You may not think you’re a risk taker, but it turns out, you’re probably taking a life-threatening risk every day.
Wearing a hair-tie around your wrist is something women do all the time, however, for some very unlucky people; it can cause extremely severe infections. Audree Kopp found this out the hard way.
After noticing a red swollen lump on her wrist, Audree went to the doctor and began a course of antibiotics, yet it wasn’t enough to fight the infection.
The lump continued to develop into a large abscess. Concerned by the rapid growth Audree took herself to the hospital where she underwent emergency surgery.
Dr. Amit Gupta at Norton Healthcare explained how she “made an incision and drained the pus all the way down.”
Dr Gupta determined the cause of the infection was most probably due to bacteria from Audree’s glittery hair-tie getting under her skin through the pores and hair follicles on her wrist.
“They said I needed surgery, and thank God I caught it in time, or I could have had sepsis,” she told WKLY News.
While the abscess was far from pleasant, things could have been much worse for Audree; “It could have been a whole different ball game, once [the infection] gets into your bloodstream, people have been known to go into a coma, your body shuts down,” she said.
Dr Gupta has warned that if you or your child wear hair-ties around the wrist, to be aware of the risk of infection. Washing them as regularly as you wash other items of clothing is a good preventative measure.
