My wife and I had to make a pretty hard decision last night. Risk taking our daughter into the hospital or risk her possibly losing one of her toes. My 3 month old girl had a rare condition, a hair tourniquet which is when a hair or thread becomes tightly wrapped around most commonly a toe, and occasionally a finger, or other body parts. This results in pain and swelling of the affected part and in some cases can result in the loss of the appendage.

The hair tourniquet cut in so deep into our daughters foot that even after pulling out a few strands of hair it was hard to tell if there was any hair left in there. There was still blood flow to the tip of her toe but it wasn’t looking any better so at 11:45 pm we made the tough decision to drive to the E.R. When we arrived it was a ghost town. We were actually the only people in the emergency room for the 20 something minutes it took for us to get processed in and taken to an examination room. The two doctors who examined her toe were not 100% sure if there was any hair or string still wrapped around the toe. They called surgery to have a look.

What do surgeons like to do? They like to cut! And oh man am I glad for that. We decided to have the surgeon make a small cut to make sure there was nothing else in there. There was. After a pretty horrific 25 minutes the surgeon managed to extract quite a bit of hair that had been wrapped around her toe. Neither the surgeon or her boss had ever seen a case of hair tourniquet before but they handled it well.

I am so glad we noticed it and so thankful that we made the right decision to take her in last night.




On a separate note wow! People are scared as hell of the E.R. Never in my life have I seen an Emergency Room so empty. I overheard that a car accident was inbound as we were leaving around 3 am but dang. It’s kind of worrisome when you wonder how many real emergencies are not being treated or ignored for fear of going to the hospital.

I’m glad they got her taken care of. I’ve never heard of a hair tourniquet.

So glad your child will be well!

I knew a person from a mutual hobby who's infant daughter had the same issue, and a trip to the hospital.

You made the right and really only decision you could and I am happy for you and you're daughter it turned out well. How the heck does this happen? I never heard of such a thing. How does a strand or couple strands of hair wrap itself so tightly around a appendage?

Glad your daughter ended up being okay. I agree that it's hard to imagine how many people aren't going to hospitals for life or death issues due to fear of the pandemic.

That's Crazy!
But glad you had a positive outcome!

Had three kids, and didn't even know the condition was a concern! Good for you guys recognizing it and getting it properly cared for.

Hope she heals up well.

Very good news that your baby girl will be OK.

Question: how does this happen? I'm trying to visualize it, but I don't understand.

The entry to the hospital looked a little like a scene from Contagion or Outbreak with those strange looking tents they erected.

You want a toe? I can get you a toe...

(poor kid. glad you got it sorted.)

It’s VERY rare but as I understand it a long strand of hair from my wife or one of her sisters got into her onesie and as she kicked her feet it somehow wrapped around her toe and managed to get tighter and tighter.

It’s one of those things they train you to look for when someone brings in a baby that won’t stop crying. Generally painful, very rare, and I’ve never seen one in practice. I bet they’ll be talking about it in their training rounds there at Brenners (assuming that’s where you went since Winston-Salem and not a picture of my shop down the road).

Wow, I am really glad your daughters is OK. Never heard of a hair tourniquet. Looks really painful.

Really glad to hear that it all turned out well.

Glad she's ok. I'll add my name to the list that have never heard of it.
With us having girl #3 in August, it's something I'll keep in mind (and hopefully not need).

Wow, never heard of that. One more thing to keep an eye out for. Glad your little one is ok.

As for the ED being empty, that seems to be the norm. I'm still travelling to hospitals during this and I've yet to see a busy one.

Lots of precautions and empty auxillary ED's set up, but no one at them.

Glad stickgirl is on the mend and you guys got good care.

Glad the little one is okay.

Glad it turned out ok. When your kids are in pain nothing is worse. Never heard of it before though.

Glad she got sorted out, I have heard of that but never seen it, wow.