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In 1987, a woman walked into a public health center in Goiânia, Brazil, desperate for help. She was pale and weak, and she said a strange sickness was slowly killing her family.
The official who saw the woman thought she was exaggerating, but just 24 hours later, he realized she was the key to solving one of the worst disasters in Brazil's history.
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From Ballin Studios and Wondery, I'm Mr. Ballin, and this is Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries, where every week we will explore a new baffling mystery originating from the one place we all can't escape, our own bodies. If you enjoy stories like this, please sign the follow button up for a cannonball competition in the Limpopo River. This week's story is called A Change in Fortune.
On the hot evening of September 20, 1987, 37-year-old Maria Ferreira hosted a lively family gathering at her small home in Goiânia, Brazil. Goiânia was a cosmopolitan city with nearly a million people. Gleaming skyscrapers and tropical fruit trees lined the wealthy downtown area. But there were also areas of extreme poverty.
Maria and her husband, Davaier, lived in one of these lower-income neighborhoods where they owned and operated a scrapyard on their property. It was hard work, especially in the intense tropical heat. But Maria and Davaier made a great team. Maria liked to joke that even though Davaier was short and stocky, he always had his head in the clouds. Davaier would tease Maria when she took things too seriously, saying that that was why she had a gray streak in her long brown hair.
But on this night, Maria was totally relaxed. There was plenty of delicious food and drink with people she loved, and they were able to pay for it because they had a little extra money from selling more scrap metal than usual.
Maria and Dabayer had also acquired a rare good luck charm a few days earlier. They never had much in the way of material possessions, but they tried to find beauty in their everyday life. This time, it was in a trinket Dabayer had found. As they passed it around the table, she felt grateful for all the good fortune that had come their way.
In the chair next to Maria, Devaillere scooped a spoonful of black bean and pork stew onto his plate. He was listening to his brother, who was a bus driver, tell a story. He always had something funny to share from one of his routes. Devaillere's other brother, Ivo, was there as well with his wife and their six-year-old daughter, Lei Ji. The little girl's big brown eyes and joyful laugh filled Maria with love. Lei Ji was the closest thing she had had to a daughter since she didn't have any children of her own.
It was the perfect night, and that called for a toast. Once everyone refilled their glasses, Maria raised hers in the air and thanked her family for coming. They all cheered and drank to the future. Later, after everyone left, Devaillère went into the garage to finish up some work. As Maria washed coffee cups and put away plates, she could hear thunder in the distance. The next morning, on September 21st, Maria woke to the sound of rain pelting her tin rooftop.
Goiânia's rainy season normally ran from October to April, but this year it had started earlier than usual. As Maria climbed out of bed, she noticed that she didn't feel well. Her body was stiff and her stomach felt upset. She wrote off her discomfort to the previous night's festivities and tried to carry on with her day. But as time passed, Maria was starting to feel increasingly sick until finally, after a few hours, she started violently vomiting.
Now, the pain in Maria's stomach was so bad that she decided she needed to see a doctor right away. She slowly got dressed and walked out to tell Devayer. Maria found him working in the scrapyard. It was cluttered with old refrigerators, large pieces of sheet metal, and disassembled machines. Devayer offered to take her, but she said she didn't want to distract him from his work, so she told him she could get there on her own.
Maria took a bus to a nearby hospital and was able to see a doctor right away. After the doctor examined her, he said everything was fine. She must be having an allergic reaction to something she ate. Maria was relieved it wasn't something more serious. She found it hard to believe she could be this sick from food she was used to eating, but the doctor reassured her and said to go home and rest and she would feel better soon.
But that evening, Maria still felt just as sick. She called her mom, who lived in a neighboring town, and asked her to come stay for a few days. Maria's mother took a bus there right away, and once she got there, she did her best to nurse her daughter back to health, feeding her broth and herbs. But whatever Maria had caught, it just wasn't going away.
Even worse, Maria's mother soon started to feel sick too, with the same symptoms of fever and upset stomach that Maria had. So, two days later, Maria's mom had to return back to her home to rest and recuperate as well. Maria was confused. If she was suffering from a food allergy like the doctor thought, why would her mom have gotten sick too? So now she thought maybe she'd come down with the flu and her mother had just caught it from her.
So, when her brother-in-law, Ivo, stopped by the house on September 24th, Maria tried to keep her distance from him. She'd been sick for four days and didn't want to risk passing anything on.
Ivo didn't stay long at Maria and Devayer's house, and soon he got back to his own home right in time for lunch. His wife had put out some egg sandwiches, and after Ivo and his wife had sat down to eat, they called in their daughter, Leiji, to come join them. But Leiji was having too much fun playing with her dolls, her glitter, and her coloring books. Finally, Leiji did abandon her toys and took her seat at the table with her parents. But just ten minutes after eating, Leiji threw up.
Then, later that afternoon, Ivo and his wife got sick too. At first, they thought it was the eggs they had for lunch, but Ivo soon realized this wasn't just a case of food poisoning. It seemed like almost everyone who had gone to the Ferreira household recently was getting sick, and by now that included Devayer, who was feeling nauseous, as well as his mother, who had come by to visit. The list grew to include two of Devayer's brothers and a handful of their children.
The sickness had even spread to several of the neighbors who had visited with Maria and Devayer. Two of Devayer's scrapyard employees had also become ill, all in the span of a week. When Maria found out about the growing number of people who were getting sick, she was horrified, and she became even more afraid when she noticed something else very disturbing. There were these red lesions that were showing up on her skin that were painful to the touch.
By September 27th, nearly a week after first getting sick, Maria's stomach pain was unbearable. As she lay curled up in bed listening to the rain falling outside, she thought back to that last night she felt healthy. It was the same night she had hosted the big family gathering.
Maria tried to remember everything she had done that night. Then she realized something. There was only one thing that everyone who had gotten sick over the last 10 days had in common. Maria could barely move, but she knew what she had to do next. If she didn't get to the bottom of this mystery, her whole family could be in serious danger.
And so, on the next morning, she willed herself out of bed and slowly managed to get dressed. Then she gathered the evidence she needed in a cloth sack. Maria knew where she wanted to take it, and it wasn't to the hospital where she'd been before. She was going somewhere that had the authority to help her. The only issue was, she needed someone to go with her. She was too exhausted to make the trip on her own. Devaillere wasn't feeling well enough to go with her, so she asked another scrapyard employee to accompany her.
Maria let the young man carry the bag she'd packed. She was so weak she could barely keep moving.
Just down the street, they boarded a crowded bus, and about a half hour later, they got off near an office called the Vigilância Sanitária. This was a public health agency that regulated pharmaceuticals, food products, and sanitary conditions. It was basically the Brazilian equivalent of the Food and Drug Administration in the United States. Maria thought that if anybody could figure out what was making her and her family so sick, it would be someone at this agency.
She and her companion entered the plain brick building through a courtyard and were taken into the office belonging to the agency's director. The young man helping Maria dropped the bag he was carrying on the official's desk. Then Maria wiped her flushed face with a handkerchief and explained what it was. She said the contents of the bag were killing her family.
The official just stared at her. He looked inside the bag and seemed confused. The items inside didn't look particularly dangerous. He said what really concerned him was Maria. Maria knew she was sweating and visibly shaking, and she noticed his expression as he looked at all the lesions and burn-like marks on her arms.
The official told her that right now, she just needed to see a doctor. But he did promise he would take a closer look at what was in the bag. And, just to be safe, the official put the bag on a chair in the building's courtyard, then made sure Maria knew how to get to the nearest health clinic.
Maria was skeptical. The last time she'd seen a doctor, he'd given her the wrong diagnosis. But she didn't know what else to do, so she and her companion left the agency and headed to the bus stop. Maria insisted that her companion return to the scrapyard and get back to work. Unsure and scared about what she would find out, Maria boarded the bus alone.
A short time later, a doctor at this clinic carefully examined Maria and then gave her a new diagnosis. He said she was right. She was not experiencing an allergic reaction or food poisoning. What she had was a tropical disease, and her family and friends who were sick probably had it too.
He explained that the unusually heavy rains had been spawning mosquitoes and a host of other bugs that carried infectious diseases. A virus like dengue or Zika would explain her symptoms, including the burn-like lesions she'd developed. The doctor assured Maria that this was all very manageable and that everything would be okay. Then he arranged to have her transported to the Tropical Diseases Hospital for specialized treatment.
Maria's unease lightened and she even managed a weak smile. She finally had a real explanation for what was happening to her and her family. It was a relief to think that the bag she had left at the health agency didn't actually have anything to do with a tropical virus. Less than an hour later, Maria arrived at the Tropical Diseases Hospital.
As a doctor took her vitals, she asked if he knew what type of virus was going around. But instead of answering her question, the doctor gently took her arm and began closely examining her skin lesions. Then he called one of the nurses over to look at them. The nurse said she'd seen some other patients with similar burns in the last few days. Suddenly, the doctor's face turned serious.
which made Maria extremely nervous. He continued to examine her and then he stepped back. He explained that the doctor at the previous health clinic had been wrong too. Maria's symptoms did not line up with any kind of tropical disease he'd ever treated. In fact, this doctor was afraid Maria's symptoms were connected to another sickness entirely. And if he was even partially correct, they would need to move quickly. This could be a dangerous situation.
The doctor asked her detailed questions about the past several days and Maria shared everything she could remember. She could see the alarm spread across his face the more they talked. Maria felt a terrible wave of panic and nausea start to wash over her and then she felt like she needed to tell him about the bag.
So she explained that she had brought this bag and left it at the public health agency in hopes that they would analyze it. As soon as she said this, the doctor quickly excused himself and ran as fast as he could to the phone.
He called a physician at the state's Department of the Environment. He tried to hide the rising panic in his voice as he explained the urgency of the situation and that action needed to be taken immediately. Both doctors agreed that the bag Maria brought to the public health office had to be examined as soon as possible to prevent the spread of what was making everyone sick.
The doctor at the Department of the Environment knew a specialist named Walter Ferreira. Dr. Ferreira, who had no relation to Maria and her family, would be able to properly analyze the bag's contents. But because it was late in the evening, they wouldn't be able to contact him until the next day. Early the next morning, Dr. Ferreira was getting dressed when his phone rang. It was the doctor from the Department of the Environment calling.
Dr. Ferreira paced anxiously as he learned what was going on. There was a huge crisis taking place in Goiânia and he needed to act quickly. He scribbled down the address to the public health office where the bag was and then ran out the door and went to a nearby office to grab some equipment. He hoped his colleague at the Department of the Environment was wrong about everything because if he wasn't, that meant thousands of lives were now in danger. Mr. Ballin Collection is sponsored by BetterHelp.
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About an hour later, Dr. Ferreira arrived at the public health office. Before he entered the courtyard, he pulled a device out of a case. The device would reveal if their terrible suspicions were correct. He carefully switched on the piece of equipment, but right away it seemed like the device was malfunctioning. And no matter how much Dr. Ferreira struggled to adjust the equipment, it just wouldn't work.
The readings were just so impossible that he assumed it had to be broken. Dr. Ferreira was frustrated. Now he would need to go back to his office and swap out this broken device for a new one. So he let the receptionist know he'd be back as soon as possible.
Almost two hours later, Dr. Ferreira returned with a replacement piece of equipment. When he turned that one on, the exact same thing happened. The readings were impossible. He tried turning it on and off several times, but he just kept getting these totally incredible readings. After a few minutes, Dr. Ferreira was horrified to realize that he had been wrong.
Both of these devices had been working perfectly fine and that meant the reality of this situation was much, much worse. If this situation didn't get handled, the whole city of Goiânia could have a catastrophic health crisis on their hands and maybe all of Brazil could have a health crisis on their hands. So Dr. Ferreira knew he needed to get to that bag.
Dr. Ferreira ran inside the building and was met by the facility's director. Ferreira asked where this bag was, but the director explained that he had become concerned about the bag's contents, so he had called in the fire brigade for assistance. In fact, the firefighters were already there and were about to take the bag from the building's courtyard. Their plan was to dispose of it in a nearby stream.
Dr. Ferreira ran into the courtyard and saw a group of firefighters surrounding the bag. He yelled for them to stop and that if they threw it in the water, it would trigger a horrific disaster. He warned them not to touch it and insisted that everyone just evacuate the building. Once Dr. Ferreira was able to explain what was happening, the firefighters realized just how serious this situation was and they helped him clear the area.
But the day was far from over. Dr. Ferreira knew he needed to track down Maria and speak to her about the contents of this bag. He located her at a hospital, but her condition had now worsened to the point where she was just too weak to even talk. But she was able to instruct Dr. Ferreira to just go to her family's junkyard, where he would find her husband, and he could answer any questions the doctor might have.
It was noon by the time Dr. Ferreira and his colleague got to Maria and Devaillere's scrapyard. When they arrived, they saw Devaillere working next to his garage.
Dr. Ferreira introduced himself and tried to shake Devayere's hand, but Devayere politely refused and then he showed them the inside of his hand and there was this huge open sore on his palm. Dr. Ferreira looked at it and then immediately shot a look of worry at his colleague. The doctor knew this type of wound on Devayere's hand could only be caused by one thing and it was the thing that Dr. Ferreira feared the most.
Devayer told them that this whole situation began 11 days earlier on September 18th. That morning, around 10 a.m., a young man had stopped by their scrapyard and told him about some scrap metal he'd found and wanted to sell. He had never seen anything like it and thought it was valuable. Devayer said he was interested and told the young man to bring it over.
Later that day, the young man returned, now hauling something in a wheelbarrow. Inside this wheelbarrow were the disassembled pieces of a large metal contraption. There was also a small capsule shaped like an oversized thermos.
De Baer thought both items were made of stainless steel, which would earn him a nice profit. But after De Baer examined the capsule more closely, he became even more excited. It was lined with lead, which was an even more valuable metal. De Baer paid the man the equivalent of about 30 US dollars and brought his new purchases into his garage. He left them there before heading inside to eat dinner. Once he was done eating, he headed back to the garage to start extracting the lead.
But when Devayer opened back up the garage doors, he was amazed by what he now saw inside. A strange blue glow was now coming from the thermos-shaped capsule. Devayer was a deeply spiritual man and thought he might have encountered something supernatural. He grabbed the metal capsule and called Maria into the garage so she could see it too.
When Maria saw its unusual glow, she was just as mystified as Devaillere. They took a closer look and saw that the blue light was coming through a small window on the side of the capsule. The window looked like it had already been punctured with a screwdriver, probably by the young man who had just sold it to Devaillere.
Maria thought there could be a priceless gemstone hidden inside, but Devayer was sure that it was actually a holy relic that would bring blessings and good fortune to the family. Devayer was determined to continue examining this object.
So he poked around the small opening with a screwdriver and removed what appeared to be several small pellets of a glittery bluish powder. The pellets were part of a slightly bigger pile that still sat deep inside the capsule. For all Devaillère knew, this luminous powder could be worth thousands of dollars. It could change their lives in a way they'd never imagined.
As De Baer told the doctors of this discovery, he remembered how special he felt handling the powder, and he wanted his whole family to experience it. This was the good luck charm they shared at their big family dinner. Over the next few days, De Baer shared his discovery with more family and friends and neighbors, and each time someone came over, he brought out the special glitter.
Small groups of people gathered around the capsule and peered through the broken window to admire the glowing powder inside. Many touched the small pellets DeVeyer had extracted.
Seeing how excited everyone was about the powder made De Bayer determined to extract the rest of it from the capsule. So a friend came over and, using a screwdriver, helped him remove fragments from behind the glass window. Eventually, they did get it all out. The entire pile was small enough to fit in the palm of De Bayer's hand.
Once all the powder had been extracted, Devailleur gave the capsule to two of his employees and asked them to melt it down for metal and sell it to a nearby scrapyard. Then he brought some of the powder to Maria, who in turn dusted it all over her pajamas and bed sheets. Devailleur gave a grain-sized fragment to his brother, the bus driver, who rubbed it on his hands before heading into work. And on his shift as a bus driver, he came into contact with dozens of people.
Another one of Devaer's brothers dipped his finger in the blue powder and traced a cross on his abdomen for divine protection. Maria's mother handled some of the powder while she was taking care of Maria, and then she too became ill.
Around that same time, Devayer had given some fragments to his brother Evo. And later, Evo's daughter, Leiji, played with the glittery crystals and rubbed them all over her hands and arms. And then immediately after doing that, she had eaten her egg sandwich and become ill right away. Devayer also shared his good luck charm with several neighbors, who began having symptoms as well.
After Maria had spent days wondering what might have caused so many people to get sick so quickly, she finally realized they all had one thing in common. They all had come in contact with this mysterious blue powder.
So, on the morning of September 28th, 10 days after buying this capsule, Maria told Devaillere she was taking what was left of the powder and the capsule to the local health agency to be analyzed. She placed these remnants in a large cloth bag, then she headed out with one of Devaillere's employees to retrieve the parts of the capsule that had been sold to the other scrapyards. She managed to collect most of it. Those were also placed in the bag that Maria brought to the public health office.
The story confirmed Dr. Ferreira's worst fears. He asked Devayere about the young man who first sold him the capsule and where he'd gotten it. Devayere said he wasn't sure, but he thought it might have come from some sort of abandoned facility that was located nearby. Dr. Ferreira turned to his colleague and saw that the other doctor's face had now gone white because he knew exactly where that capsule had come from. It was a clinic that had closed two years earlier, a cancer treatment clinic.
The capsule had come from a radiation therapy machine, and the magical blue powder that was inside wasn't from a precious gemstone. The powder was a highly radioactive material called cesium-137. When properly contained in the capsule, the powder's destructive capabilities could be used for focused cancer treatments. But without that protective shell, the powder became one of the most lethal substances on Earth.
Maria and the others were not suffering from a tropical disease or any of the other things that doctors first thought. They were experiencing massive radiation poisoning, and the lesions they had developed were radiation burns. The handful of powder that Devaer found was enough to make more than 200 people extremely ill and place thousands more in danger.
Dr. Ferreira knew all this because he was a medical physicist and the tool he had tried to use outside of the public health agency was a radiation detector. He thought both detectors were broken because they were making so much noise and their readings were so high they were literally off the charts. But the detectors were correct. They were reading such high levels of radiation in the vicinity of where this bag was that contained the powder that the federal government would have to get involved.
And now that Dr. Ferreira had confirmed just how serious the situation had become, he contacted Brazil's Nuclear Energy Commission. Within a matter of hours, they started testing thousands of Goiânia's residents for radiation poisoning in the city's sports stadium.
On the morning of September 30th, 13 days after Devailleur bought the capsule, workers in hazmat suits arrived in the courtyard of the health agency to properly dispose of the bag that contained the radioactive material. The abandoned cancer clinic where the blue powder was first discovered was demolished as well. On October 23rd, Maria Ferreira finally died. Her niece, Leiji, also died on the same day.
They were each buried in special fiberglass lead-lined coffins to prevent radiation from leaking out. By the end of the month, Devaillere's two young employees also died as a result of the exposure they had received when they melted down the capsule for Devaillere. While Maria's husband, Devaillere, survived the tragedy, he never mentally recovered. Devaillere died in 1994, seven years later.
Thankfully, no one else died from the radiation exposure, but many others sustained amputations, severe burn scars, and lifelong medical conditions. The Goiânia incident remains one of history's deadliest disasters involving medical radiation. From Ballin Studios and Wondery, this is Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries, hosted by me, Mr. Ballin.
A quick reminder, the content in this episode is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.
Thank you.
Executive producers are myself, Mr. Ballin, and Nick Witters. For Wondery, senior managing producer is Ryan Lohr. Our head of sound is Marcelino Villapondo. Our producer is Julie Magruder. Senior producers are Laura Donna Pallivota, Dave Schilling, and Matt Olmos. Our executive producers are Aaron O'Flaherty and Marshall Louis for Wondery.
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