A YouTuber’s Descent Into Madness

I had a similar level level of insomnia immediately after being catastrophically poisoned by heavy metal MRI contrast agent called Gadavist (made by Bayer – no surprise). It was nothing like I had ever experienced in my life up to that point. as I had always been a good sleeper. It's like in an instant the part of my brain that allowed me to sleep was literally broken or shut off. I absolutely couldn't sleep for a few weeks (maybe an hour or two at most per night), but then it did slowly improve over likely time because some of the metal likely left the part of my body (brain, CNS?) causing that issue. Unfortunately I am still disabled years later by that single dose, only 7ml, and I was perfectly healthy before and with perfect kidneys. The scan wasn't even needed. MRI contrast and Cipro are total poisons, but at least with Cipro there are black box warnings now. With MRI contrast they still tell you it's perfectly safe and that it has never harmed anyone with normal kidneys.

How was he able to get a haircut?

Agito Racing.

Lion Racing.

Ant Racing.

Enjoy Racing.

Space Racing.

I took cypro. I stopped after 2 pills. My head started burning. I couldn't figure out why. Then I figured it was the pills. I stopped taking them. But I couldn't sleep. I'd keep jerking awake. My head burned so bad. It caused me severe depression. Anxiety and so many issues. The doctors acted like I was crazy when I told them it was from cypro. I know it was from them. I found richardo videos he was already passed on. This happened to me in 2021. But I felt so terrible for him. I still do. Such a terrible agonizing death. He suffered so badly over those pills. I can't believe my doctor even prescribed them to me. There is a black box lable on them.

this absolutely shattered my heart……

FFI is a terrible way to die. I feel horrible for this man but I feel worse for his son because it is a genetic disorder and the fathers genes are the dominant genes in the transmission of FFI but his symptoms weren’t completely in line with FFI like the last part of the video said in cases of true fatal Familia insomnia, the person doesn’t sleep at all not even benzodiazepine can get them to go to sleep so if this man was able to get to sleep even for a couple of hours and it most likely wasn’t FFI I researched this condition extensively when I was in my early 20s. I was a hypochondriac that ends, and after having trouble falling asleep for a few nights in a row, I was terrified, but it couldn’t be fatal Familia insomnia then I did research. It’s a genetic disorder and one or both of your parents have to be affected by the same thing according to what I read back when I researched it. And you usually start showing symptoms in your mid 20s to mid 30s. It’s an absolutely terrifying disorder. It would drive a person absolutely insane until they weren’t able to hold a concentration or realize what was going on.

I don’t understand how the cause of death is unknown because I thought they did an autopsy and I also don’t understand why no one helped him.

I am not a doctor yet but as from my 4 years of being a med student my personal thoughts on his case is this was a really rare case of severe deep neurological damage by antibiotics. I really really do not think psychological trauma can cause this. Sleep is so deeply wired into our brains which is much much stronger than any psychological event could cause. It’s on par with breathing or the regulation of the heartbeat, yes psychological effects can impact those but never shut it down entirely. Also benzos like Xanax won’t result in this even if you take heavy dosage every day for a year. I can speak from first hand experience there. I have severe anxiety (really awful things happened in my life almost 3 years ago) and Xanax is my main medication for over 2 years now and although I “only” take around 2mg a day (or at least 4-5 times a week) I am doing great, still studying at one of the world’s most elite medical University with top grades and no cognitive long term effects. Yes, maybe in the long long term it might show it‘s effects on my body but it‘s a risk I am willing to take. Without it I wouldn‘t function and probably would’ve had lost everything a long time ago, so I am really glad I am prescribed it. Genuinely. (Still hoping one day everything will be good and I can taper off but for now it‘s literally my lifeline).
Now back to his topic, there are antibiotics that, in the first world usually, are last last resort medication in case of multi-resistant bacteria that are causing life threatening infections, he was given one for a UTI that shouldn‘t have ever been used for that. He was unlucky to be in the rare percentage in which it did indeed cause the “floxxing“ aka severe neurological damage. His brain stem (pons and medulla) and hypothalamus was partly damaged from it, which is really really bad, and caused his body to not properly induce normal sleep cycles. He most definitely got very tiny amounts of sleep, probably with the help of benzos but you need to understand that any Downers that in higher dosage cause people to fall asleep is not the natural sleep that regenerates and refreshes the body every day. It‘s far off from that. So I think, yes he got very poor quality of tiny bits of sleep and that‘s still better than fatal insomnia from which you get no sleep at all and die within a few weeks but still… over a year it caused his death. The sad part is he probably was doomed to die from that, as of today there is no treatment for damaged brain stem. Maybe deep brain stimulation surgery could’ve helped a bit but that’s only really done and approved for severe epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease, essential tremor and dystonia. In his case it most likely wouldn’t have saved him.

RIP Ricardo he was a great father, great person and I am so sad seeing this happen to this poor man. I hope his son will grow up and realize what an amazing soul his father was. His last Facebook post brought a tear to my eye. Genuinely. That’s so sad. "We will play again in the place where there is no sadness, lies, sorrow and pain. Please enjoy your life and don’t hurt yourself or others” really hit deep. 😢

have you seen the yellow sign?

24:31 I don’t think it’s fair to compare his condition to somebody else’s. I completely think that it’s entirely possible that there are rare brain disorders that aren’t studied or understood. Just because he was a one-of-a-kind case doesn’t mean he was lying. It could have just been multiple factors in his life that affected him.

I CANNOT imagine this. I worked out 3 days in a row with bad sleep(5-6 hours which was entirely my fault) and on the third day I felt so awful. Every fiber and muscle in my body was in pain. This poor man. I can’t possibly imagine

this poor man. his art was so beautiful

Bro OD. Benzo addiction is no joke.
Why didn't bro stay in the US and GO TO THE DOCTOR?

I'm having this same insomnia. Mine is anxiety related. I usually can't sleep until about 5:00 a.m. and then I'm waking up at 9 :00 feeling like I'm half dead and then going back to sleep till 2:00 p.m. It's made it impossible to work which makes the cycle even worse. There's nothing worse than sleep problems. I'm so jealous of people that can just sleep sitting up I have also taken Cipro for different problems over the years since I'm allergic to penicillin 🤔

This comment will be lost in the weeds, but I still feel like I have to leave one. It is possible that he was suffering from something called BIND (Benzodiazepine-Induced Neurological Dysfunction). The short description is that it’s a brain injury due to use of benzodiazepines, which the video said he was using. It can develop when a person stops taking benzos or they develop a tolerance while taking the medication. It’s way more complicated than will fit into this comment, but suffice to say, the inability to sleep can be a symptom. The jolts he described when trying to fall asleep can definitely be a symptom. That along with some other terrifying symptoms.

This is very sad. But look at the real culprit here, he didn’t have health insurance in America so he was SCREWED. “Greatest country on earth” btw

He suffered from a Mindbody syndrome, essentially a psychosomatic response to the stress of the death of his mother and leaving his son halfway across the world. The UTI unaffected by antibiotics is the dead giveaway.

Hey so just a quick correction. He didn't have fatal insomnia. Fatal insomnia is a prion disease and would not be caused by an improper antibiotic or other medication.

Richard, may you finally rest again and I hope your boy knows how much he loved you. I will never take sleep for granted ever again rip Ricard ❤🕊️