Beware! bathroom gas geysers could make you faint

People rapidly lose consciousness while taking a prolonged hot water bath in bathrooms due to lack of ventilation.

Drained of energy after a lengthy run during the Pune International Marathon, 15-year-old teenager Shruti Thawal decided to take a hot water bath to ease her stressed out nerves. However, when she didn’t come out of the bathroom for almost two hours, her parents broke open the door and found her lying unconscious. However, what shocked them more was the cause of her fainting.

“The doctor told us that she fainted because of the Gas Geyser Syndrome. Since she was having a hot water bath and spent too much time in the bathroom, which had little ventilation, the fumes from the geyser made her uneasy and she fainted. I was shocked as I got this new gas geyser fitted only a couple of months ago,” said Deepak Manik Thawal, her father.

Despite several attempts by neurologists to raise awareness, patients suffering from gas geyser encephalopathy continue to come in.

Neurologist Dr Rahul Kulkarni, who has seen over 100 such cases, said that though the frequency has decreased, still he gets one such patient every fortnight. “Earlier, we had to put these patients in the ICU as they either suffered from breathlessness or became unconscious. But since awareness has increased, even family physicians are now trained to handle such cases and that’s why we get lesser number of these cases to tackle,” he said.

A study conducted by Kulkarni showed that people often rapidly lose consciousness after feeling suffocated while taking a prolonged bath in bathrooms fitted with gas geysers. It showed that most patients spent more than seven minutes in bathroom and recovered consciousness only after coming out, suggesting ongoing toxic exposure inside bathrooms.

Neurologist Dr Anand Alurkar continues to see many such cases and says it is important to differentiate between this syndrome and epilepsy.

“People should take care, especially after the first such episode. Even awareness amongst treating physicians is important because if not diagnosed properly, it could mean unnecessary investigations and even possible empirical anti-epileptic treatment as well. In such cases, it is completely unnecessary as most people recover within few hours,” he said. However, Alurkar warned that some cases could get serious if not attended in time.

“If someone is alone at home and has such a fainting episode and don’t reach the hospital within a certain time period and continue to remain in the bathroom, it could lead to serious long-term damage to the brain. In almost all cases we saw, people had to be brought out of the bathroom and didn’t recover on their own until they were pulled out,” he said.

Neurologist Dr Avanti Biniwale sees at least 10 such cases annually and blames incorrect bathing practices for the episodes.

“People are stubborn, they don’t change their habits even after knowing the ill-effects. The best solution is to get solar water heaters. But if people must have gas geysers, they should be outside bathrooms. Also, the bathrooms should be ventilated or have exhaust fans. Hot water baths itself makes people more vulnerable to fainting episodes and breathlessness. Combine that with toxic gases like carbon monoxide, it becomes more dangerous,” she said.

However, Thawal said that he has learnt a lesson. “We now first fill the water in a bucket, then go for a bath and ensure that there is enough ventilation,” he said.