As many women often do, Kentucky local Audrey Kopp had her hair tie around her wrist while doing daily errands. It provided easy access for when she wanted to wear it on her hair. But she didn't expect that this habit would eventually lead to a serious infection that only surgery can fix.
Kopp was in the middle of moving houses when she noticed a lump was growing on her wrist. She treated it with antibiotics after consulting with a doctor, but the lump only grow bigger and redder as days passed, according to Louisville CBS affiliate WKLY. Doctors then told her she needed to undergo emergency surgery.
"She had a large abscess on the back of her wrist, so I basically made an incision and drained the puss all the way down," said Norton Healthcare's Dr. Amit Gupta. The doctor said the lump was not caused by any insect bites and it was possible Kopp got the bacterial infection from the hair tie on her wrist.
Kopp's hair tie was filled with glitter that could have collected bacteria that brought three types of infection - strep, staph and gram-negative. The bacteria apparently seeped under her skin pores and hair follicles, according to Metro. "Be careful, you can't put all these hair ties around the wrist because it can cause problems with the skin," Gupta said.
Kopp related that she couldn't believe what happened at first, but as she is on her way to recovery, she's glad the doctor was able to step in in time. "It could have been a whole different ballgame," said Kopp. "Once it gets into your bloodstream people are known to go into a coma, your body shuts down. It could have been way worse."
"I want to inform everyone to make sure no one else has to go thru this," Kopp said in one private Facebook post, per People. "The GLITTER tie is the one that caused the issue."
Kopp also said she's going to stop wearing her hair tie on her wrist. "I'm pretty sure about 90% of us females don't think twice about keeping hair-ties on our wrists. (Obviously I won't be doing it anymore.)"
Watch what exactly happened to Kopp's wrist in this video below:
