In a rather bizarre story a 35 year old Australian woman had to receive medical attention after she squatted for several hours whilst she was wearing tight-fitting jeans.
It is understood that the woman who has not been identified was admitted to hospital for four days after she experienced severe muscle damage, swelling, and nerve blockages in her legs.
Dr Thomas Kimber of the Royal Adelaide Hospital in Australia, spoke of the strange medical emergency saying: “We were surprised that this patient had such severe damage to her nerves and muscles from wearing tight fitting jeans.”
It is believed that the patient suffered the severe damage after spending most of the previous day helping someone move, the patient was apparently squatting for long periods of time whilst she helped empty cupboards. The woman told doctors of her discomfort after she had left to return home, saying that her jeans felt increasingly tight and her feet were extremely numb as she walked home which resulted in her tripping and falling. The woman went onto describe how she could not get up due to the numbness, she said she spent several hours stranded outside before eventually making her way to a nearby hospital.
Thee medical emergency came as such a surprise to Dr Kimber and his colleagues they decided to publish a report about the case online Monday in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry. Dr Kimber claimed that tight jeans have previously been reported to cause nerve lesions in the groin but not the kind of nerve problems in the lower leg and severe muscle damage they saw. Dr Kimber believes that the woman’s prolonged squatting compressed the nerves in her lower leg, reducing the blood supply to her calf muscles and the fact that she was wearing skinny jeans worsened the problem.
The woman has now since been released from hospital after receiving treatment for four days, Dr Kimber reported that the woman still had some weakness in her legs but walked out of the hospital and fully recovered later on.
Dr Kimber said he doesn’t know if the woman still continues to wear skinny jeans but has warned of the dangers of her squatting in them. Dr Kimber said: “I think it’s the non-stretchy nature of jeans that might be the problem,” Kimber said, noting that tight pants with more elasticity wouldn’t be as dangerous since they wouldn’t squeeze nerves and muscles. He doesn’t wear skinny jeans himself, but not because of the medical risks: “I’m too old to get away with them!”