Severe Flu Knocks Out Woman On A Bus | Diagnosis Unknown | Real Responders
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- Опубліковано 20 вер 2024
- In December of 1979, a young girl passes out on a bus in Wisconsin. She is taken to the hospital complaining of a sore throat, fever and aching muscles. Doctors believe she has the flu, until her blood pressure drops and her kidneys begin to fail.
When additional women begin exhibiting similar symptoms, which bring them close to death, doctors fear an outbreak of toxic shock syndrome.
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I remember filming this 18 years ago. I played the nurse at the 25min mark scene, blue scrubs. I was 32, i’m still bald at 50. 😀😀
Omg I saw this comment right at 25 mins!😂
I saw you! 😊
❤
Kool.
I saw you kool
*As soon as they said TOXIC SHOCK SYNDROME, I said out loud "TAMPONS!" I remember a girl at school died from it at a swimming carnival back in the 80s.* 🌼
I remember when I was about 2 or 3, my mom took my ice cream away from me and I threw a tantrum.
Me and my sisters aren't allowed to use tampons we only use pads.
@@tinmanlover1994 You can get TSS while using pads as well.
@@StephInOttawa wow didn't know that. I change my pad very often when I go to the bathroom
@@StephInOttawaOnly if you have open wounds on the inside.
Theres still girls that dont know they are supposed to change their tampons regularly. Can we educate our daughters instead of being embarrassed to talk about puberty to our own children? My mother could barely speak about puberty or sex. So I learned on my own. Do not be afraid to educate your children.
They literally teach this in school in sex Ed. Ur kid just doesn't listen.
@@narutardad I don't have kids
@narutardad this was NEVER taught when I was in school. We didn't even have health class until senior year
My mother was exactly the same!! I had just turned 10 two days before I started my first period and I had no idea what was happening to me, she never talked to me about anything and we hadn’t covered it at school yet so I really had no clue, it was terrifying and I didn’t feel like I could talk to her about it so I went to my friends house and told her mum and asked her what I needed to do, she was more approachable. She explained everything to me and gave me everything I needed and it was her who told my mother.
My sister is 5 years younger than me so when she started getting older I began explaining preparing her for what would happen and made sure she knew she could talk to me about it and that there was no reason to be embarrassed etc because I knew my mother wouldn’t and I didn’t want my sister to feel the way I had.
I remember in the early eighties my school held a special class for all of the girls and their mothers about this. I'm so glad they did because it definitely influenced my choices.
My name is Nicola Ruth Todd. I agree with you, serendipity perhaps?
@@AussieBrit Definitely! Nice to meet you! Just out of curiosity, are you a UK Todd or a US Todd? Or somewhere else? It's quite a rare (and fun) event for me to meet another one!
@@ruthtodd6022 Well, my maiden name is Nicola Ruth Dutton which is English. My married name is Nicola Ruth Todd. My husband is half Japanese and half Australian, his father's name is Todd, so I guess it's an Aussie Todd, so technically, I am not a Ruth Todd per se but I definitely identify more with the UK rather than the US.
@@ruthtodd6022 me too! I was very leery about tampons after this!
I remember those classes about TSS. The medical authorities in Illinois used to blame it on tampons.
Tampax Tampons had a warning on their boxes in 1976, and they listed most of the symptoms on their boxes. I remember reading them.
The warning is still there today, and for good reasons
Wow that's terrifying. I had no idea there was this massive outbreak in the 80s. That explains why my mom was nervous about me using tampons- she would have been around the age where she started her period right when this happened
Started in the early 70’s
I've known about this since the 80's, you can't leave any tampon in for 8hrs. You have to change it often, and switch to a pad to sleep at night. This started with the "Rely" brand of tampon, but it includes all brands of tampons. It's a shame these women died from this ❤🌹.
thank you so much for pointing out the name of that tampon i had a stroke with memory loss and it was really driving me crazy to remember that name plus i worked at the store in the 80s so we removed the products from the shelves upon learning of this new problem 😮😮
It’s so crazy how the first thing I thought of when they said only women were affected was TSS. Like it’s drilled into so many of us at such a young age now.
I must be one of the few ppl who grew up in the 1990s that didn't know about it. Then again, I never liked/used tampons so it was never actually relevant to me.
I'm down in New Zealand and we were on the watch for toxic shock syndrome too. It went world wide.
I was 15 and remember it too. I used to buy the American magazines, especially 'Teen' so I knew what this was.
I was 20 when all of this happened and I remember clearly that the problem with that brand was that the sting to remove it came off easily and young women put in another tampon pushing the defective one up too high to ever reach. Having it in for long periods of time caused the streptococcus infections. I’m surprised this wasn’t mentioned in this documentary.
Did they not notice that the tampon hadn't come out? You should be able to just reach up and pull it out when the string detaches.
I remember this too-and not being able to understand how you could forget and insert a second one.
whats the brand name
@@caroline61804
the high absorbant ones
they put a warning label
on all brands...
Staph, NOT Streptococcal infection
Who's watching this during COVID-19 2020
Me😝
Me😅
-_-
Me too.
It's a trip
I remember when all this happened. Our high school science and health teachers and PE teachers taught us about TSS. I was so scared, I quit using tampons and never used them again. I made sure to teach my daughter, and she’s making sure to teach hers: Change frequently and watch for symptoms.
I never liked tampons in the first place. I actually only learned about TSS in my 20s because of that.
I remember this from when it happened also. I didn’t use tampons so it wasn’t an issue for me, but my younger sisters were another story. Mom refused to buy tampons for us for a long time.
By the 90s when I was in school, NONE of this was ever talked about. The only time we when talked about sex was in health class, senior year. We never talked about menstruation, consent, toxic shock. None of it.
Like many of the commenters, TSS is very familiar to me from the warnings in tampon box inserts but I'd never wondered about the original cases that brought the warning into being. Thanks for sharing these stories with us!
The very reason my mother wouldn't let her girls use tampons.
I had TSS in the 1980s and it was painful as well as dangerous. Luckily for me, I caught it very early and was never hospitalized.
Edit: I went to my OB/GYN first and that's why I was recognized early. Too many females ignore the early symptoms. Got educated on it and learned how to avoid it.
I hated tampons the whole time I menustrated. I haven't had a cycle in four years but I will never forget the terrible feeling when I was fifteen years old. I cramped enough during that time of the month and PMS was horrible. Now I'm experiencing hot flashes and that's worse than my cycles. When will menopause ever end?!
Indeed!! I just finished posting my own comment about how I remember the warnings on tampon packaging, but only after reading YOUR comment, can I actually appreciate that those warnings are only there because someone out there had TSS and the doctors didn't know what or why, and that girl likely suffered! So, thanks to them for playing that brave role!! 😇😊😏
I am not even from US. I was there as an exchange student in early 1990s. I have never used and still won't use tampons of any brand. I never heard of this either as I haven't looked at set boxes - I just don't like the idea of having something up there... lol while bleeding. Anyhow still, as I listened to this story - the moment they said the women were all having periods - I asked myself - ok was that pads or tampons they used - cause bleeding down there is 'injury enough' for infection get in - I mean that the situation makes you sensitive already, never mind that the skin down there is no less easy to infect than your throat being of equal type, per say.
No, I am not health care professional of any kind or even anything to do with that stuff or meds or pharmacies. Anything close to anything I got on my back ground is my mother having been biochemistry teacher, so I understand a bit how things can spread, I figure. Anyhow - the reason I focused on the pads or tampons instantly at that point is because I order some of that kind of stuff in mail order and one time I had a box arrive totally mangled up and they had literally stuffed the contents into a new box - including the individual pads that had gotten walked and driven over by something and someone. That all wen't instantly to trash and I obviously complained at their treatment of the box.
But yea - just having seen the state of that box had me swiftly, watching this video, think how easily something like that could get contaminated somehow, if it got in touch with something that should not be part of the whole production or say storage and transportation of the product - or even just the boxing or packing part of it. People going ill to work not taking care of hygiene and spreading bacteria on what they touch. Even just seeing rats run on the devices handling the stuff would be reason enough to make me worried. Say someone sneezes, the stuff lands somewhere, a kid touches the surface and put's his hand in the mouth - we all know how path like that can work - and it won't exist very long cause sunlight and cleaning usually kills stuff like that off. But then there are illnesses that spread out of moll our mouse droppings, within the dust of a space and those things last longer. And those are then what turn into the problem. What hangs out longer or just remains viable within specific conditions, like boxed in darkness or such. Or require heat to re-activate, like body heat.
So they never actually explained what toxic shock syndrome is... the toxin produced by S. aureus acts as something called a "superantigen", which has the ability to non-specifically activate a huge percentage of your white blood cells. During a normal infection you get maybe 1 in 10, 000 of these cells active, with TSS you get as many as 1 in 5 and the response is random, it doesn't target S. aureus. These cells pump out compounds that cause a fever, drop in blood pressure, increase vascular permeability and cause small blood clots to form. Many people with TSS have no bacteria in their blood, it's often just the toxin, and if you have had TSS once you are at a higher risk of getting it again, and some people are more vulnerable for reasons way too complex to get into. Jusr if anyone wanted to know, I'm an immunology student so I know a bit about it.
Cas Landry I’m impressed with your knowledge. And thanks for sharing. I’ve never seen a case in the ER as an attending, but I remember this happening as a student, and I think they attributed it to over-absorbent tampons, but never knew the final solution. I don’t know if I would ever have come to the conclusion that this horrific infection would occur because of tampon efficacy.
Thanks for explaining it for people as I don't believe the younger generation understands how really serious this is. You don't have to be a female to get toxic shock syndrome. It can happen in other ways and men have died of it who had some form of surgery etc. and the packing material used for the surgery such as a sinus or tooth surgery can cause this so you have to be very careful and follow medical instructions to the letter when it comes to absorption materials and the changing of them as well as how much you need.
One of the biggest dangers we've seen is when people have self treated a wound at home that really should have been seen in the ER or doctors office for proper wound treatment. By the time usually a male who does not like to come to the medical office gets into the office they are beginning to have trouble. Luckily we've usually been able to stop it before it progressed to an emergency stay in the hospital. But men will be men like my father who cut his knee open with a chainsaw drove 2 hours home instead of going to the closesthospital, luckily mom called an ambulance as he was practically out of blood he was white & she'd asked for some friends to help transport him him to the hospital. They looked at him and said no you need an ambulance
The ambulance got him there just in time. He had to have surgery and he had a cast from his hip to his foot. Of course the doctor thought he was going to stay home from work. He didn't he trimmed the cast so he was able to drive his truck, went to work everyday & three weeks later when the doctor said well we can fix this cast now so that you'll be able to drive and go to work. My father said oh I've been going to work everyday! Dad said the doctor practically fainted. He couldn't believe my dad had been that stupid I'm sure. But that was my father he didn't believe in taking days off.
Thank you for your information. As an ER/OR Xray Tech for 35 years I became interested in toxicology after retirement and obtained a degree in that field. That progressed to other studies, (I am an eternally curious person), but since last December I have, as many others have, been investigating all I can find out about virology. As the Covid-19 pandemic progresses immunology will be the critical step in trying to manage the disease so as to release people to return to their jobs and other pursuits. I don't know where you are in your studies but you may find yourself practicing your trade sooner than you ever expected. Good luck to you.
Holly Rockwell-Celerier Thought I’d jump in and get your opinion on Covid 19. ( a great source in UA-cam about latest studies and pathophysiology is a channel called Medcram). In Ohio where I practice, pharmacies now prohibit any scripts for HCQ from being filled without a positive RT-pcr test. Did you know the sensitivity of that test is as low as 60%? (Medcram podcast 42) And recently with testing done on almost everyone on a naval ship, 60% of positive individuals had absolutely no symptoms. I am extremely upset that the Pharmacy board has usurped its authority and is actually practicing medicine without a license. Since medical intervention seems to do better when started early, the diagnosis should be left to the clinical suspicions of the doctor, not only for the reasons mentioned, but testing availability is poor. Even the county health department was unable to tell me where to send patients for testing. Perhaps the biggest problem in gathering any semblance of accurate data is the lack of testing and the lack of a good test. You have no idea how lethal this thing is without a reliable denominator. Anyway, I’m venting here so thanks for listening.
@@kkdoc7864 they do the same crap when denying to fill scripts for pain medication. Someone needs to slap the shit out of them.
I had this happen to me. I know an angel was watching over me as my boy friend took off work, feeling he needed to see me and came to my place. I started getting sick while he was there, and had gone into the bathroom and just 'went out' but called to him. All I remember was I was 'somewhere' talking to ??? angels?? and they told me it wasn't my time yet. He had to carry me into my bedroom and I told him I was dying and to say goodby to this person and that. he said no, you aren't and I said yes I am, you had better call an ambulance if you want me to live. He ran to a neighbors to call and they came. They couldn't find my blood pressure or respiration. When they got me to the hospital, they pumped tons of antibiotics into me and put on layers of heated blankets. I started coming back and was there for a couple of days. I then had to stay with his family as I was so weak and it messed up my hormones, so the dr had to give me that for a month to straighten things out. It happened so fast, like in this story, and I could not move, if he hadn't come, I know I wouldn't have been here today. Its so good to watch the video and learn how this all came about and what happened to all those women and what they did to find out what was going on. I, personally am so thankful to all the people on here for what they did, as it saved my life. :-)
How many are watching these and realizing someday they will write a script based on covid-19? I see these in realize many of them happened in my lifetime the children with the black mold the toxic shock, Etc.
Same, its pretty enlightening to see how we handeled pandemics before compared to now.
ive written one
This video reminds me of the covid 19
I knew what the cause was from the beginning... I remember as a teenager using tampons and seeing that big toxic shock syndrome warning on the label. Although I don't remember hearing about this case before, it was obviously the reason for the warning.
So did I, I was shouting at them to ask.the girls or their Mums about whether the girls and Women used Tampons.
I never used tampons i used only hygenic pads my mom told me about that when i started my period when i was twelve
Me too. I actually got TSS it took forever to get well.
@@dominiquepilon5764....Domi, I never had any problem with tampons....thanks God I don't have a vagina..... what a complicated thing. It is only good for men.
This is the most interesting discussion I have ever stumbled across.
I used tampons for 30 years until menopause due to a severe allergy to pads - all pads (had the same skin problem with diapers as a baby). I never got sick using tampons once. I was afraid to use tampons in the beginning because my mom had scared the freaking life out of me - telling me that I would absolutely die if I used them. However, it was my aunt who had convinced me to switch, and my problems stopped.
Tampons are safe if you follow the directions. A woman needs to change them often, as the box warning states. And, yes, I even used them at night.
Yeah, it really comes down to personal preference for most ppl (or allergies for some). I could never stand tampons and always used pads. I still hated how they made me feel like I was wearing a diaper. Once I discovered cloth pads? I never bought a disposable pad again! Weirdly menstrual cups don't bother me either.
Yes, absolutely! Haven't watched the whole show, but I believe the link was made between the super absorbent ones/not changing them often enough and TSS. I never knew any girls/women who got TSS, even as a longtime resident of the city where it all seemingly began. I did take it seriously when informed about TSS as an adolescent.
When the first one died the only thing I could think of was “was she with the same tampon for the whole 20 days???”
I really wish they had made it clear during the show. If not for her, for one of the others.
yikes right? to think if it was possible that some could have been saved if only removing the tampon. Although I'm not sure that's how it works
@@cheery-hex No, that's not how it works. Once you have the infection, that's it. Taking out a tampon wouldn't stop it in its tracks since it has migrated through the blood to other organs. I don't think any of the women were wearing tampons for an entire cycle, and I'm fairly sure the doctors would have had female nurses remove tampons if they found them in their patients. If they had tested the removed tampons at the time, they may have gotten on top of it more quickly, but that's hindsight and hindsight is 2020. :/
They must change it frequently, like every 6 hours or so. Also, some persons had forgotten to remove it at the end of their period.
Can't believe it says to change tampons every 8 hours. No sir, every 4 hours sound more hygienic.
@@diannekalk481 WRONG!!!
I remember when this news came out. All of us stopped using the new tampon, which not only had new chemicals in them, but also sponge pieces. It was the super-absorbent sponge being inserted for 6 to 8 hrs whereas before, we only used 2 to 4 hrs before changing. I suspect the women that died were probably lying there with the tampon still in place.
I remember when this happened. I was actually using the brand of tampon that started it all. I was very lucky that I did not become sick. This was a scary thing.
@@Msviolet65 I just got a shiver up my spine reading your words. I stopped using tampons at all for over a year before I went back to the convenience of them.
Right? Like, once doctors discovered the menstrual connection, why didn’t they do a full reproductive exam? Wouldn’t they have discovered patients with tampons still in them? It would have been immediately apparent.
Thankfully, I rarely used tampons. But that is what I was suspecting as I watched the video, that the doctors never thought to remove the tampons still in place, which is why the patients kept getting worse.
Leila Pereira .
I always remember my grandmother (long before this ever happened) who suffered from very heavy flow getting into an argument with my mother who was telling her "quit using a pad, you need to use a tampon" and hearing my grandmother answer her (to paraphrase from a long ago memory) saying "if it's not meant to go in there it ain't." The quiet wisdom of my grandmother!
Well, then let people know how to not get it. Like, maybe, don't use tampons after that, wear real gloves and respirator when working with wood/mulch, and ? Want to share your intelligence, but it ends there. Please stay out of patients' actual care and rooms.
Mine would say "if God had intended you to use it, he would have given it to you before you were born!" Guess we could apply it to just about everything we do.
She possibly also had a tilted uterus.. tampons and menstrual cups dont work.. only pads
@@annaoddi2257 I wasn't born with clothes on, so I guess our town's resident nudist has it right after all. 😜
I have always had very heavy periods as well and I absolutely hated tampons. Pads all the way at least until I discovered menstrual cups. But even then, I would often use pads when I was feeling lazy. I'm so glad I'm on Depo now. Not having periods is amazing!
I did learn recently that one of the most common reasons for heavy menstrual bleeding is having a thicker than normal endometrium (lining of the uterus). The endometrium is shed with every period, so if the lining is that much thicker the flow will be that much heavier/longer.
WoW how times and information dissemination has changed over the years, I am a layperson with no medical background, never in my life used a tampon, and still a couple of minutes into the episode when they mentioned rash, I was like can this be the shock syndrome that happens because of long use of tampons? That shows how much social media and survivor accounts help inform people worldwide.
Sepsis leading to “septic” shock. High fever, low BP high pulse rate, diminished consciousness then organ failure and death.
You should always read the cautions and warnings on any products.
The manufacturer then was unaware of the problem, and no warnings were in place.
Just hoping that the manufacturers are honest enough to inform. They wait for several deaths/lawsuits, unfortunately.
This is what led to the cautions and warnings about toxic shock syndrome and tampons... Did you even watch the video???
@@mksabourinable no it's not, there were warnings on boxes long before
It’s nothing to do with medication, it’s the fact that the girls need to change their tampons every 3 hrs or so!
Loved the way the husband and wife team got together. Sharing knowledge, no egos to stroke. ❤ Remember the first time I heard of this and such an strange reason.
This happend to one of my cousins in Minnesota and would be around that time when she was a young teenager. I wish I would've remembered more about what she went through but I do believe she was hospitalized and was pretty sick from TSS.
I used to use those tampons. I thought they were really good but my periods were always so heavy that I had to change them every 30 minutes. So fortunately I didnt develop tss.
I do recall at the time this was happening, my mother telling me not to use tampons. Thank goodness for the brilliant Dr’s quick response and research
I had T.S.S I went to the emergency room on Saturday evening.the er doctor said I just had the flu. By Monday morning I was worse, Mom called the doctor every hour until she demanded the nurse give me a referral to another doctor who who would see me. The Doctor took one look at me and done a pap smear. Sent me to the hospital. I.V. fluids and high doses of Penicillin. 10 days in the hospital 7 on I.V.'s .
I just found this today. It's a great video and story. It was also nostalgic. I had to smile at a nurse wearing a wristwatch and also the paper files. And later the epidemiologist was sending out a letter using a pencil and lined pad. A meeting with a chalkboard and real chalk! And an electric typewriter! Things have changed so much!
Especially now that there are so few health detectives per capita in the population!! Just look at how the USA reacted to the Covid epidemic!! Some counties' death & ICU rates were as bad as 3rd world countries!!
😢 cyl742 and not for the BETTER. The computer now artificial intelligence, the human race, if NUCLEAR WAR does not come, is finished. Thank God I was born many decades ago. No one will be allowed to be human in the future.
right before they said tss i yelled TAMPON DISEASE
I trust most doctors and I love science, but if I went to a hospital and none of their questions were about my period, I would severely doubt their ability to treat me properly.
It's a fine line to walk, doctors shouldn't discount periods as they may have some impact on an illness. But they also shouldn't discredit everything someone is going through and just pin it on periods
Um, it's going to depend on the complaint/reason a person is going to the hospital in the first place. And generally speaking, before giving AFABs any meds, they test for pregnancy anyway. It's happened every time I've gone to the ER for something - asthma, migraine, food poisoning, heart palpitations, etc
It’s crazy how something they tell us so often now, and it’s even on the side of some tampon boxes, wasn’t even known about until recently
TSS has been on tampon boxes for 30 + years
I remember when this happened, and I'm from NJ. It happened to a classmate of mine, who was one of those involved in everything, going in a million different directions, kid. In fact, i was one of the few girls that I knew of that actually didn't use tampons! Advertising had really sold us a bill of goods about 'put it in and forget it'!!! This was there supposed solution and promoted being inconvenienced by gender.
I think it was the specific type of tampon that was made and sold by proctor and gamble....(by a man) how do you expect a woman to wear the same tampon for the duration of her period for criste sakes and nothing happen to her.... 😳🙄😡
@@amandacollins1888TSS isnt a new discovery & Ive never heard of ANY tampon marketed or suggested to be used for the duration of a period. Everyone knows theyre to be changed frequently otherwise you run the risk of TSS. Warnings have come with tampons for as long as I can remember.
This case took place in 1979. So its definitely not a new discovery.
Is it bad that I still enjoy this stuff so much even with a pandemic going around?
Nerys Ghemor same
Because it is interesting. Pandemic doesn’t change it but it has made me so much more aware.
I find it fascinating how the doctors and CDC reacted in those days as compared to the present.
I love this show. I love learning about illnesses and how people handle outbreaks. I’ve loved watching stuff like this for most of my life. I even read books about pathology and epidemiology for fun. I’m weird ;)
I love this stuff! It's educational.
From the toxic shock mystery to the stachybotris crisis, I recall these episodes and feel a profound chill from the memories. When "modern medicine" cannot resolve incidents like these it makes one wonder how we have survived as a species! We tend to perceive ourselves as indestructible because our medicine will save us no matter what hits us. That is a tremendous amount of pressure on our health care professionals.
@Darwinsmom
Many people didn’t survive, but the “species” humans thrived, supposedly when there was food.
Infectious diseases killed many people. Best wishes from Sweden🇸🇪
Because not everyone got sick and/or not everyone died? Even with the Black Plague where estimates say something like 40-50% of the European population died out, that still leaves 50-60% of the population that survived. Yes, it took awhile for the population to recover and even more ppl died from starvation - not because there wasn't food but because they weren't where the food was. Food literally rotted in the fields because there wasn't anyone around to harvest it, let alone send it to market to be sold.
TSS in particular was a problem specifically related to a product that these women were using. People that didn't use that product never got sick. And ofc, we know exactly what caused it now - tampons that were left in too long and bacteria started growing. That's why there's warning on tampon boxes now. So I honestly don't know what you're talking about with "modern medicine cannot resolve incidents like these" - modern medicine did figure it out and while they couldn't save everyone, they did save a lot of lives. And if someone comes in today with these symptoms, they know exactly how to treat the person.
But no, our medicine can't always save us. My partner has renal disease. He's already had one kidney transplant and it lasted him 2 years longer than the doctors expected. Now he's back on dialysis and waiting for another kidney. My partner's mother also had renal disease, but she wasn't eligible for a kidney transplant due to her overall health as well as her age. She was on dialysis for years before she died (inoperable blood clot). Modern medicine has its limits and I don't think I've ever heard anyone say otherwise.
I disagree. Most of us know that doctors are not gods and the medicines have side effects that can maim or kill you. A little common sense like (change your tampon now and then) might be the thing that saves your life. Why do people have to be told that?
This was when the super-absorbent Rely tampons were around. ... "from severe flu" is super misleading as a title.
Toxic shock is still a thing that can happen its a deadly bacterial infection from using tampon or pads even. It still happens. It has nothing to do with how absorbable the tampon is
And it technically actives a fever so half wrong
Julie Maggio It was directly tied to the absorbancy and material they used. I assume you wrote this comment before watching the video. TSS can happen in other instances but far far more rarely that was caused by the features mentioned.
@@Springtime562 Fever is not the same as flu. Flu is a contagious disease caused by the influenza virus.
@@juliemaggio1246 It most certainly has to do with absorbency. That is why after this happened super absorbent tampons were actually *banned* for a while. Now they're allowed again but with warnings.
Before the super-absorbent tampons were released, TSS had never been identified. No doubt it existed in other situations, but suddenly, people were suddenly presenting to emergency all over the country with severe (deadly) illness, and the only thing they had in common is that they were using the new super-absorbent tampons. These absorb so much moisture that they damage the tissues and give bacteria a way in. That is why doctors all advise to use the smallest/lowest absorbency tampon for your flow.
It is also why there has yet to be a TSS case seen with non-absorbent menstrual products like menstrual cups.
Not saying there's no risk, but we know for a fact that higher absorbency means higher risk. This is very important to know and misinformation shouldn't be spread.
This is crazy now this is always on the side of tampon boxes it’s scary
Yep... I lived through my bout with TSS in the late '70s, early '80s (mine were flu-ish symtoms, and given antibiotics). My daughter was born in the '90s, and I was still worried about it then, and still do.
The crazy thing is that tss can happen to people not even wearing a tampon. Any cut can do it explained in the video.
My first thought was toxic shock syndrome.
Yep. I am right.
Zoe Parker wow amazing
Was my first thought, too. I lived through this time period and was 20 in 1979. Stop using tampons when this became big news. Never got sick, but it was a big concern at the time.
Funny, me too. A few minutes after she had been admitted. Toxic Shock Syndrome, then proceeded to chirp the video for the next 20 min. Guess we read the insert and listened well in health class.
I thought the same, I was in grade 12 at the time and remember this well
In the late 90s I was rushed to the hospital with 105.9f first thing they did was ask me if I had my period and was I using a tampon. They immediately removed it for culture. Tss
Damn it’s mighty convenient to have an expert in infectious diseases as a wife lol
I know a woman this happened 2 & she almost died .She had 1 kid at the time but was never able to have anymore after having this .It was caused from tampons .
This still to this day makes many people not use tampons
I never used tampons because of tss, I was 14 in 1976 and had my period. I was so scared to use tampons so I just never used them. And I preached to my daughter when she started her cycle. She did use tampons though unlike me. She still uses them to this day.
I remember this TSS outbreak & the warnings on the tampon boxes. I continued using tampons but made sure to change them every few hours during my periods.
The reenactments on this channel are so good! Easy to follow. I remember this incident. So sad! 😔
I am 60 now and for a very short period in the early 80's I used tampons , which were never very efficient and as a pupil nurse on busy wards , changing regularly wasn't easy ..many jobs are like that!!
Constant leakage and a couple of bouts of urinary tract infections was enough to put me off and I went back to sanitary towels.... never had a UTI since !
My eldest girl was getting too many also and on the same advice , is now UTI free.!!
I'm in my 60's too. Never could use tampons; they aggravated my already severe cramps. I remember when toxic shock syndrome was happening with the super absorbent Rely brand.
I learned about this from the tampon leaflet so I know never to leave it in for too long since I was 12
Wow that's bananas. I can't imagine being young and knowing my period choices could lead possibly to my death. When the husband's wife was dying, and her tears had blood in them that just broke my heart geesh.
Frequent tampon changes is all that’s required.
@@annamarielewis7078
Funny how this article never once spoke about frequent changing the tampons as this is the issue with the massive g + overgrowth of bacteria. People were wearing more than a day and using more than one and never changing them. Being careless can have dire consequences.
I was at age when this came out. I learned to change often and eventually only used them for swimming.
“Let’s try to fit more commercials than actual running time of the show.”
Skip to the end of the video, then hit replay. All ads will go away. You're welcome 😁
@@mksabourinable THANKS!! I timed some of these shows' commercial intervals and sometimes there were only 3 min of show between commercials.
If watching on your PC. Go to the top left of your browser. 1: Click Tools. 2: Click Add-ons. 3: Click Ad blocker.
If dumb enough to be watching programs on your mobile phone. (Cant imagine why anyone would want to watch anything on the size of an envelope.) Go to Google play, download a FREE ad blocker.
No more ads no more whinging. :)
No ads here has to be a geographical location thing
That’s it. No more tampons for me 🚫
You suppose to change every time you go to the bathroom
I used tampons for 30 years until menopause. I never had one issue with them.
@@Aiijuin I'm glad you never had any issues. If I existed back when this started I'd need the super absorbent ones. I have only ever used pads. They're uncomfortable, but I won't forget to change those.
I have never used tampons, for this very reason! Tampons are so dangerous!
@@eileenmiller4668 You aren't supposed to change them every time you use the bathroom - that sounds like something tampon manufacturers has said to make you use like 20+ tampons a day instead of like 4! As someone who used tampons for 15-ish years before switching to reusable period underwear, I can't understand how people can forget about their tampons. If you are using the correct absorbency, it should basically start to leak when it needs changing, so when you go to the toilet, there is either a mark on your underwear/panty liner or on the toilet paper when you wipe. And then you change it.
Tampons are actually not that dangerous. 2/3 people die per year from TSS in the entire world, but 1.35 million people die as a result of road traffic deaths and yet no-one has an issue with cars or being on the roads.
www.edana.org/how-we-take-action/product-stewardship/toxic-shock-syndrome
www.who.int/data/gho/data/themes/road-safety
What really boggled my mind was how did these Dr's not consider the possible cause, did they forget that women have reproductive organs and monthly periods? Only women were showing these symptoms, so it would have been down to common
sense to check down these patients
down below.
Think about it... Who were the doctors in the 80’s? Plus I know it seems like common sense to us, but this was the first of it’d kind....
@@JesusSavesTheDay96 No, tampons have been around and widely used in the US since the 1930s. The new part was these ones were "super absorbent" and said you could leave them in for 6-8 hours instead of the 2-4 hours that had previously been standard. And it was leaving the tampons in for so long that allowed the bacteria to grow and cause TSS.
@@rationallyruby What really surprised me was that there were a number of women doctors and experts featured in this documentary as working on this particular case. Once the connection to menstruation had been made, why didn't they think to ask what menstrual products the women were using? It's the first question I would have asked. Well, I suppose I've got the luxury of hindsight and all that, so that might not be completely fair.
And ofc there's the fact that many of these patients likely still had the tampon inside them.
I don't know how a woman can forget a tampon is in there. Even when I wasn't bleeding through them I was always reminded by the string.
It's easy for the string to slip up, also having sex can push it up. It happened to me and thankfully, my gyni caught it early. I was beginning to have a discharge.
I tried using tampons when I was younger but my periods were so heavy I couldn’t keep a tampon in for long.. embarrassing time for me
A Super Maxi pad with a super tampon should do the trick.
I remember watching this over 10 years ago, long before I got my period, and deciding I was not going to use tampons. And I don't.
I remember when this happened, I was 20 years old and although I don't live in the US we were all warned to go back to using "surfboards"...haha, like that was ever going to happen. The take-away from this programme is to not use "super-absorbent" products and to change your tampons regularly.
Thank You to all here who have medical knowledge & sharing it. ❤🌹👍
I remember when this was happening. I don’t think I even knew what a tampon was yet.
It's been happening 30 + years
This was very frightening time's I was using tampons at the time this hit the news and stopped using tampons straight away, my friend said it's a hoax I said hoax or not I'm not using tampons, but that ment I can't go swimming never mind my life comes first, very scary times but I'm glad they what was causing it.
Anita from the UK 🇬🇧
well, i wonder how it went for those young women given the attitudes of that time. How many women, altogether, were told it was "just their imagination" as they lay dying? lt once was that women were given no credence whatsoever. Thank God for that good woman Dr. Joan Chesney, Head of the Dept. of lnfectious Diseases at the Univ. of Wisconsin School of Medicine, and her husband, also a physician, who sought advice from her.
omg its the tampons doctors!! why did they seem to take so long to realize.
This happened in 1979 and was the first time toxic shock syndrome was diagnosed.
This came out about the time I had started my monthly cycles.( I live in Minnesota and went to college in Wisconsin) I had started using tampons but every time (3 times total) , I started feeling like this so I took it out. Was sick for a day or so but recovered. I have never used them again (I am now 56 and past those days. :) ).
I remember that, about the same time, there was a call to destroy all roller bandages which had been made in China, as there had been an influx of people getting infections from the bandages which were found to be contaminated.
Great to stop a nosebleed☺️
OUCH!!!
first thought when reading the title "its the coronavirus".. then i read "December 1979"...
Christina Haug how did u know
They posted this to capitalize on our coronavirus attention.
I was thinking the same lol .
🤣🤣🤣🤣
I thought the same thing
I’m from Madison and the bus driver saying 44th and Main is so funny, we don’t have a 44th street and we have E and W Main 😂😂
I remember this episode very well and knew the outcome, so I was just waiting to see when the medical specialists would figure it out and how.
This show may answer a mystery that bothered me for years. I was a 2L from a top 10 Law school summer hired by a large plaintiff's firm. One morning I got called in by an A partner and tasked with writing a memo on 'punitive damages' the client may face (a big Pharma tampon designer) should their products cause death of a Young female customer. I also was tasked with researching how damages were determined. This assignment was a mystery to the firm too because the firm didn't do defense work. Some believed the company may have simply wanted to learn the dollar value according to a plaintiffs firm. I don't know, but it bothered me giving strategy advice. (years later I read the company paid big for asbestos in their baby powder)
Johnson & Johnson 😅
I also got this, I had used the Reli Tampons and did change mine every hour to a hour and a half, never wore them at night, but I got so sick, was in the hospital for 3 weeks, when I left the hospital I had lost 25 pounds, I was sick for a week before I went to the hospital, never wore them again,'
I'm glad you're still here.
u didnt sue the tampon manufacturer?
Never even thought about it, at the time, maybe if it were now, might have.
Yvonne Poe never heard of this brand before, probably discontinued.
That was the brand that came out around the time I and others used them, I personally new 3 that used them and also became ill, I was so sick, never been that sick ever again,They said if I had delayed coming in by one day, I would have died, never wore another one.
Ok so I'm early in the video but: toxic shock syndrome, all in women, no apparent wounds, from around 1980 thereabouts I think..... This is gonna be about how they found out leaving tampons in too long causes toxic shock syndrome isn't it?
EDIT: called it
My friend after high school in 1986 died from toxic shock syndrome. She had been on her period with use of tampons. She presented with flu like symptoms. Her mother was a nurse at Peidmont Hospital in Atlanta. It was in December before Christmas. My friend kept saying she was sorry to be ruining her family’s Christmas because she knew she was dying. They put a pacemaker in her heart. Every time they treated one problem another organ system would have problems. She was out on life support but she still died. They didn’t know why until the autopsy that revealed toxic shock syndrome. She was 21 years old
Tampons or Pads? If only they had additionally asked what BRAND they might have connected the links sooner.
I remember this. I was a teenager at the time. I remember before this happened a new tampon came on the market. Got a free sample in the mail, which was super absorbent. I hated it cause it stuck to my skin. That product was one of the products connected to the syndrome.
Ofc it was 🤦
And this is why I never wear tampons for my times of the month. xD I can be a forgetful person, so combine that with tampon and there's no doubt I'd be in the hospital for Toxic Shock.
In all seriousness though, I do feel bad for these girls who went through all this in such a rough period of time.
I usually use one or two tampons a day. In combination with a pad because sometimes leaks. When it leaks I change the tampon.
Tampon are damn expensive and Im not going to waste more than two maaaaybe 3 a day. I stop using them when the flow is very very insignificant and I know is ending. But more times than once I was surprised by a 'period ending' not really ending and found out a The Shinning scene on my undies like at the 6th day lol
Also I know what i am doing is unhealthy but where I live you have to give a kidney to buy tampons. We don't have many options, maybe 3 brands and are expensive af. Tampons are so much safer now. I am NOT saying that you should do what I do. In fact if you can afford it and they are kind of cheap do the no more than 8 hs thing lol but trust that tampons are safer than ever. I under stand if you are persobally not confortable but if it s from a place of fear... It s so so rare to get TSS even doing what I do. So doing it better it s even more rare
@@inesar1993 Yeah I get whatcha mean. I'm just paranoid that it will happen to me lol. And as I said, I can be a forgetful person at times XD
This has special meaning to me in 1997 I caught the flu I had been sleeping with a high fever for 3 days by the time I got to doctors I was in a coma when I got to hospital I had a emergency brain surgery the flu I had contracted turned into encephalitis I recovered but I was left with seizures for life
When your temperature goes above 101 you are supposed to go to the hospital. High fevers can cause permanent brain damage.
Glad you survived this!
Tampon use caused a toxic shock to me and I had my cycle with super high temperatures 107.9
When I stopped the tampon use the symptoms stopped
I use tampons and I have for years but I never experienced any of these symptoms. I never wear them at night and the most I keep one in is 4-6 hours, like it says on the package
Plus you can always use a pad as a backup for nights, long shifts and so on.
Because you use them correctly they didn't
The big Rely Tampons scandal. Rely Tampons had something in them that caused this. Never saw that brand again after this.
Thanks for saying the brand. It's important for us that we talk about greedy corporations who put profit over people.
@@ritamariekelley4077 Why do you automatically think the corporations are greedy? Women were getting toxic shock syndrome from ALL brands of tampon! The corporations don't come to your house and shove the tampons up you ffs!
They can all give you TSS
@@ritamariekelley4077 all brands can be harmful not just certain brands.
@@mollyhorse very well said your the only one making sense.
Apparently pads can cause it too if left unchanged for too long .
That and wound dressings.
I stopped using them immediately in the mid 70s when I read the Tampax side effects and warnings on the box, to be honest they never even made me feel comfortable, nothing better than good old pads
That could be still a problem to other women's diseases
Lose the overly dramatic background noise that I hesitate to call music. If it's not fiction, you shouldn't make it sound like a movie. It's about real people and real adversity. That "music" is so fkn annoying.
You do realise these programs were made in the 90s?
I don’t know why they won’t mention the particular brand name. I’ll never forget it. It was Rely, made by Proctor & Gamble.
Ok I was teenager in the ‘90s & I was taught all about toxic shock syndrome & to CHANGE YOUR FING TAMPON.
Ngl I'm so proud that whithin the first 5 min of this video I knew it was TSS and I was from a tampon
I shouldn't be but I am 😅
Remember when this started ,they may have had a tampon in when they were recieved and not taken out
I remember this bug: Staph aureus, resistant to most antibiotics, a toxin was produced. I used to be a bacteriology technologist back in the 70s and worked at Presbyterian Medical Center in New York. The initial diagnosis was due to a particular tampon which worked too well. The patients did not change their tampons often enough, because they felt they didn’t need to. If this way of controlling the menstrual period is left in too long, it can cause bacterial growth quickly, in this case, a new strain of this Staph which produced a dangerous toxin. When it was discovered that the commonality for these women was a particular brand of tampon, it was taken off the market. Whereas Staph aureus was once a bacterium that was sensitive to several antibiotics, this new and much more dangerous Staph was bad news. Eventually, bacteria, like viruses, produce different strains that can be lethal. Methicillin resistant Staph aureus, Mersa, was the result of a bacterium finding another way to infect. Eschericia coli, E. coli, is another example of a common bacteria that is normal in the intestinal tract. E. Coli developed a new and very dangerous strain that can make people very sick and can kill, especially babies and very young kids. Often, these responses were due to the overuse, and misuse, of antibiotics, especially for colds and flu, as was the case in the 60s and 70s, rendering some of them useless when they were really needed!
Medication was not the cause it was keeping tampons in too long
Department of health should have sent warnings to all states!!!!
Mom of two girls, I definitely told my daughter's about the possibility.... If you decide to use a tampon, please for the love of God 🙏 change it every 2/3 hours, without question.... Better yet, don't use one, stick with pads.....TSS is very real and will kill you..... I held nothing back. As a parent with girls you have to have those talks. My oldest uses tampons and pads, heavy flow, twice a month. Currently seeing a doctor about it. Youngest daughter uses only pads, too scared to use a tampon! Ladies learn to listen to your body, stay in tone with it! It may safe your life one day!
You don't need to change a tampon every 2-3 hours. Every 6-8 hours is more than sufficient! (2-3 tampons during the day and one for overnight, assuming your flow isn't more, then obviously change it more often overnight) If you want more info, check out Mamma Dr Jones here on UA-cam - she is an OBGYN who does informational videos about everything OBGYN related.
@@LovelyLawla and my dear are a dumb*ss....I don't give two *hits what it says on the box....we only get one VJJ in life, learn to listen to it, eat healthy and pay attention to the changes.... Those changes could safe your life one day!! Only a fool would tell a child/teenager to wear a tampon for 6/8 hours before you change it.... It's like you don't know the female body at all..... Better still don't wear a tampon period 🤷♀️ then you never have to worry about TSS!!!! Some women are more prone to catching TSS, following the direction on the box can and will kill a person with an issue down there ... Autoimmune issues and such!!!! A blanket reply of 6-8 hours of wear is perfectly ok is irritatingly irresponsible of you! Don't have kids and stop handing out advise to young people, you my dear will get someone killed.
@@mandie1109 I'd rather listen to an OBGYN doctor than a random woman being rude and aggressive on the Internet.
I agree I 2 girls myself and I didn't have them use tampon it's not good having the blood backed up inside your body
@@LovelyLawla I don't know how any woman can keep a tampon inside her with menstrual blood which is made up of dead tissue and dead blood cells for longer than four hours, especially overnight. Have you ever smelled rotting meat? There's a reason the body wants to flush it out. It's because it's decaying and not useful any longer and the body wants to clean itself out. If a doctor is promoting leaving it in longer than four hours she should lose her license.
Everyone should be taught about TSS in school- not just maybe read it or maybe not on a packet of tampons. I hadn't heard of it until a family friend developed it. Never used them since- not worth my life.
Same! I knew they could caulse toxic shock but never the symptoms! Definitely makes me think those organic tampons arent so silly.
@Dominic hahahahaha 🤷 probably right
It seems weird that these women would all have it at the same time. You would think that people would have TSS randomly for quite awhile before they figure it out. It is really interesting to see how they react to seeing medical issues for the first time (or in this context).
Brand new formulation for the tampon. Watch the L-Tryptophan episode.
BRILLIANT SHOW --- THANKS UA-cam
When all this was going on I had used tapons, but because I had a tipped uterus it was very uncomfortable. Even the short time I tried them I still got a bacteria infection that was hard to treat. The Dr told me anything you insert something like that you take a change on some kind of bacteria inside you. I never used them again and warned my daughters about them.
A retroverted uterus was not the reason for your discomfort, you were simply inserting the tampon incorrectly. I would have changed my doctor if he pedalled that rubbish to me.
@@AussieBritno Honey. That was over 50 years ago and I'm sure the designs have changed. But no the scientific and medical fact...insert something man-made inside your body or on your body and there's always a chance of infection or an adverce reaction.
I carry an Epi-Pen for bee and wasp stings, same for my daughter and granddaughter. I got a chemical face scrub from OxiClean and days later after all the swelling went down and skin stopped peeling I had really nice looking skin for a while. But I don't recommend it, it was horrible to go though.
I can't wear any kind of makeup because slits for eyes makes it hard to see.
Even prescription medications can cause life threatening reactions.
Point is, you don't know with a 100% certainty all safety and sanition regulations are completely followed. Plus different bodies react differently.
When tampons first became available, I remember being warned - I don't remember where it originated - about something called toxic shock, brought about by " putting something alien inside your body" I used them from the age of 16 until th menopause some 30 plus years later. I guess I was one of the lucky ones
I'm about the same. Was in the 80s when I started my periods.I wasn't Lucky enough TO be able to NOT change tampons every 3-4 hours! I was always a Super, Maxi Woman... Super tampons, Maxi pads...
You must have changed them frequently as instructed according to the new labeling that came about after this situation.
"Something alien"? I have never, ever placed a xenomorph inside my body.
I used tampons all the time and every time I went to the bathroom I changed
The contrast between how Toxic Shock Syndrome (TSS) and AIDS were handled and treated is extremely stark, telling and revealing.
If you read "And the Band Played On" by Randy Shilts, which is the renown, award-winning definitive history of the early years of the HIV/AIDS crisis (It was also made into an HBO movie.), you learn the enormous difference of how the relatively limited TSS epidemic was dealt with compared to the far deadlier and widespread AIDS pandemic.
Even though TSS affected just a tiny fraction of the population (this program states a total mortality of 37) compared to the huge number of tens and then hundreds of thousands of AIDS infections and deaths that first occurred within a year or two of this crisis, except for the gay press, it was ignored and avoided "like the plague" by the public health community, the press, the broadcast media and state and federal governments. Huge amounts of attention and resources went into publicizing, researching and treating TSS, but HIV/AIDS was literally ignored and avoided. It was so bad that urban hospitals were photocopying articles from gay magazines and newspapers to share whatever information they could because no one else was publishing or distributing information about the growing epidemic.
Millions of dollars were poured into research and treatment for TSS, and as it should, society sprung into action, but it took years to get a single federal dollar for research or treatment of AIDS, even though the virus was already a pandemic by 1981 and killing far, far more people. Even when Congress finally appropriated money for AIDS research the Reagan administration literally refused to spend the the appropriated funds, claiming that the CDC had plenty of resources, when in fact the physicians and researchers there couldn't even afford the most basic equipment for basic medical research on the disease. People were literally writing checks to give private donations so doctors could get something as simple and basic as a microscope to do research. When money was appropriated for AIDS it came with the stipulation that none of the money could be used to teach practices to avoid infection because that would be "promoting homosexuality" and drug use.
In short, the perception was that AIDS didn't affect "normal" of "innocent" people; it affected "those people" (gay men and IV-drug users) who in the minds of many "deserved what they got" and who didn't deserve the care, attention or resources of the society and government those same sick people and potential victims paid taxes for, and in a number of cases, had fought to defend and protect in the Second World War, Korea and Vietnam.
Plus this came out when Jimmy Carter was President. HIV/AIDS happened when Reagan was President. That might help explain the different reactions.
Vernice Thompson, you are absolutely correct. Had Carter been elected instead of Reagan I have no doubt that the response would have been almost immediate, compassionate, competent and aggressive - America at its best.
It's a bloody shame about the HIV/AIDS. I am glad that more people are being kind to their fellow humans. (In C a n a da).
Bless Dr. Dan for being so comfortable about discussing tampons! He even mimed holding one!
LADIES, CHANGE THOSE TAMPONS REGULARLY!!!!
🤤😵😝🤒💀☠😨😖😲😒
I had similar back in the 60's. Seemed to be only when I used super absorbancy tampons. Half an hour after inserting I was dizzy and feeling nauseous. i pulled it out (not easy as it had dried me out) and 5 minutes later I was fine. Just used regular ones from then on
OFCOURSE, BLESS NOTTON TEST
That's why I don't use tampons, i only use pads, there's warnings on tampons box's and on pad packets
I never used them.
@Voracious Reader some of us just dont like putting toxic chemicals inside us for absorption by our bodies. It is not just about the acute danger like in this video, but the long term danger of adding toxins to your system. It may be hysterical to you, but for some of us it is just common sense.
@Voracious Reader not hysterical...also not strep! It was staphylococcus aureus...... totally different from streptococcus! Shouldn't insult people just because you're not concerned!