Description
Every story generally begins with a short description of the sufferer's life before they fell ill. The symptoms that the person experienced are then described and usually become progressively worse; the progression is usually re-enacted by actors while the original sufferer narrates. The person will go from doctor to doctor and receive various misdiagnoses or may be told that there is nothing wrong with them at all. After some time of suffering, which ranges from a few days to several years, the person will find out about a doctor who is willing to get to the bottom of their case. The doctor reviews the patient's medical records and does some testing, and finally reaches the correct diagnosis and gives the sufferer the proper treatment. The story ends with a description of what the person's life is like today. Usually, the sufferer is still alive. Some have died after the episode was taped or aired, and only one has died before the diagnosis.
The series has no regular cast except for its narrator, David Guion, and since 2009 David Scott, who describes the patients' lives and the destruction their illnesses bring. The patients themselves, along with their friends and family help to narrate their story. Among the more common illnesses mentioned on the show are epilepsy, Myasthenia gravis, Alpha 1-antitrypsin deficiency, heart disease, pulmonary hypertension, Lyme disease, veral various cancers and various undiagnosed tumors. Other times it is just an infection of some sort.
Read more about this topic: Mystery Diagnosis
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