Jake Haendel could not speak or move — only blink — for nearly 10 months with symptoms of locked-in syndrome starting in 2017 in his late 20s.
Doctors told him he was going to die. He was even in hospice. Now the Sudbury native, who survived the illness, has his own podcast called “Blink,” which is in the top 10 on the Apple podcast true crime charts after launching in February.
WATCH ANYTIME FOR FREE
 |
Stream NBC10 Boston news for free, 24/7, wherever you are. |
Haendel believes he got the terminal illness possibly from a chemical put into the heroin he was smoking — thinking, perhaps ironically, that was safer than injecting.
“We don’t know actually what causes that, like what toxin it was, and that’s what we’re investigating in 'Blink,'” Haendel said.
Get updates on what's happening in Boston to your inbox. Sign up for our News Headlines newsletter.
That is where the true crime aspect comes into play, but there was also other nefarious activity going on around him, before his miraculous recovery.
“Somebody close to me,” Haendel said, “kind of kept my location secret, so nobody even knew where I was.”
So far, five of 14 episodes of “Blink” have been released and are already attracting millions of listeners. A new episode is released every Sunday.
Local
In-depth news coverage of the Greater Boston and New England area.
