A South Carolina woman’s hand was amputated in February after a freak accident while drying her hair.
Mary Wilson, a dog groomer from James Island, was blow drying her hair at home when she suddenly passed out in early February, she told WCIV on Tuesday.
“The way I [fell] on top of the dryer, like, it was under me, and I was in a weird, contorted placement and the dryer was still running,” Wilson reportedly described, adding that she’s fairly sure she was shocked by the dryer at some point during the ordeal.
When Wilson’s partner finally found her, the dryer was burning Wilson’s skin to the point where it was unrecognizable, she told WCIV. “She’s telling me, ‘Your hand, your hand,’” Wilson reportedly said. “I look at my hand. I don’t even register that’s a part of me. It doesn’t even look recognizable.”
Woman says she is recovering after hand amputation from hair dryer burns https://t.co/tux8o50dqU pic.twitter.com/30TKgfPmhC
— NBC 15 News (@mynbc15) March 20, 2024
When Wilson was rushed to hospital, she learned the burns were so awful and the nerve damage so deep, doctors decided to amputate her left hand, she told the outlet. (RELATED: WARNING GRAPHIC: Dancer Gets Crushed By Video Monitor While On Stage)
Her life post-amputation hasn’t been easy. “The biggest thing is not being able to do the simple things I want to do, or things take so much longer,” she reportedly continued, adding that blow dryers need automatic cut-offs like other hair care products.
Straighteners and other types of hair care tools have timers and other alerts that automatically shut them off when they get too hot or if they’ve been running too long, Wilson told WCIV. These same systems aren’t found in hair dryers. “If it did, then maybe my injuries wouldn’t have been so bad,” Wilson reportedly noted.