Lukia Pardoe was 20 years old and had just finished her university leavers’ social, a big night out to mark the end of her time at the University of Warwick. She got home at 1am, slightly worse for wear, and went to bed.
At 3am she woke up thirsty.
On her nightstand was three bottles, two of water and one of Fresh Linen fabric refresher. In the dark, she grabbed the wrong one, unscrewed it, and started drinking.
“I thought this water tastes really bad,” she said later. It burned her throat immediately, but she had eaten a hot pizza earlier in the evening, so she put the burning down to that and kept drinking. She got through half the bottle before going back to sleep.
Throughout the rest of the night she went downstairs around ten times to drink more water, trying to get rid of the chemical taste in her mouth without quite knowing why it was there.
In the morning she saw the empty bottle on her desk and realized what she’d done.
She called 999, her roommate rushed her to Warwick Hospital. Doctors gave her charcoal tablets to absorb the toxins and ran blood tests and an ECG. She was told that all the water she had drunk through the night had actually helped flush most of the chemicals out of her system.
She says she will never keep cleaning products near her bed again. “It is a funny story,” she said. “I’m very grateful nothing worse happened.
University Graduate Mistakes Fabric Refresher for Water in Late-Night Accident
