Man gives himself frostbite attempting to get high

A 40-year-old man accidentally gave himself frostbite of the face and dangerous swelling of the airway, a condition known as angioedema, after huffing three cans of air duster. Over a four-hour period, the man started having difficulty breathing and felt a tingling sensation in lips, then collapsed in a public bathroom.

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The case report, published in the “British Medical Journal,” stated the man was attempting to achieve a high from the compressed air, a habit typically associated with teenagers who have little money to spend on recreational drugs. According to Dr. Amanda Winston, an internal medicine and pediatrics resident at Hurley Medical Center in Flint, Michigan, who treated the man and co-authored the case report, it is an important reminder that huffing to get high affects people of all ages.

A frostbite high?

“It’s a quick, cheap and easy high,” Winston told Live Science. “It happens in all age groups, and it’s dangerous to the point of life threatening.”

Though the patient suffered from frostbite to the face as a result of 1,1-Difluoroethane, a compound used in cooling and refrigeration products, it was the airway swelling that intrigued doctors the most. According to the case report, “angioedema is rarely reported in the medical literature (related to huffing). In this report we present a case of rapidly progressive airway compromise following recreational huffing. Our patient required intubation and intensive care unit admission with complete recovery after 5 days.

“The aetiology of airway compromise is postulated to be due to commonly reported frostbite injury and rarely reported angioedema. To the best of our knowledge this the second case reporting angioedema secondary to huffing Air Duster.”

More common side-effects of huffing include: belligerence, apathy, impaired judgment, and impaired functioning in work or social situations; nausea and vomiting. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, individuals may also experience dizziness, drowsiness, slurred speech, lethargy, depressed reflexes, general muscle weakness, headaches, and increased heart rate.

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“Even if they can’t afford hard drugs, this is really a dangerous type of addiction, and can certainly lead to long-term brain damage, cardiac arrhythmias, psychological effects, depression [and] anxiety,” said Dr. Robert Glatter, who was not involved with the case report. “There should be a national wake-up call to all parents and teens,” Glatter said. “If this is something that has ever been done by a child, you need to put the child into counseling and you need to take this very seriously.”

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