Strand of Mom's Hair Causes 2-Month-Old To Nearly Lose Toes After It Cuts Off Circulation
Moms do everything they can to keep their babies safe. But sometimes things happen that you never anticipated.
Like hair tourniquet syndrome. Ever heard of it? I sure hadn’t until I read a horrifying story about a baby boy from Paignton, England.
Today reported a case of this syndrome back in 2016 when Kansas parents Scott and Jessica Walker could not soothe their newborn.
It turned out that 19-week-old Molly had a piece of hair wrapped around her toe. Thankfully, Jessica was able to remove it on her own before the scare resulted in a visit to the emergency room.
The same thing happened to the Fricke family in 2017. Their son Jacob almost had to have two toes amputated because of a strand of hair.
Doctors were able to remove the hair in time, thank goodness. But not before terrifying his mother, Heather.
Unfortunately, this problem appears to be more common than we may realize. Hair seems so breakable, yet a single strand is strong enough to lead to amputation.
Which brings us back to 10-week-old Ezra from England. His mom, 26-year-old Alex Upton, discovered her hair had been wrapped around 4 of the infant’s toes for 12 hours.
“It was a horrible experience,” Upton told People magazine. “I pulled at it and realized how tightly it’d wrapped around his toes. It’d tangled around three or four of them. I felt awful.”
Any mom would feel the same, but how could she have known a stand of hair could cut off circulation? This is not a case of neglect, but a lack of awareness.
After Upton attempted to remove the hair on her own, she ended up taking Ezra to the hospital, and just in time too.
The mother was informed that had the hair remained much longer, her son may have needed his toes amputated.
“I’m normally really safety conscious with the kids, but I had never expected this to happen to us,” Upton told People.
Now her story is being spread as a warning to all parents — check your baby’s toes. When I first read this story I immediately took off my newborn’s socks and checked for hair or loose threads.
This syndrome is serious and it could happen to anyone. Don’t shame those who have experienced this. Instead, share this story and others like it. You may just save a baby’s fingers or toes.
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