The Australian woman, 35, spent the day helping relatives to clean cupboards, requiring excessive squatting.
Associate Professor Thomas Kimber, consultant neurologist at the Royal Adelaide Hospital told 891 ABC Adelaide, “She noticed that her legs were becoming increasingly uncomfortable as the day went on [but] didn’t really think much of it.”
Professor Kimber explained that while walking in the park, the woman began to lose sensation in her legs and fell.
“[She] really was there for some time before she could crawl to the side of the road, hail a cab and bring herself to the Royal Adelaide Hospital,” said Kimber.
Upon arrival at the hospital, the woman who had massive swelling of her calf muscles, had to be cut out of her jeans by the medical staff.
Kimber stated, “As a result of this prolonged squatting she had really cut off the blood supply to her calf muscles, they had become massively swollen, and as a result of that she had suffered compression to two of the major nerves in her lower leg and had developed this leg weakness as a result.”
Doctors believe the woman suffered from a condition called compartment syndrome and there are 12 such cases reported in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry.
The woman — who is being labeled a “fashion victim” — was discharged after four days and has since then made a full recovery.
