Man Scrolls On His Phone For 30 Minutes On The Toilet. Then He Gets Paralyzed

We’ve all been there: You go into the bathroom, sit down on the toilet, and start to scroll on your phone. Before you know it, you’ve watched dozens of Reels—and your friends at the bar are wondering where the heck you went.

Usually, people think this sort of thing is harmless. Sure, it would be better if we didn’t waste a bunch of our lives scrolling, but the worst thing that can happen is just losing track of time. Right?

Frighteningly, it can actually get much, much worse. In fact, one case involved a 24-year-old scrolling on their phone on the toilet and ending up with a permanent disability. Here’s how it happened.

When Scrolling Turns Dangerous

TikTok user and Doctor Sahar Yousef (@drsaharyousef) recounts how, in her telling, a 24-year-old man passed out on a bathroom floor and ended up paralyzed. The reason? He stood up after scrolling on his phone for too long.

“This is actually a mix of simple physics and complicated biology,” she starts. “Any doctor will tell you sitting on the toilet seat forces your knees and your hips into an unnatural angle, and it puts pressure on the vasculature that actually supplies blood to your legs.”

According to Dr. Yousef, your body will start to provide a “warning sign” to you if you’re in this position for too long. This takes the form of a “tingling sensation” and tends to occur “about 10 minutes or so” after sitting down.

“He went to stand up after 30 minutes of scrolling, and his blood pressure drops suddenly. This is actually something called ‘orthostatic hypotension,’” she says. “He falls to the floor. The blood that had pooled in his lower body couldn’t redistribute fast enough, so he’s passed out, and the long-term damage had already been done.”

It Gets Worse

There are more potential issues with prolonged toilet scrolling than potential accidents from orthostatic hypotension.

“A new study published in the Public Library of Sciences found that people who scroll on the toilet have a 46% higher risk of hemorrhoids—not from actually straining, but from sitting longer on the toilet, scrolling,” she states.

People who scroll in the bathroom, she explains, are more likely to stay in the seated toilet position for more than five minutes. This can increase one’s likelihood of hemorrhoid development.

Issues related to this are becoming so common, Dr. Yousef says, that doctors are informally referring to this problem as “bathroom scroll syndrome,” though there is not significant evidence online supporting that this term is in widespread use.

“Leave the phone outside of the bathroom,” she concludes. “Don’t let Instagram give you hemorrhoids.”

Did This Really Happen?

It’s true that a 24-year-old reportedly developed a permanent disability after an accident following prolonged phone scrolling. However, the full story is a little bit more complicated than Dr. Yousef explains.

Local reporting from Chongqing, China, the city where this took place, tells the story like this. In 2014, a man named Zhang Tongjun worked as a barber in a hair salon. One day, he entered the bathroom carrying his phone.

The bathroom was reportedly small with minimal ventilation. Zhang’s father claims that, in addition to not having air ventilation, the bathroom also contained a washing machine and water heater.

After 30 minutes, a customer tried to open the bathroom door but found it was locked—and Zhang was not responding to knocks on the door. Zhang’s brother then forced the door open, finding his brother collapsed on the floor fully dressed. He had soiled his pants and he was vomiting.

What Was The Problem?

According to the man’s father and medical professionals consulted for the article, the phone scrolling was not the primary cause of the incident.

“After I told the doctor about the situation, the doctor said oxygen deprivation had caused cerebral edema, which then worsened into brain herniation,” Zhang’s father explained.

A doctor consulted for the article speculated that the lack of oxygen in the space caused him to lose consciousness, but that the situation may have been exacerbated by poor circulation due to the 24-year-old sitting and scrolling. It’s uncertain how oxygen-deprived the space could be after such a short time, but the water heater may have played a role.

It is also possible that the man struck his head while falling, making his condition even worse. Reporting from five months after the incident states that Zhang reportedly remained unable to speak or move by himself and required full-time care.

All of that said, Dr. Yousef’s claims about hemorrhoids are well-supported. If you want to reduce your risk of hemorrhoids, it’s probably best to follow her advice and leave your phone outside the bathroom.

BroBible reached out to Dr. Yousef via email and Instagram direct message.