The Happy Couple (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)

0:00On July 4th, 2018, a paramedic was hurrying through a hospital in England when a supervisor flagged him down looking very concerned. She asked him if he had been one of the paramedics on a very specific call a few days earlier. Surprised, the paramedic said yes. The call had been completely typical, so he didn't really understand why this particular call mattered so much. But the instant he confirmed he had been there, his supervisor said she would explain in a minute, but for right now, he had to take off all of his gear, like all of it, right now, because there was a chance that what he was wearing could kill him.

0:35So, if you're a fan of the strange, dark, and mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come to the right show, because that's all we do. So, if that's of interest to you, please sneak into the Follow Button's house and remove all of their outlets and replace them with blank plates. Okay, let's get into today's story.

1:07For the military and their families, change is a constant. That's why USAA makes it easy to keep all your coverages in one place. Bundle your USAA auto and renter's insurance together and save big. Visit usaa.com slash bundle auto property to see how much you could save. Multiple product savings do not apply in all states or to all situations. Savings subject to change. Restrictions apply. Membership eligibility and product restrictions apply and are subject to change. USAA means United Services Automobile Association and its affiliates, San Antonio, Texas. Hey, Chicagoland. The Wayfair store is in your neighborhood at Edens Plaza and Wilmette.

1:45Finally, you can feel the fabric, sit on the sectionals, and even open the refrigerators. Plus, our in-store designers will help you bring it all together with free one-on-one design support for any project on any budget. Yep, we said free. Oh, and did we mention the cafe? So what are you waiting for? Come see all that's in store. Visit the Wayfair store today at Edens Plaza and Wilmette. Wayfair, every style, every home. On the afternoon of June 29, 2018, a 44-year-old woman named Dawn Sturgis sat on a blanket in a park in Salisbury, England, drinking some wine with a few friends and her boyfriend, Charlie Rowley.

2:24It was Dawn's favorite way to spend a Friday, especially since it involved Charlie. So they'd been dating for 16 months, and she was completely in love with him, primarily because Charlie was truly like the lone bright spot in Dawn's otherwise really difficult life. So Dawn was an alcoholic who had struggled with an undiagnosed case of bipolar disorder for years. And so she had a hard time finding work. And for the last two years, she'd actually lived in a therapeutic group home. But it was a little after she had moved in there that she had very fortunately met Charlie. Now, on paper, Dawn and Charlie did not seem like they would be good for each other.

3:04Charlie was addicted to heroin. He also didn't have a job. And he was frequently in trouble with the law. And so when they first got together, people in Dawn's life worried that Charlie ultimately was just going to pull her down even further into her own problems. But they did make each other really happy. And so they spent basically all of their time together, going between each other's apartments and visiting the park and hanging out with their friends. And for Dawn, this taste of happiness had made her want to make some positive changes in her life. Now, she still drank alcohol, but she finally got her bipolar disorder diagnosed and properly medicated.

3:41And she was feeling stable for the first time in years. She was even planning to move out of that group home and into a new apartment soon, and hope that, you know, that would give her a chance for a true, fresh start. And because of all these changes, Dawn had planned a get-together with her family to show them how well she was doing. It was in a few days, and she'd really wanted Charlie to come with her since their relationship, at least in her mind, was a huge reason she'd been so motivated to turn this corner. Except, despite how much she adored Charlie and really was excited for her life with him, at the current moment as they sat in the park on this Friday, she actually was really mad at him.

4:20So before arriving at the park, Charlie and their friends had done some heroin and some other drugs, And being under the influence of these substances was making Charlie act like a total jerk. Dawn had just bought some new hair dye to give herself a new look for this get-together with her family. And now Charlie, high on drugs, was wasting it by putting it in his beard and his eyebrows as a joke. And so Dawn ultimately was really mad not so much because he was wasting the dye, but because by dyeing your beard and eyebrows and all that, that Charlie was going to look like a total deranged mess when he met her family for the first time in a few days.

5:00And so when she expressed her concerns to Charlie, he did go and wash out the dye from his face and he got most of it out. But even after, Don still felt just so annoyed by the whole thing. It's like he knew how important this meeting with her family was going to be. Why would you jeopardize that? And so in the end, even after he had cleaned himself up, Don just got up and stormed off, leaving Charlie and the friends to pack everything up. She was done. Hours later, around 10 p.m. that night, Dawn lay on the couch in Charlie's living room, listening to Charlie and their friend, Sam Hobson, talk about life and how unpredictable and how unfair it could be.

5:39Now, Dawn was still feeling annoyed at Charlie, but overall, she was mostly back to being in a pretty good mood. After she had stormed away from the park, she'd gone to her place, and she had dyed her hair with the rest of the die that was left, and then she'd called her mom. Dawn actually had three kids of her own, and two of them were adults. But her own mother, so Dawn's mother, had custody of the youngest child, and Dawn was hoping that maybe they could all see each other tomorrow at this get-together. And her mother had said yes, so Dawn was really looking forward to that. But at this exact moment, all Dawn really wanted to do was just go to sleep.

6:14So she got up off the couch to go grab her nightly medication out of the bathroom. And just to get there, she had to carefully step around all the junk and just sort of random items that were laying strewn about all over Charlie's apartment. Charlie was always going out and finding things out on the street or even in dumpsters and bringing those things back home. Sometimes he would sell these things afterwards, but a lot of the things he just sort of kept around. So the apartment was very cluttered. But Dawn Don successfully navigated the pathway to the bathroom. She grabbed her pills and then went back to the couch, swallowed the medication, and then she lay back into the cushions.

6:51Then minutes later, she was asleep. The next morning, Don woke up on Charlie's couch a little bit before 9.30 a.m. She did have a small hangover, just a little headache, but by her standards, that was not so bad. She had not drank a ton the day before, so this was a good start to her day. Just a few minutes later, Charlie came into the room, and he sat on the couch next to her and said good morning. And between Don not feeling that great physically and remembering how obnoxious Charlie had been yesterday with the hair dye, Don really didn't feel like talking to him right now. But before she could say as much, Charlie's eyes lit up and he said he'd almost forgotten.

7:28He actually had a present for her that he'd gotten a few days ago. And then Charlie, he jumped up and he disappeared into the kitchen and then he came back with a box, which he said was for her. It was her gift. And this made Dawn forget all about her irritation with him. Dawn didn't get very many gifts. I mean, she had a lot of friends in her life who, you know, wanted to give her gifts. But, you know, they, much like her and Charlie, didn't have much money. And so gifts were not a common thing in her life. And so to be receiving this gift right now was really exciting. And so Dawn smiled widely and she opened up the box's lid.

8:04And inside was this clearly very expensive bottle of perfume. and she gasped when she saw it. It was brand new. She would never have been able to afford something like this and she was shocked, frankly, that Charlie had managed to get it for her. Like, how could he have gotten this? Dawn gave Charlie a very excited hug and she told him she absolutely loved it. And so she pulled it out and she sprayed some on her wrists and she rubbed them together and she thought it smelled so good and then she handed the bottle to Charlie and told him to please put this somewhere safe. Then she stood up from the couch with a big smile on her face and she went to get her makeup to go get ready for the day.

8:42About five minutes later, Dawn was sitting back on the couch with her makeup bag now in her lap and she was applying foundation to her face and telling Charlie about how she was thinking about putting more dye in her hair, maybe a blue streak this time. But as she finished her foundation and reached for her powder, she felt her headache suddenly intensify. She winced hoping it would pass, but pretty soon she started feeling pretty lightheaded and realized she was sweating quite a bit. She stopped talking about her hair and told Charlie she was feeling really weird. Charlie seemed worried and asked if she wanted some pain relievers, but Don just shook her head.

9:18She'd already taken her meds that day and didn't want to take more pills because it could upset her stomach. Instead, she handed her makeup bag to Charlie and asked him to go put it back in the bedroom, and then she hurried to the bathroom to splash some water on her face. And by the time she got in there and actually began putting the water on her face. It was like her whole body felt like it was on fire. She was sweating so much to the point where she felt like this water wasn't enough. And so she actually just climbed into the empty bathtub and just figured the cold tile of the tub would feel good against her hot skin.

9:50But as soon as she climbed in and laid down, she felt her breath start to catch in her chest. From the living room, Charlie heard Don in the bathroom and he heard the sound of the water turning on and then off, and then the sound of Dawn rustling around in there. Now, he was somewhat worried about her, but he also knew she regularly had hangovers, and she clearly had one now, and so he figured, you know, that's what this was. He also really wanted to leave right now and go meet up with his friend Sam to shoot up some more heroin, because that would take the edge off his headache and his nausea.

10:22However, before he could do that, he heard a weird sound coming out of the bathroom where Dawn was. At first, he wasn't even sure what it was, but then he realized it was a gurgling sound. And so at this point, he jumped to his feet and he hurried to the bathroom door. And as soon as he opened it, he gasped because Dawn was laying there in the empty bathtub, fully clothed and frothing at the mouth. Charlie had no idea what was happening, but he instinctively ran over to her, pulled her out of the tub, and he laid her on the floor. and he could tell that she was basically unconscious and she was limp.

10:56And in fact, when he listened closely to her mouth, he couldn't even tell if she was breathing. And so Charlie's thinking, this is not a hangover. This is something way more serious. So he ran and got a phone and he called the emergency line. And when the dispatcher picked up, Charlie frantically explained what was going on, that, you know, Don, his girlfriend, had just collapsed in the bathtub out of nowhere. The operator got his address and said they would send a paramedic. But they also told Charlie he would have to do CPR on Dawn while he waited, and so they explained to him how to do that over the phone.

11:26Charlie was horrified, but he tried to take a deep breath and do what they said so he could help Dawn, so he kept the phone by his side while he straddled Dawn and gave her chest compressions. It would take an agonizing 19 minutes before a single paramedic finally arrived. And by that time, Dawn had begun to turn blue. Charlie paced around anxiously inside of his apartment while the paramedic took over chest compressions. Charlie could hear the paramedic calling for more help on his radio. And sure enough, a few minutes later, more paramedics streamed inside. And at first, this made Charlie feel hopeful, like more medical support meant that Don was going to be okay here.

12:05But then, from his spot out in the living room, he heard one of the paramedics say something about drugs, like this could be an overdose or something. Charlie heard that and he called out that Don didn't do drugs, but the paramedics did not seem to hear him. And a second later, their voices got more urgent. They were using a lot of medical terminology that Charlie didn't understand, but he did catch one thing. Don's heart had apparently stopped. Adobe Firefly is the all-in-one creative studio with AI-powered image and video editing for today's creative process. Built for creators of every kind, Firefly helps you generate, edit, and experiment fast.

12:46Because the asks aren't getting smaller, the budgets aren't getting bigger, and the timelines, oh yeah, still tight. With all the best creative AI models in one place, Firefly brings your ideas to life. Unlock a better way to make with Adobe Firefly. Hey, Chicagoland, the Wayfair store is in your neighborhood at Edens Plaza in Wilmette. Finally, you can feel the fabric, sit on the sectionals, and even open the refrigerators. Plus, our in-store designers will help you bring it all together with free one-on-one design support for any project on any budget. Yep, we said free. Oh, and did we mention the cafe?

13:22So what are you waiting for? Come see all that's in store. Visit the Wayfair store today at Edens Plaza and Wilmette. Wayfair, every style, every home. Hi, Ryan Reynolds here for Mint Mobile. Are you looking for a beach read this summer? May I suggest your big wireless bill? It's got suspense, mystery, a slightly flat emotional arc, and a shocking twist where you realize you've been overpaying the entire time. Fortunately, though, Mint's story is better. Every plan,$15 a month, even unlimited. That's it. Happy ending. Zero tears. Give it a try at mintmobile.com slash save. Upfront payment of$45 for three months,$90 for six months, or$180 for 12-month plan required.

13:58$15 per month equivalent. Taxes and fees extra. Initial plan term only. Greater than 50 gigabytes. May slow when network is busy. See terms.

14:06Now the paramedics were actually able to get her heart beating again, but it took them more than an hour to get her stable enough to move her from Charlie's apartment to the hospital. And Charlie, he just watched in panic and despair as they loaded his girlfriend on a stretcher, and then he followed them out of the apartment to stay with Dawn for as long as he could. And then before they put her into the ambulance, he leaned in and he told her he would meet her at the hospital. As the ambulance doors closed and the sirens came on, Charlie's friend, Sam, appeared, looking very shocked by the commotion.

14:37They'd had plans to go to a church event that day that had free food, which Charlie had totally forgotten about. But Charlie told Sam everything that had happened and said he had to skip out on that event because he needed to go to the hospital as fast as he could to meet Don. But even as he was saying this out loud, he knew he really couldn't do that. because if he went to the hospital right now, he had no idea how long he'd be there. And since he was addicted to heroin, he would start to get sick from withdrawal if he didn't get some drugs in his system first. And so Charlie felt trapped. He really didn't know what to do here.

15:09And he sort of felt like he was on the verge of breaking down. You know, this was just so much. But then he remembered he had a methadone prescription at the local pharmacy. Methadone is a drug that's often given to people who are addicted to heroin, who are, you know, trying to get clean. And this drug is used to help them with addiction and withdrawal symptoms. It sort of closely mimics what the body would feel if it shot up the drug, but without, you know, the euphoria and the actual high sensation of using the drug. Now, Charlie had not actually filled his methadone prescription yet, mostly because he was not focused on getting clean.

15:44But as he's thinking about needing to be at the hospital all day and needing to be, you know, coherent and being able to talk to doctors and nurses. And Don, he thought, well, hey, I'll go fill my methadone prescription. I'll take that. It'll keep me, you know, from getting sick, but I'll also be clear-minded so I can be in the hospital and help Don. So Charlie asked Sam if he would come with him on a different outing to go to the pharmacy to get his methadone. A couple of hours later, at around 3.30 p.m., Charlie got back to his apartment with Sam. It had been incredibly hot outside, and walking around for that long, they now were both dripping with sweat.

16:21After they had gone to the pharmacy, Charlie and Sam had actually gone by that church event, but not really to get food, but instead to literally go say a prayer for Dawn. Now, they were back at his place to pack up a bag both for himself and also for Dawn that they would bring to her at the hospital, and then Charlie didn't really know how long he would be there, but he now had his methadone and figured he'd be okay. But as Charlie was doing this, it was like he couldn't think straight. He had this really intense headache. And even though it had been hot outside, it was like he just couldn't stop sweating.

16:54And so Charlie was thinking to himself, you know, maybe it's the methadone. He had never done it before. And maybe this is like a byproduct. Maybe these are our symptoms from taking methadone. So he decided he would just take a shower, thinking that would kind of, you know, clear out these symptoms and he'd be back to normal. But after the shower, he felt even worse. and when he looked in the mirror, he saw his pupils were now constricted to little pinpricks. But he still tried to press on here, and he went into his room to get dressed and to finish packing Don's bag. But as just a couple of minutes went by, he noticed his heart began to race.

17:29And as it raced, it got faster and faster like he couldn't calm it down. Now, over the past couple of days, between the methadone and heroin, you know, Charlie had basically used a lot of drugs, but he did drugs all the time and he'd never felt this combination of symptoms before. And so Charlie, he leaves the bedroom and he goes into the living room and he just sits down on the couch feeling completely awful. And he has this thought come to him. He's thinking, okay, I don't think it's the drugs because I always do drugs and this is not it. I'm not, I've never felt this way. And he looks over at Sam, his friend, and he has this weird thought that it's like, what if Sam poisoned me?

18:08What if that's what's going on here? What if I've been poisoned? And without really thinking through how or when this could have happened or why, Charlie began berating Sam saying, you poisoned me. Why did you do this to me? And Sam was so caught off guard that he was like, what are you talking about? And he began backing away. And Charlie, he just jumped up off the couch and began to pursue Sam like he was going to attack him, but after only taking a couple of steps away from the couch, Charlie's mouth filled up with so much saliva that he stopped being able to speak clearly. All he could do was kind of gurgle and spit out this froth, and then his legs got so weak and wobbly that he had to lean against the wall just to keep from falling down.

18:52And then he felt his whole body begin to seize up, and then the last thing Charlie was aware of was his friend Sam grabbing a phone and calling for an ambulance. About an hour later, inside of the emergency room of the Salisbury District Hospital, the on-call doctor stood in Charlie Rowley's treatment room while a nurse at his bedside took his blood. The doctor had just finished examining Charlie, who was now unconscious. He'd clearly had a seizure, and now he had a fever. He had constricted pupils, and he had labored breathing. So clearly, to the doctor, Charlie's condition was very serious. The doctor was sure he knew exactly what had caused it.

19:31Charlie had overdosed on drugs. And the doctor really felt strongly about this because Charlie's girlfriend, Dawn, had been treated that morning for the exact same thing. She'd been brought in after her heart stopped. She'd had a lot of the same symptoms as Charlie. Now, they had stabilized her, but she'd been admitted to the intensive care unit and was still listed in critical condition. And so the doctor felt really confident in his diagnosis of both Don and Charlie because the symptoms fit. And the officer in charge of both cases had confirmed that Charlie, at least, was a known drug user. And the apartment where they'd both been found had been full of needles and other drug paraphernalia.

20:11Over the next 24 hours, neither Don nor Charlie got any better. In fact, they both got much worse. Their nervous systems began to completely break down, meaning that essential body functions like breathing were beginning to fail. Don was literally in a coma and being kept alive by a life support machine, and Charlie was also still unconscious, and his breathing had declined to the point where they had to put him on a ventilator. He'd also been moved to the intensive care unit, same as Don. And so at this point, Charlie and Don no longer looked like they had simply overdosed on drugs. It seemed like maybe they actually took a bad drug, like there was You know, poison in the drugs they took, perhaps, or something completely different.

20:55But none of the medical staff could figure out what was actually wrong. It was totally anomalous. By the afternoon of July 3rd, so three days after Don and Charlie were hospitalized, one of the doctors in the intensive care unit where they were, his name was Stephen Jukes, he had officially taken over both of their cases. Dr. Jukes had seen the results from the initial toxicology screenings, And they showed that while Charlie did have a significant amount of heroin and other drugs in his system, Don did not. All her results showed was that she'd taken some prescription psychiatric medication. And so Dr.

21:30Jukes had sent more of their blood to another lab to test for a wider range of drugs. So he was waiting on those results. But admittedly, he was losing faith that the results he was going to get would give him his answer. Now, by this point, Dr. Jukes had ruled out some things that could have caused their symptoms. Like at one point, they believed that, you know, maybe the two had been exposed to a gas leak in Charlie's apartment because some of the symptoms you get with the gas leak are similar to what they had. But the main reason this theory didn't really work out is, you know, Don and Charlie had been in the apartment together that morning that Don was brought into the hospital, but only Don was affected.

22:08Charlie wasn't. And so presumably they were both being exposed at the same time to, you know, if there was a gas leak. But then Charlie, he leaves the house for several hours. So he's out completely unexposed to whatever was in there. He comes back into the apartment and then he feels sick. It just, it didn't really add up. If he got sick from a gas leak in the apartment, it should have happened at the same time as Don. Also, the first responders, when they were in there working on Don, they didn't report smelling anything odd. Now, of course, some leaks like carbon monoxide, you wouldn't be able to smell that, but a typical gas leak, you would be able to smell.

22:43It smells like rotten eggs. Plus, you also have the fact that when Charlie got sick, Sam, his friend, was in the apartment as well, and he did not get sick. So, all told, the gas leak theory seemed to not be it. Dr. Jukes had also briefly wondered if maybe what had happened to Don and Charlie was connected to this strange toxin exposure case that had come through the hospital a couple of months earlier. However, the victims in that case were from out of the country, and Don and Charlie had not been out of England, so Dr. Jukes had ruled that out as well. But Dr. Jukes did have one theory he still thought was a good one.

23:19Maybe this was pesticide poisoning. It matched with their symptoms, and Dr. Jukes knew that sometimes street drugs can be contaminated with pesticides. So if Don and Charlie had both taken something that Dr. Jukes hadn't tested for yet, then they could have maybe been exposed that way. He had told the police about this theory, and so they'd issued a press release encouraging drug users to be extra cautious in case, you know, there was this pesticide out there. But Dr. Jukes also knew that drugs were not the only way people could be exposed to pesticides. Simply eating, drinking, or breathing in contaminated food or water or air could be fatal.