It’s rare for beauty treatments to go wrong, but when they do, they go really wrong. Case in point: One woman’s minor beauty mistake led to the loss of a piece of her thumb. Terrifying, right?
This past July, 33-year-old mother of four, Cherie Newman, opted for a set of acrylic nails from her local nail salon. After four weeks of wearing the fake nails, Newman decided to try taking them off herself rather than returning to the salon to have them professionally removed. While most of us have attempted this ourselves in the past (who has time to head into the salon?), Newman’s case didn’t just end with damaged nails and a vow never to do it again.
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Sadly, Newman accidentally ripped off her thumbnail along with the acrylic, causing it to bleed. Instead of immediately going to the doctor, Newman waited weeks. It was only when visiting her doctor for something unrelated that they advised her to rush to the hospital because her thumb had turned purple. You can see the pictures here, but be warned, they’re graphic.
Unfortunately, doctors had to remove her thumb because she had developed septicaemia, a severe bloodstream infection. “I didn’t think anything of the cut because it was so small,” she told Yahoo!, “so I left it alone and completely forgot about it. I had no idea that removing a fake nail could cause blood poisoning. When the sepsis kicked in, my thumb turned purple.”
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After six days in the hospital and two operations to get the infection under control, Newman lost a part of her thumb. “I was awake for the first operation that I had, but I couldn’t look at it. I had to have my thumb sliced open to properly wash out the infection,” Newman explained. “It wasn’t until two days later, when I had my dressing removed, that I saw the top of my thumb had been taken off and the nail had been removed. I was shocked, but I was told it was either that or my thumb would be removed.”
It took five full months for Newman to fully recover, and unsurprisingly, she claims she has no intention of ever revisiting acrylic nails again.
