Woman has emergency surgery on her arm after hair band causes serious infection

“I didn't believe it at first, I thought that it was a spider bite"

Audree Kopp need surgery to treat her infection (Getty Images)

A woman was forced to undergo surgery on her arm after she developed a life-threatening bacterial infection believed to have been caused by a hairband on her wrist.

Like many women, Audree Kopp, from Louisville in the US state of Kentucky, kept a hair tie on her wrist – often out of necessity or forgetting to remove it.

But she has since warned others against doing so, after bacteria on the accessory caused a severe infection.

Ms Kopp first noticed something was wrong with her arm when a lump appeared and began to grow on her wrist.


 A news reporter gestures towards the type of hair band which caused Ms Kopp's problem
 (WLKY)

Dismissing it as a spider bite at fisrt, she told WLKY News that she became concerned when the lump “just kept getting bigger and redder”.

“I didn't believe it at first, I thought that it was a spider bite or something else, not from wearing a hair tie."

After antibiotics prescribed by her familiar doctor were unable to tackle the infection, she was given emergency surgery.

"It could have been a whole different ballgame, people are known to go into a coma, your body shuts down," she told WLKY.

Ms Kopp wrote on Facebook that the glitter tie “rubbed a tiny scratch” on her wrist and bacteria entered the wound.

day #3, just saw the doc. I probably WONT need another surgery. she was shocked to find out I had 3 bacterias .... strep, staph, AND poly negative (which is severe and typical antibiotics can't help)

Posted by Audree Kopp on Thursday, 19 November 2015

“I was admitted to the ER, transported by ambulance to another hospital for emergency surgery. my white cell count was thru the roof, and I was lucky to have NOT had sepsis [sic],” she wrote of the type of bodily response which can be life-threatening.

Her doctor advised her to avoid keeping hair ties on her wrist that are plastic, and to ensure she washes her hairbands when she washes her hands.

“Please share this, because I'm pretty sure about 90% of us females don't think twice about keeping hair ties on our wrists,” she wrote on her page.