Rhiannon Ingle
One man was left beyond mortified after being rushed to the hospital, having turned blue from head to toe - only to discover the actual reason behind the bizarre complexion change.
Tommy Lynch, 42, was alarmed after waking up one morning looking like 'an Avatar', which concerned his friend, who works as a carer, to take him to the nearest hospital over concerns for his health.
"My friend, Del, woke me up by knocking on the door as I'd slept for 14 hours, and he took one look at me and said I needed to go to hospital," Tommy shared. "I sent my mum a picture, and she was panicking about my blood circulation while I was pretty confused as I'd just woken up from a deep sleep.
"I went upstairs, put clean boxers on and tried scrubbing my hands, but it wasn't coming off, and the soap wasn't going blue.
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"I was sorting my hair out when my mate said we needed to go as he'd seen it before as a carer and thought it wasn't good."
Due to worries that he might be ill and oxygen-deprived due to being completely bright blue, Tommy agreed to go to Queen's Hospital in Burton.
"Everyone in the reception of A&E was staring at me like they'd seen a ghost," he explained. "I had to walk up to the desk, and I didn't even know what to say: 'Hi, I've woken up blue'.
"The doctors said they'd never seen someone that colour before and still been alive. I looked like an Avatar."
"They whisked me through, put me straight on oxygen, asking me all these questions," he recalled. "I had about 10 doctors all around me at one point."
"They went to take my blood, and as soon as she wiped my arm, the wipe went blue. Then it clicked."
Tommy, who had been sleeping in navy blue bedsheets for two nights prior to the hospital visit, could only apologise after the penny dropped that his skin had been dyed from the unwashed bedding.
The construction worker, from Castle Gresley, Derbyshire, said: "I never knew you had to wash your sheets before you slept on them.
"I was mortified, but they said I'd given them a good laugh. They don't usually have funny stories in A&E."
"Everyone was still staring at me as I walked out."
While he may have given the doctors a good laugh, it's clear Tommy left 'more red than blue' in the end, stressing that he didn't mean to waste their time.
Tommy had been gifted the £40 king-size bedsheets from Del to keep him warm in his barn home.
According to Sleep Foundation, whenever you get any new bedding, it is important to give them a spin in the washing machine before use as it washes off any 'lingering chemicals or residues', as well as any dust or debris that might have accumulated during the manufacturing process.
However, he hadn't realised he should wash them first to stop the colour dye from transferring to the skin. Tommy then spent the next week trying to wash off the blue by having multiple baths.
"People were still looking at me weirdly as I had bath after bath, but it took a week. The water was blue," he shared. "The first thing I did when I got home was wash my sheets. I haven't gone blue since."
Offering a pearl of wisdom to ensure other people don't find themselves in such a predicament, Tommy urged: "Always wash your sheets before you sleep in them.
"Unless you want to jump the queue at A&E."