Doctoring the Truth
Welcome to Doctoring the Truth, a podcast where two dedicated audiologists dissect the world of healthcare gone rogue. Explore jaw-dropping stories of medical malfeasance, nefariousness, and shocking breaches of trust. The episodes provide deep dives that latch onto your curiosity and conscience. It's a podcast for truth-seekers craving true crime, clinical insights, and a dash of humor.
Episodes
A newborn’s first breaths should be a promise. For too many families in Bristol during the 1980s and 1990s, that promise was broken by a system that mistook confidence for competence. We walk through how a respected pediatric cardiac unit drifted into preventable tragedy—where prolonged surgeries, poor post-op pathways, and a “club culture” sidelined data, silenced concerns, and cost lives. Then we connect the dots to...
A quiet clinic. A calm voice in the hall. Then the shots that shattered a July morning in Petaluma, California. We follow the life and death stakes behind headlines: a breast cancer survivor seeking reconstruction, a competent surgeon navigating a fraught era of silicone implant fear, and the slow, chilling arc from anxious follow-ups to a fixed narrative of betrayal.
We also step back to consider what safety...
A failed residency, a brittle ego, and years of simmering resentment—then two brutal double homicides that stunned Omaha. We unpack the Anthony Garcia case from the beginning, starting with his trajectory through medical school and pathology training at Creighton, the evaluations that documented poor judgment and disruptive behavior, and the dismissal that he interpreted as sabotage. What follows is a meticulous, evid...
A snowstorm, a noisy house full of pets, and then a hard turn into a story that still shakes the walls of medicine and justice: Ruby McCollum. We walk through Ruby’s path from a disciplined childhood in segregated Florida to a marriage that brought visibility and risk through the Bolita economy. When a respected physician blurred professional lines and used social power to control her body, Ruby learned to live in two...
Sirens fade, charts close, and the questions linger: who cares for the caregivers when the system won’t? We share the life and legacy of Dr. Lorna Breen, a brilliant emergency physician whose dedication collided with an unprecedented crisis. Her story opens the door to a candid conversation about moral injury, burnout, and the quiet barriers that keep clinicians from seeking help when they need it most.
This ...
The scariest villains don’t lurk in shadows; they wear scrubs, speak softly, and learn your child’s name. We return to the Beverly Allitt case and follow the tight trail from confusion to certainty: unexplained pediatric collapses, careful interviews, and the lab result that cracked it open—insulin present with no C peptide, a forensic fingerprint of injection. That single biochemical detail reframed the entire invest...
A knife that could take a leg in thirty seconds, a theater packed with spectators, and a patient who never got a say—our journey begins with Robert Liston, the unrivaled speed surgeon of the nineteenth century. From there we follow the messy, gripping path from pain-as-proof to consent-as-right, revealing how anesthesia muted screams without restoring voice, and how courts, scandals, and patient advocates forced medic...
A bright Children’s Ward. A reassuring nurse. Then a surge of cardiac arrests, hypoglycemia, and near-fatal collapses that no one could neatly explain. We step inside Grantham and Casteven Hospitals in the early ’90s to trace how a pattern of harm unfolded in plain sight—and how a trusted caregiver leveraged chaos, night shifts, and parental trust to stay close to the sickest children.
Listen now for a careful, victim-...
A marble‑and‑steel clinic, an in‑office CT scanner, and a surgeon who promised fast fixes for every sinus woe—then a trail of lawsuits, a vanished yacht guest list, and a fugitive life in the Alps. We pull back the curtain on the “Nose Doc” saga with Shannon, a seasoned ENT PA who explains what ethical sinus care really looks like and how this case veered so far from it. From love‑bombed romance to a billboard‑driven ...
A tailor’s back room, a bottle of “powder,” and a stack of insurance forms—our step-by-step tour of Philadelphia’s 1930s arsenic ring reveals how murder became a business, cloaked in folk magic and legitimized by paperwork. We start with a misdiagnosed “pneumonia,” follow the paper trail through forged signatures and overlapping policies, and watch a would-be hitman flip the script with the Secret Service. From sandba...
A panicked phone call, a birthday detour, and an orange tree set the stage for a darker question we can’t ignore: what happens when medicine bends to fame? We trace Michael Jackson’s path from Gary’s crowded rooms to global icon, then into the sleepless spiral that ended with propofol in a mansion and a 20-minute delay that medicine cannot forgive.
Don't miss a (heart) beat! Check out our Instagr...
A brake-slam on a country road sets the tone for an hour where trust, timing, and tiny choices change everything. We start with a heart-pounding near-miss and pivot into the disappearance of Gerald “Jerry” Rayborn—an 89-year-old father and WWII veteran whose caregiver, praised as an “angel,” quietly turned access into control and control into a financial and personal erasure.
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What happens when the person you trust most with your life becomes your executioner? In this chilling episode, we unravel the disturbing case of Dr. Harold Shipman, the most prolific serial killer in modern history, whose medical license became his perfect disguise for murder.
Harold Shipman wasn't lurking in shadows or breaking into homes at night. He was a respected family doctor in the small English t...
When 24-year-old Michelle Herndon was found dead in her Gainesville home, nothing seemed immediately amiss. No signs of struggle, no forced entry – just a vibrant young woman inexplicably gone. But a single empty bathroom trash can would unravel a disturbing case of obsession, betrayal, and medical knowledge turned deadly.
This case stands as a haunting reminder of how specialized knowledge can become weaponi...
What happens when the person wearing the white coat is more dangerous than the disease they claim to treat? The horrifying saga of Dr. Anthony Pignataro reveals how a man with fabricated credentials and failed medical training managed to operate on unsuspecting patients from a makeshift basement surgery room.
Born into medical privilege but lacking any genuine talent, Pignataro constructed an elaborate house ...
Anthony Pignataro exemplifies narcissistic personality disorder in medicine, using forged credentials and manipulation to practice despite repeatedly failing residencies and harming patients. His story reveals how narcissism and hubris in healthcare can lead to devastating consequences when warning signs are ignored, and systems fail to protect patients.
Join us next week for part two of this shocking case, where ...
Stephen Matthews appeared to be the perfect catch on dating apps - successful doctor, dog owner, outdoor enthusiast. But behind this carefully crafted image lurked a calculated predator who drugged and assaulted multiple women after gaining their trust. The hosts dive deep into this disturbing case where Matthews used his medical credentials as a shield, with one victim stating plainly: "The only reason I felt sa...
What happens when healthcare professionals face a critical pediatric emergency and systemic resistance simultaneously? Our episode opens with a gripping medical mishap submitted by a nurse who found themselves racing against time to save a 4-year-old hemorrhaging after a routine tonsillectomy. When the child began swallowing blood and showing signs of deterioration, this nurse's persistent advocacy ultimately pro...
This episode unravels the shocking case of David Kwiatkowski, a traveling radiologic technician whose addiction to fentanyl sparked the largest hepatitis C outbreak in American history. For nearly a decade, Kwiatkowski moved between 16 hospitals across seven states, stealing pain medication intended for vulnerable patients and replacing it with saline-filled syringes contaminated with his blood. By the time authoritie...
The silent danger lurking in every MRI machine isn't what most people expect: it's the fact that the powerful magnets never turn off. This revelation forms the heart of our exploration into preventable tragedies where everyday metal objects became deadly projectiles, claiming innocent lives.
Then, as Jenne promised, the lighter hearted case of Dr. Malachi Love Robinson...PretendD
Kanal, E., et al. (2007). ACR ...
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