Martin Taylor has swapped his feather-filled bedding for hypoallergenic linens after his fluffy feather duvet caused such severe lung injury he could barely crawl up the steps to bed at night.
On reflection, he should have stayed on the sofa.
In 2016, Taylor developed “feather duvet lung,” a form of hypersensitivity pneumonitis, or “bird fancier’s lung,” of which feather duvet lung is a rare, and under-appreciated subset.
The condition results from inhaling organic dust from duck or goose feathers found in duvets and pillows, doctors warned Tuesday in the journal BMJ Case Reports.
With repeated exposure, the air sacs and airways in the lungs become severely inflamed, causing progressive, and potentially irreversible, scarring of the lungs.
Soon after he and his wife acquired a feather duvet and pillows, “having formerly had synthetic bedding,” Taylor, of Aberdeenshire, Scotland, began experiencing malaise, fatigue and breathlessness, Dr. Owen Dempsey, a consultant chest physician at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary and colleagues reported. Taylor couldn’t stand or walk for more than a few minutes without feeling he was about to pass out.
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