Trending Now
I mean, if you’ve ever done the laundry of a teenaged boy, then you’re probably aware that the smell can get pretty rank, but hospitalization via stinky socks?
Read on, my friends.
A 37-year-old man from southeast China went to the hospital experiencing chest pains. There, he was admitted and given X-rays to determine the cause of his pain, as well as a cough he couldn’t seem to shake.
The diagnosis? A fungal infection deep in his lungs.
It took doctors some time to deduce the cause, and they were only able to do so after the man admitted to a habit (addiction?) of sniffing his dirty socks after they’d just come off his feet.
Feet that, it turns out, were harboring a fungus. Which they then transferred to his socks. Which he then sniffed.
A fungal infection he’d developed on his feet was transferred to his lungs when he smelled his socks, taking in some of the fungal spores (microscopic particles that allow fungi to reproduce and disperse) as he did so.
The questionable habit, combined with a weakened immune system due to life and parenting, contributed to the seriousness of the incident, according to doctors.
The patient had to spend some time in the hospital, but is expected to make a full recovery – as long as he can find a new hobby.
Like, literally anything else.
Parents of teens, be warned – maybe don’t breathe in at all while dumping that laundry in the machine. You never know what’s in there.
