There’s a statistical inevitability that says, were
you to become immortal, your chances of being trapped
somewhere forever would eventually reach 100%.
Now usually these trappable locations are viewed as
cave-ins, or getting your arm stuck in a boulder, or…
you know, getting sucked into a black hole when the sun
inevitably collapses in on itself in billions of years.
But, what if you were to get trapped somewhere closer to home?
Somewhere you visit every day?
Maybe somewhere like … the bathroom?
And with that out of the way…
So you might be thinking, “How common can getting stuck in
a bathroom be?” Aside from situations like an earthquake or
other disaster where someone is confined by outside causes.
Grill: Stuck?
In a bathroom.
It’s more likely than you think.
Really?
In fact, allow me to illustrate how
shockingly common this situation is.
Ahem.
November 2010, a 69-year-old pensioner living
in Paris, France spent 20 days trapped in her
bathroom after the lock to the door jammed.
She survived off of warm tap water while tapping
on the pipes in an attempt to alert her neighbours,
who realized that they hadn’t seen her in some time
and alerted authorities who managed to rescue her.
December 2013, a senior assistant for the Bill and Melinda
Gates Foundation in Washington DC was locked in the office
restroom for 8 hours and resorted to using a metal pole
she found in the rafters to chisel a hole in the wall large
enough to reach through and open the door from the outside.
September 2019, a United Airlines flight was
delayed by more than two hours after it was
forced to make an emergency landing after the
lock on a washroom jammed trapping a woman inside.
Alright so what, that’s just like people
getting locked into the bathroom...
August 2016, a Norwegian man was trapped in a public
outhouse for an hour after his friend’s phone fell into it.
Jumping in, the man was stuck in the waste within and reported
that he could feel animals crawling over him until the
toilet was broken by emergency services and he was rescued.
He...
Didn’t even get the phone back.
Grill: Once again I am both disappointed in,
yet unsurprised by the failings of man.
In fact, according to statistics released in 2016,
British firefighters responded to over 12,000
calls to help people — or dogs — who had become
trapped in bathrooms across a three-year period.
While figures seem to have dropped since
then, there were still a reported 659
washroom related calls between 2016 and 2019.
But so far, we’ve only seen short term cases.
Grill: How is 20 days short term?
I’m so glad you asked Grill.
Because for two women, the bathroom
was their home for TWO YEARS.
Grill: Wait, no.
I didn’t want an answer!
February 2008, deputies in the Kansas town of Ness
City responded to a call by one Kory McFarren.
McFarren had said that he believed something
was wrong with his girlfriend, but that
didn’t quite convey the exact scene inside.
Two years prior, McFarren’s girlfriend, Pam
Babcock, went to the washroom and hadn’t left since.
And, more disturbingly, by the time emergency services arrived
she’d been sitting on the toilet for over a month with her
pants around her legs, resulting in her skin somehow growing
around the toilet seat,requiring it to be surgically removed.
According to Ness County Sheriff Bryan Whipple,
there was a “terrible smell about the house,
obviously coming from where she was at.”
So what happened, and why did it take
McFarren two years to call anyone?
Well, according to McFarren himself, Babcock viewed the
washroom as a place of safety after a harsh childhood.
Following her mother’s death, Babcock was apparently beaten by
her father, and according to James Ellis, a neighbor who knew
Babcock since childhood, “It really doesn’t surprise me,” as
she was usually kept inside by her father when she was young.
“What surprises me is somebody
wasn’t called in a bit earlier.”
So why wasn’t someone called in earlier?
According to McFarren, he’d just gotten used to it.
Excuse me?
But how exactly do you get used to
someone living in your bathroom!?
Well, by McFarren’s account, it was
because it was such a long process.
Or, in his words:
“It just kind of happened one day; she went in and had been
in there a little while, the next time it was a little longer.
Then she got it in her head she was going
to stay – like it was a safe place for her,”
But it’s also not as if he just… left her in there.
McFarren is reported to have brought her
food and water, changes of clothes, and
carried out a normal relationship with her.
Just, you know, in the bathroom.
By his account, he even asked her to come out on a daily
basis, only to get the same answer: “Maybe tomorrow.”
In fact even when emergency services were called,
Babcock initially didn’t want to leave the bathroom
and had to be convinced, and remained uncooperative
with both police and medical staff after the fact.
And there may have been some issues recognizing
how serious the situation was on McFarren’s part.
In the words of Sheriff Whipple, "The unfortunate
thing is this truly is a case of two people, in
my opinion, with diminished mental capacity,"
Ok, I guess that makes sense, but dearest Brew.
I would like to inquire about HOW A TOILET SEAT
GOT SO STUCK THAT IT HAD TO BE SURGICALLY REMOVED!
Ah, yes, well it turns out sitting in the same spot
for over a month has some drastic health effects.
Sitting immobile with constant pressure upon
part of your body for prolonged periods of time
can create ulcers commonly known as bedsores.
This is caused by pressure cutting off bloodflow
causing the skin to die and become necrotic.
In Babcock’s case, these sores then scabbed over
into the toilet seat, according to Discovery
magazine, fusing body and seat together.
That is horrifying.
It is, and unfortunately it gets worse.
Babcock’s wounds became infected and caused damage to
the nerves in her legs, leaving her needing a wheelchair.
In fact, doctors doubted that she’d ever walk
again, which seems warranted given that the hosts
of “Where Is The Line” podcast found pictures of
Babcock still in a wheelchair as recently as 2019.
McFarren was charged with mistreatment of a
dependent adult and given six months probation.
But other than that, Babcock seems happy, healthy enough,
and has even started bowling according to the podcast hosts.
So good for her!
Chill: That is good, isn’t that swee- wait…
Wait a second, you said that happened twice?
I did!
Though the second case happened more than a decade
earlier and on the opposite side of the planet.
In 1991, a Singaporean woman by the name of Leong
Mee Yan started making longer and longer visits
to the bathroom after her sister pressured her
for money, according to her husband Ong Kian Ann.
And much like Babcock, one day she just never left.
According to Leong, she felt a “"felt a force
holding me down" and feared that she would be
sprayed with cold water and have rocks thrown at
her were she to leave the safety of the washroom.
Leong spent the entire ordeal naked, was fed by
her husband and had only 18 showers over 902 days.
She got food and water from her husband, who
incidentally was the only person she would speak to.
She even ignored her 27-year-old son.
Despite attempts to coax her out of the washroom, Mr.
Ong was unable to convince her.
After 902 days he decided he had enough and called the
authorities who took her to a mental health facility where
it was discovered she had been suffering from hallucinations.
The ordeal took a toll on her body, leaving her
half the weight she started at and unable to walk.
Since then, Leong has spent her days in a reclining chair
in their home, unable to take more than a few steps.
So what happened?
Why would two mature adults choose to stay
in their washrooms for over two years each?
Well according to Gerald Schonewolf,
PhD, the culprit may be Agoraphobia.
As described by the Mayo Clinic, Agoraphobia is, “a
type of anxiety disorder in which you fear and avoid
places or situations that might cause you to panic
and make you feel trapped, helpless or embarrassed.”
Going a bit more in depth, agoraphobia causes a fear of
situations where they feel unable to escape—specifically in
public spaces and often causes them to stay somewhere safe.
Or at least somewhere they perceive to
be safe, oftentimes the person’s home.
According to Better Health Victoria, Agoraphobia generally
begins small as a fear of a specific incident then
grows into a fear of feeling “unsafe”, pushing those
suffering from it into adopting avoidance behavior.
Agoraphobia may start with a panic attack in a grocery
store, and then over time the fear extends from
grocery stores, to shopping, to even going outside.
So given Babcock’s history, in the words of Dr.
Schonewolf, it’s “Little wonder then
that she developed agoraphobia”.
Just for Babcock and Leong, instead of feeling unsafe to
leave home, they were afraid to leave their bathrooms.
Thankfully, Better Health Victoria lists Agoraphobia
as responding well to a number of treatments, including
medication, support groups, and exposure therapy
- which we talked about in our Trypophobia episode.
In the case of Pam Babcock and Madam
Leong, the issue was that of mental health.
The important thing is that both women seem to have recovered.
When it comes to getting stuck physically, there are certain
levels of risks we can avoid, and situations we can’t.
For example, not jumping down a public outhouse is a
good way to avoid getting trapped in one, but there’s not
much you can do to stop the lock on a door from jamming.
And if you are feeling trapped mentally, there’s
no shame in seeking out a professional and take
the first steps towards feeling safe again.