Here’s another thing to add to the list of highly unlikely but deeply horrifying injuries you could sustain in the safety of your own home. A recent case report detailed a 50-year-old man who fainted while brushing his teeth and ended up hospitalized as a result.
Doctors at The University of Tokyo Hospital described the unusual incident earlier this month in BMJ Case Reports. After fainting, the man’s toothbrush scraped the back of his throat severely enough to trap air inside, raising the risk of a potentially serious infection. He was hospitalized for nearly a week and avoided any disastrous complications.
According to the report, the man first visited the hospital with a mild sore throat. Sometime earlier, he experienced “syncope” (the medical term for fainting) while brushing his teeth. Upon initial physical examination, the doctors spotted a three-millimeter-long abrasion along his soft palate without bleeding. But a CT scan soon revealed a more dangerous injury: retropharyngeal emphysema.
This condition is characterized by free air or gas entering the area behind the throat. It’s most often caused by bronchial asthma, though physical exertion or even non-violent coughing can spontaneously cause it as well. The condition can be dangerous because it might allow certain bacteria to grow in areas of the chest where they typically couldn’t, leading to life-threatening infections like mediastinitis. It may also trigger the formation of blood clots in the carotid artery, which could then cause a stroke.
The man was hospitalized and given a prophylactical course of antibiotics to prevent these bacteria from taking hold. He re