The Most Insane True Story You’ll Want To Tell Everyone - MrBallen
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In December 2011, Ellie Lobel, a brilliant and hyper-successful woman from Southern California who had earned her PhD by age eighteen, made the drastic decision to end her life due to an unexplained chronic illness that had plagued her for years. Despite having children in their twenties and living with a mysterious malaise that doctors attributed to vitamin deficiencies or lack of sunlight, Ellie's condition worsened over time until she faced divorce from a husband who abandoned her upon learning of her sickness. By late 2011, feeling unable to cope further after her family had moved out, she hired an end-of-life care professional and traveled to a random Airbnb in California with the intention of fasting herself into death within a few days. Upon arriving at the rental property on what was supposed to be her final day, Ellie found that despite lying immobile in bed for three days without food or water, she had not died as planned; instead, her condition seemed to deteriorate further before she decided to take a walk with her caregiver. During this brief excursion into a sunny field of flowers, an African killer bee stung her on the face while swarming around them. The situation escalated rapidly when hundreds more bees joined the attack, leaving Ellie practically paralyzed by pain and unable to move as her end-of-life worker fled in terror before eventually returning to scoop her up and run back to the house without taking her to a hospital, fearing that medical intervention would kill her from the venom alone. For three additional days following this intense swarm of stings, Ellie remained alive but expected to die soon due to either her underlying illness or the toxicity of the bee attacks. However, contrary to all expectations, she began to feel better for the first time in fifteen years; within a short period, she regained the ability to sit up and walk independently after being bedridden for so long that even sitting was impossible just days prior. Recognizing this sudden turnaround as something beyond natural recovery given her severe history with Lyme disease—which had been undiagnosed since a tick bite fifteen years earlier—she decided to investigate what could have caused such a miraculous improvement rather than assuming she was simply cured of everything at once. Through online research, Ellie discovered an obscure and ethically questionable 1990s Australian study suggesting that specific amounts of African killer bee stings might theoretically cure Lyme disease by utilizing the toxins in their venom against the infection. It turned out that her accidental exposure to a massive swarm had effectively conducted this dangerous experiment on herself, resulting in a complete recovery from both her chronic fatigue and the underlying Lyme disease caused by the initial tick bite. Now fully healthy again after fifteen years of suffering, Ellie Lobel has become an advocate touring the world to share how these specific bee stings saved her life, turning what was intended as a suicide mission into one of the most bizarre true stories ever told about medical resilience and unexpected cures.
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if you don't mind I'll tell another
quick story let's do it I got another
one that that this one so somebody
bootleg like filmed a portion of this
live show I did last year which is fine
I'm not going to do anything about it um
because anyway so there's a portion they
filmed where I got to see on this video
the actual reaction to this one
particular reveal um and and it was like
so much it was way more than the lamp
frankly this one because it's so weird
anyway I I haven't prepped this one but
I know it really well so I can get it
close hit it all right so it was in 2011
and there's this woman named Ellie Lobel
she's 42 years old and she decided I
think it was December 11th 2011 she
decided enough is enough it's time for
me to die so Ellie her background was
she was brilliant I mean she went to an
IV Le school I think it was she she had
her PhD by 18 and then she got into I
think Consulting I forget what her job
was but it was like a hyper successful
woman like hyper successful killing it
like crazy
salary but she came came down with this
mysterious illness sometime in her I
want to say her 30s I early 30s so she's
42 was late 20 she comes down with this
illness and she's she's married she's
got kids she lives in Southern
California and it wasn't like the ill
the do doctors didn't even know what the
illness was she was just like fatigued
and you know she didn't feel that good
but there was nothing specific and so
every time she would go to the doctor
the doctors would run and Battery of
tests and basically say oh you know
you're low on this vitamin or you need
more sunlight or you need this you need
that like there wasn't anything specific
it was just kind of this malaise she had
where she just always felt kind of down
but for years and years she just always
felt terrible and it started affecting
her career and she had to step back from
her career and then actually she got
this like horrible divorce with her
husband who frankly if I'm being candid
sounds like he was kind of a jerk
because he immediately was like all I'm
out of here now that you're sick so they
split up and so she's you know she's
raising her kids on her own she's got
this chronic illness and and it's
getting worse you know not not in Leaps
and Bounds but it's definitely not
improving she's becoming more and more
ill she's spending more days in bed um
and so finally come December 11th 2011
uh by this point her kids have moved out
of the house they are you know
successful they're in their 20s you know
they they have their Partners they have
their jobs and you know she's she's
still single and she's just at the end
of her ability to cope with whatever was
going on with her and she decided you
know what I'm done I I want to go die
and so she actually hired an end of Life
Care person I forget the title I forget
specifically what this job is but you
can hire people to basically with you
while you die like you end your life um
and for what it's worth it's important
to note that by this point in 2011
doctors had told her that like your
organs are actually starting to shut
down and frankly if you were to kind of
mentally let go there's a pretty good
chance your body would shut down like
it's kind of on you at this point to
keep going and so she thought I'll just
go to I'll go to an Airbnb in a
beautiful part of California and I will
literally just stay in the house until I
die like not going to get water not
going to get food I'm going to just stay
in my bed till I die di with this person
yes she didn't tell her family this was
like and she was she's just miserable
you know she just wants it to be over
and so she didn't tell her family she
like left him a note or
something and so she goes to this little
Airbnb in this random town and it's
Southern California I forget where and
you know she she arrives at the house
she doesn't explore the town or anything
you know she's met up with her end of
Life Care person and they go in this
house and Ellie just CL she can't even
walk you know the end of care person is
helping her walk she gets in bed and
she's like okay I'm going to I'm going
to die now um for 3 days she laid in
that bed and she didn't die and she felt
horrible and she felt like things are
getting worse but she's she's not dying
and she decided you know what I'm just
going to go take a quick walk and then
come back and die like it's pretty
pretty bizarre you know a usual Tuesday
yeah exactly and so she asks her end of
Life Care person to come with her on a
walk cuz she actually had not even seen
the town she was in you know she
basically just went into her bed and so
they they leave this house it's a
beautiful sunny day and you know she's
holding on to her end of care end of
Life Care person and he sees this really
big guy and they're walking down the
sidewalk and on their side is this
beautiful field of flowers and you know
there's a little wood rail post fence
between them and the field and it's like
just beautiful and sunny and and for a
second you know Ellie is she stops and
just stares out at this field and she's
taken with just how beautiful it is now
this did not Inspire her to to want to
live cuz she she still wants it to end
but she's you know she's struck by this
moment you for the first time in a while
I'm seeing something truly beautiful and
that's all it's like
wonderful but as she's staring at this
field she begins to hear a buzzing sound
and she looks above her and she sees
there's a bee over her head which is not
cause for concern there are bees
everywhere you know so be it but this
bee was not a normal bee this bee was an
African killer bee so it's like a huge
hornet and when she Dawn when it dawned
on her that this is like I should
probably get away from this thing it
came down and began stinging her and
she's practically immobile and at the
same time she's like screaming her end
of Life Care person just turns and
starts running like left her on the side
of the road she can't even walk and this
was not just one bee there was a whole
horde of African killer bees that were
just over this field and I guess they
signaled to come over and a whole swarm
came over to Ellie and they stung her
over and hundreds of times she can't go
anywhere so basically when they stopped
stinging mostly her face for about 5 10
minutes they flew off and she's just
laying on the ground and she's alive but
in excruciating pain and by this point
Her end of Life Care person who has
completely abandoned her now he comes
back and he Scoops her up and and as as
he's running with her all she thinks to
say is don't take me to the hospital
because at this point she's like this
will kill me you know the beas stings
will kill me and so he runs her all the
way back to the house and and says fine
I'm not going to I'm not going to bring
her to the hospital even though you've
been horribly stung and I'm at least
partially to blame uh and so Ellie
climbs back in bed
and now she's thinking I'm going to die
now it's either it's it's whatever's
going on with me or the Beast stinks but
three more days Kai and she doesn't die
and in fact she actually begins to feel
better for the first time in like 15
years Ellie Lobel can sit up on her own
uh well not she could sit up 15 years
earlier but of of late she couldn't even
sit up now she can sit up and she can
get on her feet she can walk around on
her own she's like what's going on here
now Ellie is she was an incredibly smart
woman very you know pragmatic and she
did not think oh I'm cured everything's
great now she's like there's there's
something going on I want to I want to
research this you know what
happened necessary context so here's a
quick break to understand what happens
next so right before Ellie got sick so
15 years earlier when she began to feel
this this feeling she was getting she
had gone out for a hike and you know
near her house and she'd come back and
she had noticed she had this little Mark
on the inside of her thigh she figured
it was a bug bite didn't think much of
it
but you know she knew she got bit by
something but hadn't really registered
if it had anything to do with her
Illness but it turned out she got bit by
a tick and a tick a deer tick that had
Lyme disease and when they bite you they
leave a very distinctive mark on your on
wherever they bit you it looks like a
bullseye and it stood out to her at the
time that she had this kind of Bullseye
looking mark on her leg but she just
didn't put it together it would turn out
she had lime disease that was the thing
that was affecting her for those 15
years and Lyme disease if you catch it
early and you treat it early it's very
it's totally curable if you wait and you
you let it develop it's very is not
something that can necessarily be cured
and in rare cases it can absolutely be
fatal and she's 15 years in she's she's
deeply immersed in Lyme disease and so
she actually came to know that around
the time she got to the house in
California she was aware that she had
Lyme disease right so I'm filling in
some gaps here for you so she knows she
has lyme disease she knows there's
nothing she can do about it she's now
been stung by a bunch of bees and she's
feeling pretty good she hops online and
she does some research about bee stinks
and she discovered an obscure study done
in the 1990s in Australia about the
effects of the toxin in African killer
bees and other types of bees and its
effects on lme disease patients and they
made they they guessed they made this
hypothesis that a certain amount of bee
stings from African Killer Bees in
theory could cure Lyme disease but it
was an unethical study and they couldn't
do it because it would involve swarming
killer bees on a ially ill lme disease
patient but Ellie loel unintentionally
conducted the experiment on herself and
it completely cured her Lyme disease
100% healthy now she tours the world
like talking about the the positive
effects of getting stung by
bees dude crazy right
wow that's insane I mean first off
whoever that end of Life Care person
come you didn't do awful too committed
to it here's an interesting question was
it ethical or unethical to leave her
given that by leaving her she ended up
being her life was saved I mean if she
had been pulled away after one stink it
would not have worked so I'm sure she's
like man thanks it's a mixed bag
probably not going to invite them to
kind save someone from a burning
building but yeah that is crazy so when
you watch the the video of that there I
have this pause where I know I'm about
to say the big she was cured completely
and it was like the audience was so
stoked it was like the coolest moment of
the show and it was captured on film so
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