A mother and her son were finally ready to undergo their CT scans.
They’re mummies.
33-year-old mummies to be exact, and they were discovered in a crypt under a church in Hungary.
The bodies were discovered in 1994.
The 38-year-old mother was named Veronica Orlovits and her 1-year-old son was named Johannes.
Both likely died of tuberculosis says scientists.
And here, inside the Orange County Global Medical Center in Santa Ana, California, both mummies were finally wheeled inside.
Veronica and Yohan are 6000 miles from where they were discovered entombed.
There were 250 bodies found in the underground crypt but the mother and son are set to provide more information for doctors and scientists who are set to perform the scan.
And in a time where there were no antibiotics or advanced healthcare, the team wanted to know how they lived 300 years ago.
And why there were so many child deaths.
Time to reveal their secrets.
Veronica and Johannes lived in the early 1700s.
A period when scarlet fever, tuberculosis, smallpox, syphilis, and typhoid were rampant.
And they didn’t have our medical advancements.
CT scans showed that Veronica’s lung tissue indicated she had tuberculosis.
There was scarring in her lungs.
The body was slender which could mean she was battling the disease for a time before dying.
Veronica died at the young age of 38, just two years after her husband, Michael Orlovits, and just a year after marrying for a second time.
Johannes could have died from dysentery.
An infection in the intestines causing severe diarrhea that caused dehydration.
CT scan revealed that he was a well-nourished baby.
Johannes had rolls of fat and chubby legs.
And he didn’t appear to have any chronic disease or broken bones.
It’s possible his death was sudden.
The baby’s bowels were relatively clean, void of the microbacteria that’s normally found in our intestines which help us digest food.
This had researchers believing dysentery was a likely culprit.
And even in death, mother and son continue to fascinate others.
“They both have a somber element of beauty to them, I can almost imagine what they looked like alive. It’s amazing how much they were preserved in they’re eternal youth.” says Alyssa Smith.
The Orlovits remain a haunting reminder of our mortality.
And they were once very real people, like you and I, who lived vastly different lives but had the same smiles and love for each other as a family.
You have to admire the simplicity back then.
If not for repair works done in the Dominican Church of Vác in Hungary, Veronica and Johannes would not have been discovered.
A crack was found in the church’s wall that led to a hidden staircase and a crypt.
265 coffins were stacked from floor to ceiling with those near the bottom containing only bones.
The mummies on top were preserved due to the cool, dry air circulating through the underground chamber.
Their rosaries and the handmade stockings on their feet were intact.
Scientists have speculated that oil in the pinewood coffins may have prevented the growth of fungi and bacteria.
And finally, Veronica and Johannes deaths are being solved. Watch them in the video below!
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