December 18, 2005: Strange Medical Tales - Dr. Tess Gerritsen
Podcast: The Art Bell ArchivePublished On: Thu Dec 11 2025
Description: Art Bell sits down with bestselling author and physician Tess Gerritsen to explore the bizarre corners of medical history. Gerritsen discusses the thin line between life and death, describing cases of people declared dead who later woke up in body bags and morgues, including one instance where a man scheduled for autopsy grabbed the pathologist, who then died of a heart attack.The conversation examines the possibility of waking up during surgery while paralyzed, a scenario Gerritsen traces to anesthesiologists stealing drugs and leaving patients conscious but unable to signal for help. Art shares his own experience of enduring four hours of surgery with inadequate anesthesia in the Air Force. They discuss near-death experiences, with Gerritsen offering the scientific explanation of oxygen deprivation while acknowledging the haunted hospital room in Hawaii where patients repeatedly reported seeing the same ghostly figure.Gerritsen recounts the history of puerperal fever, the childbirth infection that killed up to 20 percent of women in 18th and 19th century hospitals. She tells the story of Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis, who proved handwashing could reduce deaths tenfold but was driven to an asylum by colleagues who refused to accept their hands were spreading disease.
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