A 25-Year-Old Woman Turned Blue After Using A Topical Numbing Medicine

@WOMEN’SHEALTH
@Jennifer Nied

A Rhode Island woman, 25, went to the emergency room with a variety of concerning symptoms, including blue-coloring in her skin.
The woman was using a numbing agent that deadens nerve endings and doctors diagnosed her with acquired methemoglobinemia.
The condition means the blood mutates and stops carrying oxygen to tissue, which can be fatal, and the antidote is methylene blue.

When a 25-year-old woman went to the emergency room, she wasn’t just feeling blue, she was turning blue. Her symptoms included weakness, fatigue, shortness of breath, and a blue hue to her skin.

She was “cyanotic” and was treated by Dr. Otis Warren and Dr. Benjamin Blackwood at Miriam Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island. The physicians deemed her rare case noteworthy and published a study in the New England Journal of Medicine to explain her reaction.

One of the emergency physicians, Dr. Warren, recognized the rare symptoms and diagnosed her with “acquired methemoglobinemia,” which means the blood mutates and stops carrying oxygen to tissue. Certain medications can cause this, like the benzocaine the woman used for a toothache the night before, according to the study. “It’s one of those rare cases that we’re taught about, you study for, you take tests on, but you rarely ever see,” Dr. Warren told CNN.

If left untreated, it can lead to heart and brain complications and even death if the hypoxia (lack of oxygen) lasts for an extended period. The side effect is rare, but elicited a warning from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The FDA released a statement to urge companies to discontinue the over the counter oral health products containing benzocaine and consumers to avoid them.

There is a cure, methylene blue, per NCBI. The bright blue antidote returns a missing electron to the hemoglobin molecule to restore oxygen levels and help release oxygen back into tissue. The woman received two doses of the methylene blue and after an overnight stay at the hospital recovered.