A man experienced an embarrassing hospital visit after his skin turned completely blue, only to find out the cause was his new bedsheets.
Tommy Lynch, 42, had recently purchased navy blue bedsheets and slept in them for two nights. Upon waking, he discovered he resembled a character from “Avatar.”
Feeling unusually exhausted, Lynch was taken to the hospital by a friend who works as a caregiver and was alarmed by his appearance.
Upon arrival, Lynch quickly saw a doctor and was placed on a bed with oxygen as the medical staff assessed his condition with concern.
The mystery was solved when a doctor wiped his arm with an alcohol swab, which turned blue from the dye on his unwashed sheets.
Though the situation ended humorously, Lynch admitted he left the hospital feeling more embarrassed than blue.
The construction worker, from Castle Gresley, Derbyshire, said: “I never knew you had to wash your sheets before you slept on them.
“Everyone in the reception of A&E was staring at me like they’d seen a ghost.
“I had to walk up to the desk and I didn’t even know what to say: ‘Hi, I’ve woken up blue’.
“The doctors said they’d never seen someone that colour before and still been alive. I looked like an Avatar.
“As soon as they wiped my arm and it came off blue, it clicked.
“I was mortified but they said I’d given them a good laugh. They don’t usually have funny stories in A&E.”
Lynch had been gifted the $53.84 USD king-size bedsheets from his friend, Del, to keep him warm in his barn home.
However he hadn’t realized he should wash them first to stop the color dye from transferring to the skin.
On the second night of sleeping in them, Lynch overslept and woke up in the afternoon “bright blue”.
He said: “The day before, I’d shook hands with someone and they looked a light blue then but I thought I was just cold.
“The next night I must have overheated but I was lovely and cosy.
“My friend, Del, woke me up by knocking on the door as I’d slept for 14 hours and he took one look at me and said I needed to go to hospital.
“I sent my mum a picture and she was panicking about my blood circulation while I was pretty confused as I’d just woke up from a deep sleep.
“I went upstairs, put clean boxers on and tried scrubbing my hands but it wasn’t coming off and the soap wasn’t going blue.
“I was sorting my hair out when my mate said we needed to go as he’d seen it before as a carer and thought it wasn’t good.”
Lynch’s friend had serious concerns he might be ill and oxygen deprived due to being completely bright blue.
Lynch, who sleeps in the nude, had felt very tired and agreed to go to Queen’s Hospital in Burton on November 15.
Lynch said: “They whisked me through, put me straight on oxygen, asking me all these questions.
“I had about 10 doctors all around me at one point.
“They went to take my blood and as soon as she wiped my arm, the wipe went blue. Then it clicked.
“I said “oh my god, I’m so sorry”.
“They were absolutely fantastic but I was mortified.
“Everyone was still staring at me as I walked out.”
Lynch, who has vitiligo, said he gave the doctors a good laugh but stressed he didn’t mean to waste their time.
He rang his mom to tell her he’d dyed himself â but patchy reception left her thinking someone else had called to say he’d died.
After confirming he was in fact alive, Lynch spent the next week trying to wash off the blue by having multiple baths.
He added: “I left more red than blue that day.
“People were still looking at me weirdly as I had bath after bath but it took a week. The water was blue.
“The first thing I did when I got home was wash my sheets. I haven’t gone blue since.
“Always wash your sheets before you sleep in them. Unless you want to jump the queue at A&E.”
