It’s 1957. Dr. Herbert Needleman is on his way to see a 3-year-old patient at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
Needleman’s a young doctor, 6 feet tall with brown eyes and dark hair. This is the first case of lead poisoning he’s ever seen. And when he shows up, the girl is not in good shape.
“This girl was lethargic and almost comatose,” says Lydia Denworth, who wrote a book about Needleman called Toxic Truth. Needleman has Alzheimer’s disease and was unable to be interviewed for this story.