Glittery Hair Tie Gives Kentucky Woman Severe Skin Infection, Requires Her To Undergo Surgery
Wearing a hair tie around your wrist doesn’t seem like it would be a health hazard, but it proved to be for one woman in Louisville, Ky.
CBS affiliate WLKY reported Audree Kopp noticed a bump under the glittery hair tie she had been wearing around her wrist as she moved houses. She figured it was a spider bite and saw her doctor for antibiotics. But when the bump grew bigger and began to look worse after her doctor's visit, she decided to visit the emergency room at Norton Healthcare. It was there she learned it was much worse than a spider bite.
"They said I needed surgery, and thank God I caught it in time, or I could have had sepsis," Kopp told CBS.
Dr. Amit Gupta, who tended to Kopp, told CBS the spider bite was actually a large abscess that needed to be cut and drained of pus. Gupta said the bacteria from the hair tie is what likely got under Kopp's skin through her pores and hair follicles, ultimately causing three types of infection.
"It could have been a whole different ballgame," Kopp said. "Once it gets into your bloodstream, people have been known to go into a coma, your body shuts down. It could have been way worse."