It took paramedics 45 minutes to cut off the hair.
A mum has issued a warning have her baby girl almost lost two toes when a strand of hair cut off the circulation to them.
Gemma Fraser was changing her daughter Orla’s diaper last year when she found that a strand of hair had wrapped itself around two of her toes.
The mum was terrified when she found out that the piece of hair had wrapped around the baby’s toes so tightly that they had turned purple and were bulging.
Unable to remove it herself, she decided to ring an ambulance – and once they arrived, she says it took the paramedics around 45 minutes to finally cut away the strand of hair.
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Little Orla was taken to The Royal Hospital For Sick Children in Edinburgh for further examination, before being sent home with antibiotic cream.
But while one of the infant’s toes healed over the next few weeks, the other did not.
Gemma told BBC Radio Scotland:
“It was still an open wound, and really swollen, and then pus started coming out of it.”
After a number of visits to the GP and hospital, Orla and Gemma were eventually referred to a plastic surgeon.
He ended up having to operate on Orla without general anaesthetic as she was so young.
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She continued:
“You could peel the skin back and see inside her toe.
“One of the nurses eventually said she thought there was still some hair trapped inside the wound.”
Gemma told the broadcaster that it was a total of 5 weeks between when she first spotted the problem and having surgery to remove the final bit of hair.
She was shocked when, after speaking to the nurses at the hospital, she found out how common the condition can be.
Gemma posted a photo on Facebook soon after the incident, sharing her story in the hopes that it would be able to warn other parents about the dangers of tourniquet syndrome.
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She wrote:
“This is what happens when hair gets wrapped tightly around a baby’s toes.
“So tightly, in fact, that it’s impossible for you to cut or untangle, and so tightly that it’s cutting off the circulation to your baby’s tiny toes.
“Please be aware, and please check your baby’s feet regularly.
“I had no idea this was even a thing before today, so please do spread the word.”
You can read Gemma’s full post here.
