An innocuous piece of fabric was able to cause astonishing skin damage, as was the case for Louisville, Ky. resident Audree Kopp.
According to a report from Louisville, Ky. news station WLKY, Kopp was hospitalized after wearing on her wrist a glittery hair tie. The hair tie caused a giant bump on Kopp’s wrist.
Doctors originally tried to treat Kopp with antibiotic, but her condition needed much more than antibiotics. Her rash had to be treated surgically.
“I thought it was a spider bite or something, not from hair ties,” Kopp told WLKY. “It kept getting bigger, redder and worse.”
The bump that was nearly the size of a U.S. quarter was treated surgeon Amit Gupta of Norton Healthcare.
“I made an incision and drained the puss down to the deeper levels of the skin,” Gupta said. “You can’t put all these hair ties around the wrist, particularly because it can cause problems with the skin.”
Kopp told WLKY that she was fortunate that doctors recommended surgery when she went to the emergency room. The infection, she said, could have reached her bloodstream, which could have caused life-threatening injuries.
Instead, Kopp is left with a scar that will eventually heal.
Justin Boggs is a writer for the E.W. Scripps National Desk. Follow him on Twitter @jjboggs.
