't know, that's justwhat the document sounds
already, he's a.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
He's a respiratory therapist, I don't know, it
sounds fancy.
Okay, he's an rt.
So anyway, he was hired atglendale adventist Center and he
most typically worked overnightshifts, commonly known as the
graveyard shift, a term thatwould become horrifically
literal over the next nine years.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
Oh no.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
Repetorial as a respiratory therapist, Efren.
Speaker 1 (15:19):
Oh, now he's a care therapist.
You wrote respiratory caretherapist.
That's why I skipped it.
Speaker 2 (15:26):
You guys.
I intentionally skipped that.
She's reading it.
Get off my document.
Sorry, I've been off yourdocument as a respiratory
therapist, efren, was authorizedto administer medication to
help patients with breathingproblems.
And, like I don't know if Marcyever listens to this, but I
just like, the whole time I wasdoing this I wanted to be like
(15:48):
hi, mercy oh, I know we have ourfriends.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
We have some lots of respiratory therapy therapy,
friend, down the hall from usevan was described as a pretty
nice guy and that he seemednormal okay, I'm sorry, I'm
gonna stop interrupting afterthis well maybe not.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
But if you have to say somebody's pretty nice, that
means he's probably not niceand they're just gonna be nice
that or like maybe you're kindof a loner and like no one
really talks to you anyway, sothey don't really know a lot
about you, but you, you've neverbeen like ugly to them or
anything, so like I don't know,I think he's like a pretty nice
guy, okay.
Okay, two sides of the coin.
Maybe it's a cube, maybethere's more sides, I don't know
(16:30):
.
And it would be three yearsuntil efren would decide to
start taking the lives ofpatients.
Oh, and you may ask yourself,how does one just decide to
start doing this?
And I'm sure that murderershave many forms of inspiration,
but for efren, our buddy efren,the inspiration came from a 2020
(16:50):
new segment of 60 minutes.
She's got her hand up folks.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
I have to point out the pun.
Is this the?
Speaker 2 (16:57):
same, or is?
Speaker 1 (16:58):
it because he's a.
He's a respiratory therapistand you use the word inspiration
twice in that sentence todescribe.
Yeah, I was totally trying tobe punny Love that.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
Okay 2020.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
60 minutes I was not trying to be punny, I did not do
it, get it.
Inspiration Expiration Okay, Ijust blew into the microphone.
I'm making my job really hard.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
She's going to regret that later.
I just blew into the microphone.
I'm making my job really hard.
She's going to regret thatlater.
The episode reported on atherapist in Chicago who was
killing patients.
He would later confess toauthorities.
He felt encouraged by othertherapists at the hospital who
would sometimes give him roomnumbers of patients who needed
lethal injections.
I know that was odd to me, soodd that I almost took it out,
(17:44):
but it's something he said.
So maybe they were just likethis guy doesn't mind if people
die, you can go to it.
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
But why are we doing lethal injections?
I don't know.
I didn't think that was allowed.
I don't know.
Maybe if somebody's brain dead,maybe you know what.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
I mean, yeah, but don't they just take them off?
Speaker 1 (18:02):
support then, and wait for nature to take its
course, can you keep yourselfalive without being hooked up to
stuff, and without?
No, I don't know, that doesn'tmake sense.
Maybe it was a typo orsomething and they would give
him room numbers of patientsthat needed injections and he
(18:23):
turned them to be lethal.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
Yeah, yeah, I'm going to go with that?
Speaker 1 (18:28):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
Yeah Well, anyway, regardless, his colleagues
started to grow suspicious ofhim and they noticed that he was
storing medications in hislocker, along with a magic
syringe, as they called it.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
Okay, guys, if you see something, say something.
Am I right?
Speaker 2 (18:45):
Well, you're right, but someone does explain later
why they didn't say something.
Okay, the Glendale policedepartment received a tip on
march 2nd 1998.
The hospital had called toinform them that they received a
call from someone named grant,and grant stated that there was
a respiratory therapist who waskilling patients by lethal
(19:05):
injection.
The caller alleged that on orabout February 16th a therapist
named Efren Saldivar at GlendaleAdventist Medical Center helped
a patient die fast.
This Grant character said thathe wanted $50,000 before he'd
share more information.
(19:26):
The initial thought was thatsomeone was just trying to
extort the hospital for money.
But what if it was true?
Thought was that someone wasjust trying to extort the
hospital for money.
But what if it was true?
So authorities went to Grant'shouse and he shared that he was
friends with a woman who workedat the hospital and that he had
overheard a conversation, thatthere was someone on staff that
they believed was intentionallykilling patients and he told
them which is also contradictoryof what was said that he said
(19:49):
if you can give me a list of allof the respiratory therapists
at the hospital, I can tell youwhich one it was, so that the
name was shared with thehospital before.
But whatever, I wasn't there.
I was like in fourth grade Iwas I.
I was graduating with mymaster's degree I don't know if
(20:12):
I was in fourth grade, butanyway.
So a list was shared and hepointed out the name Efren
Salvador.
Authorities went to thehospital to start an
investigation, wanting to, ofcourse, keep things close to the
chest, in an effort that, ifthe news of the investigation
would get out, that it would notget back to Efren.
Bob Baker was one of therespiratory therapists that was
(20:34):
interviewed.
He indicated that he was alsosuspicious of Efren.
Bob didn't want anyone to seehim talking to authorities.
In fact, he asked to meet inthe parking lot and was just
puffing away at cigarettes whenthey talked, which I also
thought was wild, because you'rea respiratory therapist.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
He's a respiratory freaking therapist.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
And you're smoking.
I guess he was just likepuffing heaters and he was like
looking around as if he wasworried that he would be caught.
Suspicious heck, yeah.
So Bob told them that Efren waskilling patients and that had
started many years ago.
He explained that hisconfidence in this information
(21:17):
came from finding medication inefren's locker and he explained
that he found the medicationsand never said anything because
he was playing a practical joke.
So the joke was that he wasgoing to switch things from
efren's locker with someoneelse's locker.
But when he pried open Efren'slocker he found the controlled
substances that are monitored bythe hospital and, you know,
(21:39):
only specific individuals shouldhave them.
None of them, being arespiratory therapist, should
never have access or be inpossession of them.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
Well, not in your personal locker.
Yeah, not in your locker.
But again, so he didn't sayanything yeah, not in your
locker.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
But again so he didn't say anything because he
went into his locker withoutpermission.
He broke into his locker.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
Yeah, I'm sorry, but he could have just said I was
pranking him and I found thisyeah, See something, say
something, yeah Right.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
So the police had nothing at this point but a name
.
So they decided to call Efrendown to the station for some
questions.
And when he got there heappeared very anxious upon
arrival, like he needed to getsomething off of his shoulders.
And so they told him you know,there are some allegations that
you are killing patients.
And after they said that, efrenseemed to clam up a little bit.
(22:28):
So Detective Curry was worriedhow much he would get out of
them, because really they hadnothing.
He said that one way that theycan clear his name is by a
polygraph.
But Efren did not want to do apolygraph because he said the
results would be inconclusive.
He said they would beinconclusive because he was
(22:49):
responsible for the death of apatient in 1989.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
Clever.
Yeah, that was clever of him,though, to get out of it that
way.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
He shared that six months after he started his job,
which was nine years earlier, apatient had been taken off of
life support and the doctor hadtold the family, you know, the
patient was dead.
So Efren explained that when hewent into the room 45 minutes
later, the patient was stillalive and he thought well, we
can't have this.
So he suffocated him by joiningthe respirator breathing tubes,
(23:21):
blocking the flow of fresh airand causing the patient to die
in about 15 minutes oh okay, Itake back what I said.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
Yeah, I didn't understand that he'd actually
caused this guy to die.
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
So detective curry thanked him for sharing and knew
he needed to get him chattingsome more, and in the end efren
did agree to do a polygraph exam.
Curry was listening fromoutside of the door as efren
relayed the same test concernsto the examiner.
But then he also shared withhim another incident that
(23:57):
happened in august of 1997, whenhe injected a patient with a
medication that caused paralysis, ultimately leading to the
patient's death.
The polygraph examiner askedefren if he considered himself
an angel of death and he repliedyes.
After hearing yet anotherconfession, curry knew that he
(24:19):
needed to keep him talking, andso he brought in one of his
colleagues, detective TonyFuchsia.
But first things first, efrenwas arrested on charges of
murder and read his Mirandarights, in which he waved and
continued to confess detailedaccounts of all of the deaths.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
Oh my goodness, I interviewed.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
Efren at length and he told me that he had caused
between 40 and 50 deaths at GAMCsince he was employed there in
1989, curry stated.
Efren said that some of thedeaths were by lethal injections
(25:02):
of the Pavulon or SUCC, both ofwhich caused paralysis.
He also admitted to causingdeaths by decreasing oxygen of
patients who were on aventilator.
This is chilling, but heexplained to Curry that the
criteria for patients beingkilled were as follows they had
to be unconscious, they had tohave a DNR order and they had to
(25:25):
look like they were ready todie.
Efren said that he quote pridedhimself in having a very
ethical criteria as to how hepicked victims.
End quote.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
So he's playing God and he's convinced himself that
he's saving them from sufferingMm-hmm.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
Yeah, oh, my gosh.
Detectives asked Efren to getinto more specifics like room
numbers, patient names etc.
So that they'd have somethingmore concrete to go off of.
He said that he stoppedcounting how many deaths he had
caused after 50 or 60 patientsthat he had used pavulin and
(26:05):
that his motive was more to helpthem die the whole angel of
death thing, more to help themdie the whole angel of death
thing.
So once he was booked in jail,detectives only had 48 hours to
get concrete evidence to makecharges stick, and if they
couldn't do that within 48 hourshe would have to be released
imagine the pressure you wouldfeel, like you know this guy
needs to be taken off thestreets and I feel like we're
(26:29):
always so disappointed whenwe're like, oh you, you didn't
arrest him and they're like, no,we need more concrete
information or it's never gonnastick, and like here's the case
where he was arrested because hedid admit to killing people,
but it's like we don't actuallyhave any evidence.
Now we only have 48 hours andthere I don't think I put this
in there, but there were a lotof things where detectives and
(26:53):
authorities were like this wasliterally a backwards case, like
we had a confession but we hadto find what the crime was.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
Oh my gosh, it's crazy.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
So a search warrant was obtained for his locker at
work which revealed that he wasdoing some sample testing on a
machine at work.
And to do tests on the machinehe had to put a name into the
machine, and the name he choseto use was Dr Kevorkian.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
Subtle Real subtle dude no one will figure that out
.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
So Dr Jack Kevorkian, if you don't know, was
assisting people with suicide bylethal injection or medication,
and so this was a look intoEfren's state of mind for
authorities that there was somevalidity into what they were
investigating.
A team also went to his house toexecute a search warrant and
they took anything that wasrelated to the medical field,
(27:47):
one of these items being a drugcalled Versed, which we know,
one of these items being a drugcalled versed, which we know.
Yeah, versed is a controlledsubstance used by
anesthesiologists or doctors tohelp relax patients and let them
be drowsy for a procedure.
Again, not something arespiratory therapist should
have in their possessionspecifically at their house or
(28:07):
even use at the hospital.
Investigators were gettingclose to their 48-hour time
frame, and they knew that theyweren't going to be able to
gather enough concrete evidenceby that time.
So, at the very least, theycalled the board to have his
license revoked so that he wouldbe kept out of work while they
continued to dig deeper.
And, yes, he was released after48 hours, unfortunately, but
(28:30):
the board did suspend hislicense to practice and he was
also fired from the hospital.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
Well, thank goodness, at least yeah, for that small
mercy.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
Small victories, yep.
So the hospital also launchedan internal investigation and
put all of the respiratory staff, which was about 40 people, on
paid leave pending theinvestigation.
Staff, which was about 40people, on paid leave pending
the investigation.
This has been an all-out searchfor the truth for this hospital
, said hospital spokespersonmark newmeyer.
We do not know at this point ifany wrongdoing has been
(29:02):
committed.
We did bring the police inimmediately.
I'm like lol, that's suchayour-ass statement from a
hospital spokesperson.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
But also what's going to happen when somebody needs a
respiratory therapist?
Speaker 2 (29:17):
I know I guess they're just relying on the
doctors Starting tohyperventilate, oh my gosh.
I'm sorry guys, you have toplace your own ventilators
because the RTs are out rightnow.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
My goodness Wow the.
Speaker 2 (29:30):
RTs are out right now .
My goodness, wow.
So investigators fully immersedthemselves in the case,
cross-referencing a list ofpatients that had died with
those that were treated by Efren, and can you even imagine that
undertaking?
All of the deaths at thehospital to be looked at for a
whole ass decade.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
Oh my God, that's so long.
That's gotta be so manythousands oh, my gosh, yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:57):
And it didn't take long for media to get a hold of
the story.
It was all over the news and soa hotline was shared for the
public to call if they believedthey knew someone who might be
involved in a mysterious case ofdeath at the hospital.
And they received 500 calls inthe first day.
Oh cause, you know, everyonesaw that and they were like,
(30:19):
yeah, my Thelma shouldn't havedied.
Speaker 1 (30:21):
Yeah, oh my God, what a, what a nightmare.
Oh gosh, what a.
Speaker 2 (30:26):
PR nightmare First of all, but then yeah, they
couldn't even do this work Likenightmare first of all.
But then, yeah, they couldn'teven do this work, like it was
so much they couldn't even doall the work at the police
station and they were kind ofgetting some gruff from their
colleagues of, like you guys arechasing a pot of gold at the
rainbow, you know, like this isa waste of time kind of thing,
like there's no concreteevidence and so there's not
(30:48):
gonna be any if you don't digfor it right.
And so there was a house by thehospital that was owned by the
hospital that, like, residentslive in, and it was empty at the
time.
So the hospital letinvestigators shack up there and
make that their likeinvestigation home site.
So that was kind of cool.
Oh, that's good, yeah.
So now we're in April of 1998.
(31:09):
And Efren decided, you know,he's going to go on national
broadcast shows and he took partin an interview with 2020 where
he recanted no, he didn't, oh,he did.
Where he recanted his allegedconfession, claiming that it was
a suicidal plea.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
Oh, come on, Efren, you're a narcissist.
Oh, oh my god, how much of anarcissist is this guy?
Speaker 2 (31:36):
holy cow, the meter is off the charts.
He said that he was under theinfluence of valium when he came
in for the interview and thathe was depressed.
So he yeah, you know yeah, I'vehad valium before.
Speaker 1 (31:50):
I definitely go to the police station if I'm on
Valium and tell the police Ikilled 50 people.
Come on, dude.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
Well, you know so he said he was depressed and he
wanted to commit a crime that he, so he wanted to confess to
committing a crime he didn'tcommit, he said.
He said he lied.
He wanted the system to do tome what I couldn't do to me.
He said I was looking to die.
I figured, you know, one deathisn't going to be enough for the
death penalty.
(32:19):
So I said two, and then Istarted to cry because I was
ending my life.
Speaker 1 (32:23):
End quote, which I'm like you didn't say two, you
said 50 in the rod dude, getyour facts right at least.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
Come on, math it a little you're on 2020, bro, get
your shit together.
But after he did this interview, then the public seemed to
believe him and a morning talkshow host even called out the
police department for harassinghim.
I was like what, how dare youcame to the station and admitted
(32:50):
to killing over 50 people.
Like it's not harassment, it'scalled an investigation, sweetie
.
Like how do you not look intothat?
But okay, and when theinvestigators would be at the
hospital, there would be doctorslike passing in the hall who
would even ask them are wereally going to be wasting
taxpayers' money on this?
Speaker 1 (33:10):
Yes, yes, we are, Because the public needs to be
safe from serial killers.
Yes, come on guys.
Speaker 2 (33:15):
How about stay in your lane?
You save lives.
How clever is this.
Speaker 1 (33:19):
How clever is this dude, though I mean he knows
he's, he can manipulate people.
Oh my God, I hate him so muchyeah.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
So, before we get any more into that, we are gonna
head into a little chart.
No, welcome to the chart notesegment where we learn about
what's happening in medicine andhealth care.
Have you seen that tiktokactually, where it's like for
(33:52):
$50, blah, blah, blah.
I can't even remember the exactwords right now, but people are
like mimicking this likesomething that's on sale and
it's like you can get two forthe price of one.
I don't know, I felt very like.
Speaker 1 (34:04):
Welcome to the chart note segment.
Yeah, I mean I feel like yougot it down pat.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
Yeah, if only I could know the actual words.
Okay, so today we're going tobe talking about menstrual AI.
Speaker 1 (34:20):
Excuse me, you mentioned that.
You just throw that out therelike I'm supposed to know what
that means.
So Can we have robots haveperiods for women?
That'd be awesome.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
that would be awesome yeah, it's like, if you're not
having babies, like what thefuck do I need this thing for
for real?
So, anyway, menstrual ai,turning menstrual blood into a
powerful health diagnostic tool.
So every month, around 1.8billion people menstruate,
(34:56):
that's a lot, holy smokes.
Yet the potential of menstrualblood as a valuable health
resource remains largelyuntapped.
While venous blood has longbeen a cornerstone of medical
diagnostics, menstrual blood,which contains hundreds of
proteins and biomarkers, isstill primarily viewed as waste
or used only for fertilitytracking.
(35:18):
A team of researchers at ETHZurich, led by Professor Ng
Herman and doctoral studentLucas Dasnan, is working to
change that.
Their innovation, MenstruAI Ithink.
Menstruai is afirst-of-its-kind, non-invasive
health monitoring tool builtdirectly into a sanitary pad.
(35:39):
The smart pad uses apaper-based lateral flow assay,
Assay, Assay, Assay, Assay Iknow now I can't stop saying ass
.
So apparently this flow assayis similar to COVID-19 test
strips to analyze menstrualblood for biomarkers associated
(36:02):
with various diseases, includinginflammation, infections,
endometriosis and cancer.
It's an entirely novel way tointegrate diagnostics into
everyday life, right where noone expected in a menstrual pad.
Exactly wow, yeah.
So how it works is obviouslyyou wear the pad that's embedded
with the non-electronic sensor.
(36:24):
After use, a photograph of thepad is taken using a smartphone
and there's an app that you havedownloaded already to your
smartphone that analyzes thecolor changes using machine
learning trained on hundreds oftest strip images.
So, inside the pad, a flexiblesilicone chamber ensures a
controlled flow of blood reachesthe embedded test area,
(36:46):
preventing smearing andmaintaining accuracy.
When menstrual blood contactsgold nanoparticle-coated
antibodies on the test strip, avisible color change occurs.
The darker the color, thehigher the concentration of
specific proteins like CRP.
So C-reactive protein, which isa general inflammation marker.
Cea, carcinoembryonic antigen,which is a tumor marker often
(37:10):
elevated in cancers.
Embryonic antigen, which is atumor marker often elevated in
cancers, and CA-125, linked toendometriosis and ovarian cancer
.
Wow, the smartphone app notonly provides a visual readout,
but can detect subtle variationsin protein concentration,
making the results objectivelymeasurable even without lab
equipment.
Speaker 1 (37:30):
That's incredible.
Speaker 2 (37:31):
Yep.
So it's accessible, affordableand designed for real life, and
we love that.
So the technology is currentlyundergoing further field testing
with over 100 participants.
After a successful proof ofconcept study, the research team
is investigating how thecomposition of menstrual blood
carries excuse me varies acrossindividuals and throughout the
(37:52):
menstrual cycle, which isessential for clinical
validation.
They are also evaluatingmaterials for biocompatibility
and regulatory approval as theyprepare for potential
commercialization.
I wrote a whole bunch morestuff about this, but I don't
think we need to talk about thepads anymore.
So just to conclude, it's morethan a smart pad.
(38:14):
It's a paradigm shift.
By leveraging the hiddenpotential of menstrual blood and
combining it with ai poweredanalysis, this innovation has
the potential to democratizehealth monitoring, particularly
for those who have historicallybeen excluded from timely
diagnostics.
It offers a discreet,affordable, affordable and
revolutionary new way to keeptrack of one's health, one cycle
(38:34):
at a time.
Speaker 1 (38:36):
I love this.
I mean because you don't haveto give blood or go anywhere or
do anything.
It's like you're alreadybleeding anyway, so like here.
Yeah, yeah, god, I would haveloved this.
Like I just feel like it's,it's like a small little perk,
like a little silver lining,like, yeah, I'm suffering once a
month.
What the hell, god, it sucks tobe a woman.
(38:58):
Sometimes I feel that way, youknow, and then it's like but you
know what I get to monitor myhealth because I do this?
Right, that's, that's part ofit, is the emotional impact, but
also like yay, because I thinkit's going to reach people who
otherwise wouldn't, especiallyyoung people that only go in
when something's falling off orbleeding, you know, right, so,
(39:20):
and not, not menstruallybleeding, but, like you know, I
think this is great.
Speaker 2 (39:24):
Let's say you're a busy person and you live in like
a medical wasteland wherethere's nowhere to go, but you
can have pods delivered to yourhouse.
Speaker 1 (39:33):
This access is amazing.
Speaker 2 (39:34):
I love this, yeah that's so cool, thank you, for
sharing that of course.
Okay, back to the story.
Speaker 1 (39:42):
I don't know why I feel like that is necessary.
You said that like a SpongeBobepisode.
Three hours later.
Speaker 2 (39:52):
That's the only way I want to say it for the rest of
my life.
Excuse me.
Investigators narrowed down thelist of patients to be reviewed
by medical experts.
They found a trend where theywould be getting better and then
suddenly they died.
In order to charge him withmurder, they needed to then find
(40:16):
patients that were notprescribed pavulin but had it in
their system oh yeah, clutter.
So pavulin again.
We've said it's a relaxer, butwhat it's used for in their work
is to relax respiratory musclesduring surgery.
So once administered, patientscannot breathe on their own.
(40:36):
So if not put on a ventilator,they will suffocate and die.
Speaker 1 (40:41):
Oh, my goodness.
Speaker 2 (40:43):
Dr Dale Issef was the physician appointed to be the
investigative expert.
He went through one chart at atime.
Speaker 1 (40:52):
I can't imagine how long that took Bless his
ever-loving heart.
Speaker 2 (40:57):
So if the patient had stable vitals and the nurse's
note indicated that the patientwas doing well.
But then the next noteindicated that the patient was
found dead in bed.
That was pretty suspicious, andthis Dr Issaif Issaif Issaif
Was a cardiologist, so he wasable to show investigators look,
they were doing good.
(41:18):
But then this happened X Y Z,and this would indicate that a
paralyzing agent may have beengiven, and this paralyzing agent
being pavulin.
The problem was that there wasno known test to detect if
pavulin was in the body,especially bodies that had been
in the ground for a year or more.
They were then given the nameof Dr Brian Andresen, who was
(41:41):
the director at LawrenceLivermore National Laboratory.
At Lawrence Livermore NationalLaboratory, dr Andresen was told
that pavulin and SUCC were themolecules confessed to be used
in the killings.
Andresen explained that,because SUCC breaks down very
quickly into chemicals that arenormally found in human tissue,
the testing would, or should, beconcentrated on pavulin, which
(42:04):
is a potent synthetic musclerelaxant administered to
patients on artificialrespiration.
The compound is very powerfuland is given at very low levels,
and it was previously thoughtto dissipate quickly in the body
.
So Andresen said that he keptan open mind when looking at the
samples.
But he wasn't sure exactly whathe would be able to find.
(42:26):
So he first took to thetextbooks to learn everything he
could about the molecule, andnext he put pavulin into tissue
samples to isolate it out ofdecomposing tissue samples.
He worked 18 hour days forweeks and weeks doing laboratory
work.
Speaker 1 (42:41):
Oh, honey, honey, you gotta sleep, you gotta eat.
Speaker 2 (42:44):
No, this guy is a badass, I badass I mean yes,
that is so much work.
So, yes, he put a lot of effortinto creating an analytical
procedure because he got thefeeling from police that this
really could be something, anddr andresen was able to
successfully replicate findingswith a protocol he created.
So investigators worked ondetermining which bodies they
would need to exhume for testing.
Speaker 1 (43:06):
That's amazing, oh my goodness.
Speaker 2 (43:08):
So this laboratory?
I had never heard of it, butit's, like I mentioned earlier,
like the last resort lab.
So when there are big thingsthat happen, like the Unabomber
or the Twin Towers, these arethe folks that they go to.
Oh, wow.
Speaker 1 (43:25):
How cool would it be to work there right or to know
the people that work there Iknow.
Speaker 2 (43:30):
So it's like it's amazing.
Yeah, I know I thought that waslike super obviously sad that
they had to reach out to thislab for this case, but super
cool that that's a resource thatthey were able to tell these
people are there and they're sodedicated.
Speaker 1 (43:42):
I mean, basically, they give up their own lives.
Speaker 2 (43:46):
Literally 18 hours a day yeah.
Speaker 1 (43:49):
To find a solution.
Speaker 2 (43:50):
Wow.
So while Dr Andresen was hardat work in the lab,
investigators were also workinglong days into nights, combing
through thousands and thousandsof patient files.
It took them 14 months tocomplete going through all of
the files.
There had been a total of 171patients who died while efren
was working at the hospital.
(44:11):
54 of these cases wereeliminated because the bodies
had been cremated.
Of the remainder, 20 deathswere determined to have been
suspicious and their bodieswould be exhumed.
They first had to contact thefamilies and let them know what
was going on and that they'd beexhuming the body of their loved
ones, which was not a fun task.
Speaker 1 (44:30):
Can you imagine having to tell a family that,
and can you imagine being thatfamily member?
Being told that no, oh my gosh.
Speaker 2 (44:40):
After the bodies were exhumed, they were taken to the
coroner to have tissue samplesremoved, and those samples were
directly driven to Dr Andresenat the lab every Thursday.
He spent hundreds of hours moregoing through the samples and
three months later, while at thelab, dr Andresen found pavulon
in one of the tissue samples.
So investigators and DrAndresen celebrated this finding
(45:03):
but knew that there was morework to do, and so in the end,
of the 20 patients exhumed, sixof them had pavulin in their
tissues that were neversubscribed the medication.
Speaker 1 (45:15):
I mean we're at 30% now, so what?
How many people died?
171 patients 171.
Speaker 2 (45:21):
So 30, or 171.
Speaker 1 (45:24):
So 30% of that.
Speaker 2 (45:26):
Well, and also, though, they couldn't test 54
because they've been cremated,so I feel like we have to take
that off of the 171 yeah, so Ithink I think there's easily
definitely 50, but easily 60 ormore patients, right, oh yeah?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, if you lookat that percentage.
(45:47):
Well, yeah, yeah, yeah.
So now investigators felt likethey had enough to charge efren
with maida and detectives havebeen tracking his whereabouts
throughout the investigation sothat when they had any sort of
breakthrough they would be ableto nab him and bring him in.
And so, on january 9th 2001, hewas arrested and charged with
(46:11):
six counts of first-degreemurder.
Once at the station, he wasforthcoming with the interview
in comparison to his first theygot into talking about motive,
which investigators assumed himto say you know, these were
mercy killings, blah, blah, blah.
But what shocked him was hethen blamed it on the workload.
What, yeah?
(46:32):
So he basically was like ifwe're too busy and I'm
short-staffed, fuck it, theygotta go.
So he, he said the criteria thathe used to try and kill people
was not if they were a nuisanceto him or had been annoying him
or something.
It simply sometimes came downto a crime of opportunity
(46:53):
Someone that would get in theway of him getting something
done that he needed to do thatday.
That person would just be offedIf he needed to complete a task
.
But he was called away to see apatient.
Nope, he said they're old andit's time for them to die I hate
him so much yeah I'll wait tillyou see a picture of this dweeb
(47:13):
too.
Oh my god.
So yes, he explained.
If there were not enoughrespiratory therapists on staff
for the shift, someone had todie, which I'm like.
We all hate being short-staffed, but like what right?
I'm just like imagining in mycaseload like oh, so-and-so is a
pain in the butt, they're gonnatake me longer than I have time
(47:46):
for I god, so okayinvestigators, you know, during
this time also learned how heobtained medications in the
first place and he explainedthat if a code blue was called a
respiratory, therapist is oneof the people on the team
because oftentimes they have toput a patient on a ventilator to
assist with breathing.
So the crash cart that isbrought to a code blue holds the
(48:09):
medications to aid inintubating the patient, and
prior to intubating they want toobviously stop the gag reflex,
so medications such as the SUCCor the pavlovin were used.
Efren explained that after thepatient was stabilized.
there was never anyone left atthe scene other than the
respiratory therapist.
And why?
Because the patient's on aventilator.
(48:31):
Everyone like they're stable.
Yeah, and so the people, theother people apparently, or they
the respiratory therapist, Idon't know.
He said that they were supposedto dump the rest of the drug
down the sink, but either theydidn't do that or he didn't do
that.
Either way, it went to hislocker.
The drugs were just left on thetray and then to the locker.
Speaker 1 (48:53):
Oh my gosh, that explains so much.
Speaker 2 (48:55):
Right.
So on March 12, 2002, efrenpleaded guilty to six counts of
first-degree murder and onecount of attempted murder.
Wait what?
Attempted murder and one countof attempted murder.
Speaker 1 (49:09):
Wait what.
Speaker 2 (49:09):
Attempted murder you ask.
That's right I do, I do, I do,I do.
One woman was lucky enough tosurvive his attempt.
Her name was Jean Coyle and shewas known by family and friends
to be a happy lady, alwayslistening to music, going to the
beach, horse races, justgenerally having a good time.
And her kids called her GypsyJean because she was always oh,
(49:31):
I love her.
I know Because she was alwaysgoing from place to place and
hooking up her U-Haul and movingfrom here to there.
Speaker 1 (49:39):
Oh, she had free spirit.
Speaker 2 (49:41):
She's so sweet.
Jean had been a heavy smokerfor most of her life and quit in
her 50s.
So she thought she had asthmabut was diagnosed with COPD and
after being hospitalized in theICU for breathing treatments she
suddenly coded.
Luckily she was able to beresuscitated, but Jean called
her daughter and told her thatsomeone had come to her bedside
(50:03):
and did some stuff and the nextthing I knew she was out.
She also reported thisencounter to other hospital
staff but sadly at the time thiswas taken just for wild talk,
which I feel like we hear that alot right like oh, these
patients are delusional, they'rein the icu, they're just saying
whatever you know.
But lucky for her she was nevervisited by that someone again,
(50:25):
and that someone being efrenSaldivar, who did recall exactly
who Gene Coyle was when he wasasked.
Speaker 1 (50:32):
Oh my goodness, that fucker.
Speaker 2 (50:36):
Ugh yeah.
So Efren avoided the deathpenalty by a plea deal, which I
thought was a little funnybecause his initial reason for
recanting his confession wasbecause he wanted to die.
But okey dokey, apparently, hedoes that, apparently, you don't
Okay, change of heart.
Change of heart, yes, okay,okay.
So he is currently serving andwe're going to be happy about
(50:59):
this guys.
He is serving six consecutivelife sentences at California
State prison, corcoran, withoutthe possibility of parole oh,
good riddance so he's nevergetting out.
Thank goodness he like got moresentencing than like 10 other
murderers combined, yeah and youknow what, we don't do this
(51:23):
enough for murderers.
Speaker 1 (51:24):
But also like I can.
I can kind of get behind theangel of death, like the angel
of mercy type mentality.
I mean I don't, I don't supportit, but like I can at least
understand that there is somesort of empathy or humanity
behind putting someone out oftheir misery or someone who's
asking to be put out of theirmisery yeah, but he was like I
(51:48):
like the uniforms and he's likefuck yeah, these scrubs are
awesome I look hot in thesescrubs.
It's like actually once you seea picture of me like you're
never fucking hot.
Speaker 2 (52:01):
Actually, zero percent chance in any outfit oh.
Speaker 1 (52:07):
And then he's like oh my god, I got too much work to
do, it's your time.
Speaker 2 (52:12):
She's like fucking marcia called in sick.
Fuck this, I gotta kill someone, that's it that's it.
Speaker 1 (52:16):
That's it, number 102 you're, you're out, you're out.
Speaker 2 (52:20):
I mean that's so sorry you hit your call button
today, sweetie angel of death onthat is not even laughable.
Speaker 1 (52:28):
I shouldn't be joking about it, no, but it is.
It's like how could someonehold life so cavalierly in their
hands?
It's disgusting and I'm gladhe's put away forever.
Forever and ever you will belocked up, you stupid mother
(52:49):
fucker.
Stupid ass hat.
Thank you, hey alley cats.
You know we're getting on thefence, we're getting squirrely,
we are Listen.
Thank God that you brought thiscase to our attention and that
(53:09):
we have handful sports brashonestly, I do thank god for
them every day because I do wearthem.
Speaker 2 (53:15):
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Speaker 1 (54:13):
Stay suspicious suspicious, oh my goodness.
Well, thank you for that.
Shall we lighten things up alittle bit with a medical mishap
?
I think we shall.
Shall I read it, or do you wantto?
Speaker 2 (54:31):
It's up to you.
Speaker 1 (54:34):
I feel like I need to get in there.
Speaker 2 (54:36):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (54:38):
It says Hi, ladies, loving the pod, thank you and
looking forward to Wednesdayswhen life gets busy.
I get to binge listen and, andthat's fun too, I work in an ER.
Oh, bless your cotton socks,whoever you are.
But yeah, and wanted to share acautionary tale with you all.
Bring it.
It was around 2 am when a mancame stumbling into the ER, one
(55:02):
eye tightly sealed shut I can'tbe good Red and watering.
He sheepishly admitted that hegrabbed the wrong tube from his
night.
Oh no, he grabbed the wrongtube from his nightstand.
Assume, oh no, a super gluetube instead of this
prescription?
Speaker 2 (55:20):
eye drops dude.
Speaker 1 (55:21):
Why are you putting glue by your bed.
I'm just like.
Speaker 2 (55:26):
What are we?
Speaker 1 (55:27):
What are we lying?
Speaker 2 (55:28):
in bed at night going .
Speaker 1 (55:29):
you know what I need?
This Sir.
What have we been gluing?
I mean, yeah, exactly.
What do you have in your bed?
Speaker 2 (55:35):
I know I'm trying to think right here I have Tums, my
phone charging stand and abottle of water, and then remote
control to my fan Classic stuffClassic stuff, nothing needs to
be glued.
Speaker 1 (55:47):
I have a little bit of lip, you know chapstick type
stuff I'm.
I have some allergy meds incase I forgot to take them.
But like, seriously, okay,we'll go back to no glue, no
glue you know, no glue and no,no need for glue, really really
what?
What are you doing?
So he tilted his head back andsqueezed twice before realizing
(56:09):
that something was off.
Dude, I don't know the rest ofthis.
No, his eyelid was sealed also,don't you smell it?
yeah, that stuff stinks.
His eyelid was sealed to hiseyelid and his eyelashes were
fused together in a stiffcrunchy mess.
(56:32):
I hate this.
I hate this so much you workedin ophthalmology for a while.
Did you ever see that come intoyour?
Speaker 2 (56:41):
clinic?
I did not, but I will say theonly thing that I can think of
that could, like mistakenly,maybe be confused, especially at
the 2 am hour.
Again, I don't know why gluewas on this man's table, but
they have like gel eye drops andthey're much thicker and when
(57:04):
you do use them your vision doesgo blurry for a time before you
know whatever, yeah, so I'mlike that could maybe have felt
similar to what super.
Speaker 1 (57:17):
Yeah, because aren't certain antibiotics or things
that you know for viruses,mm-hmm, yeah, yeah, gel.
Speaker 2 (57:25):
Yeah.
So I'm like maybe that, likethe initial feeling was like I
have the right thing, I don'tknow, but that now I can't get
past that, remembering thatsuper glue stinks.
Speaker 1 (57:35):
So the er team used to yeah, I mean, bless I, I.
I should have made you readthis.
I have an eyeball problem, likeoh my god, I went in, I went
into ears for a reason like I,eyeballs oh I thought you meant
you currently have an eyebrowproblem no, no, I just eyeballs
kind of I'm squeamish about,like give me your earwax yeah I
(57:59):
feel like, give me your.
Give me your.
You know your poor, whateverI'm like, give me your hearing
loss.
Give me your.
You know your pore, whateverI'm like, give me your hearing
loss.
Give me your earwax, but don'tgive me your eyeball problems.
So the ER team used acombination of mineral oil,
acetone how would you putacetone on an eye?
And painstakingly slow tools topry everything apart.
(58:23):
Good Lord, thankfully nopermanent damage.
But he left with an eye patch,an ophthalmology appointment and
a new rule no keeping glue nextto the medications.
Yeah, good rule.
Speaker 2 (58:37):
Yeah, dude, golden rule.
Speaker 1 (58:40):
Oh, my goodness, Thanks for reading.
If you do Well, thank you,Stephanie, Because it says take
care, Stephanie.
Thank you Stephanie.
Speaker 2 (58:45):
Thank you Stephanie for making us slam our eyeball
shut if you do well, thank you,stephanie, because it says take
care, stephanie.
Thank you, stephanie.
Thank you, stephanie, formaking a slammer eyeball shot
and so thankful we don't glue onour night slam them shut.
Speaker 1 (58:55):
Thank you for that horror story, yeah thank you for
sharing, stephanie yeah, butthank you, yeah, yeah no thank
you're not going to crap on you.
I mean, I enjoyed the fact thatyou said send us all your ER
stories, stephanie.
Yeah, we need more stuff.
We need more, send them in.
Speaker 2 (59:16):
So, jenna, what can we expect to hear next week,
unless you're going to flip thescript on us, like I did, and
say you're going to hear about anurse and then, lol, it's mr
respiratory therapist douchebaglisten.
Speaker 1 (59:27):
I love that.
I loved that it was a surprise.
I love that it was arespiratory therapist.
We haven't covered them so far,so thank you for that.
Speaker 2 (59:35):
I enjoyed it immensely here's.
Speaker 1 (59:39):
Here's my deal, so I did probably the worst case on
the planet I thought you'regoing to do a lighthearted after
the pedophile.
That's what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (59:48):
I did the worst case on the planet.
My last case, yeah.
Speaker 1 (59:52):
So I promised I was going to do something
lighthearted, but then I waslike oh Okay, so here's the
thing.
We're going to get a mixed bagNext week.
We're going to cover Dr Bev,which is a lighthearted little
story about a teenager, and youdon't need to know any more.
Otherwise, I've basically toldthe whole story, which is my
(01:00:13):
whole point.
For why I need a little bitmore content?
Because, you know, while funnyand lighthearted, dr Love
doesn't last the whole episode,so we are going to be also
talking about something that'smaybe not as lighthearted.
Well, there's no, maybe Not aslighthearted.
In fact, it's pretty dark andit's called Killer MRIs.
Speaker 2 (01:00:36):
Oh.
Speaker 1 (01:00:37):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (01:00:38):
Well, I'll look forward to this essentially
little two-part series in oneepisode Maybe.
Speaker 1 (01:00:43):
I'll start.
Should I start with the MRIsthat kill and then do the Dr
Love?
Speaker 2 (01:00:48):
Yeah, I think so, we'll see yeah.
Or you could do Dr Love, thenMRIs, then we got medical mishap
.
Speaker 1 (01:00:55):
That's true.
Speaker 2 (01:00:56):
All right, listen if you guys want to know how's it
going to play out?
Speaker 1 (01:01:06):
What are we?
Speaker 2 (01:01:07):
going to feel lighthearted?
Are we going to be superdepressed?
Tune in next week, you neverknow.
Are you going to hate your life?
Speaker 1 (01:01:09):
are you going to be excited.
So don't miss a beat.
Subscribe or follow doctor inthe truth wherever you enjoy
your podcasts for stories thatshock, intrigue and educate.
Trust, after all, is a delicatething.
You can text us directly on ourwebsite at doctor in the
truthuthatbuzzsproutcom.
Email us your story ideas andcomments and medical mishaps at
(01:01:32):
doctorinthetruthatbuzzsproutcom.
That's all blurring together.
Doctor in the Truth.
Speaker 2 (01:01:37):
You've got to make the font bigger.
Speaker 1 (01:01:39):
I know right, I think I'm with you there on that.
I'm on 11.
Oh my gosh, no, I need there onthat.
I'm on 11, like oh my god no Ineed to double that sucker.
Be sure to follow us oninstagram at doctor in the truth
podcast and on facebook atdoctor in the truth, and we're
on tiktok at doctor in the truthand ed odd pod, which I always
say in a weird I always say in aweird accent.
(01:02:02):
I don't even know what that is,but it's ed aud pod.
Don't forget to download, rateand review so we can be sure to
bring you more content next nextweek.
Speaker 2 (01:02:14):
Until then, stay safe and stay suspicious hey guys we
did not get a rainbow wheel ofdeath bye that sounded like your
(01:02:36):
stomach grumbling.
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