While working on a tractor, a woman’s hair got caught in a gear, ripping her entire scalp. Fortunately, the doctors managed to sew him up in an extraordinary surgical procedure. Please note that some images in this article may be offensive.
A 60-year-old woman experienced a nightmare that might happen to people who work in contact with powerful machinery: getting her hair (or a limb) caught in a gear. This Danish woman had her entire scalp, from her eyebrows to the back of her head, ripped out when her hair got caught in a drill press while she was repairing her tractor. The tension is so intense that half of his left ear has also been blown off. Despite the violence of the accident, the victim manages to call an ambulance. It is then supported by the medical team at Odense University Hospital who will work miracles.
A complete tearing of the scalp
In the ambulance, the victim is calm and his vital signs are stable despite his bare and bloody skull. EMS relieved his pain with two injections of fentanyl. They also collect his scalp and keep it in a plastic bag surrounded by ice cubes to prolong its life. ” I believe the magnitude of the trauma combined with the fact that I only felt a minimal amount of pain is surreal to me. “says the patient several months following her accident.
Arrived at the hospital, the doctors make him pass a series of examination to make sure that the violence of the traumatism did not cause damage inside the brain cavity. Fortunately, no fracture or hemorrhage is detected. She is then entrusted to plastic surgeons who will reattach her scalp to her skull during a micro-surgery operation that will last 6 hours.
A successful surgery
Her scalp is cleansed and prepared for implantation; the hair are cut short to facilitate the work of doctors. The first challenge is to reconnect the main blood vessels from the skull to the scalp. The left and then the right temporal vein are closed with sutures of just over a millimeter and, following an adjustment on the left side, blood circulation is restored between the two. Doctors now have to suture the entire scalp in place, from the eyebrows over the torn ear to the back of the skull with surgical clips and stitches. After six hours of meticulous work, the patient leaves the operating room and five days later, she is already back home!
Five months later, almost no brand can testify to the trauma suffered by the Dane. She manages to move her eyebrows and her hair grows normally. Alopecia is a common consequence and dreaded by victims of a tearing of the scalp, a rare phenomenon but which affects many women who, in general, have longer hair than men. The Danish doctors assume that their patient experienced one of the most severe scalp tears reported in the medical literature. At five months post-op, her hair is growing back normally, and at six months she is beginning to regain sensation in her scalp as the neurological connections take longer to recover.
« My hair is growing slowly which is helping me get back to how I looked before my accident. My hair completely covers my damaged left ear. Also, I am starting to recover sensations on my scalp. It’s getting better week by week. This progress gives me a lot of hope for the future. concludes the patient.
