Hidden cause of Aussie baby's gruesome injury
A seven-week-old baby girl has narrowly escaped long-term injury thanks to her mum’s beady eye.
Lia Marshall from Victoria had just bathed her newborn on Monday June 13 when she noticed Amelie’s throbbing toe.
“It was all red and swollen,” the Warragul mother told Channel Seven.
“I placed her on the couch to get dressed and just went, oh my god!”
On closer inspection, Lia discovered the culprit.
A single strand of her hair had wrapped itself around the seven-week-old’s tiny digit, cutting off circulation.
It was so deeply embedded, Lia couldn’t even feel it.
As she tried to use her fingernail to catch the strand, panic began to rise as the newborn screamed in pain.
Unable to free her daughter, the distraught mother rushed her to hospital where doctors said Amelie was suffering hair tourniquet syndrome.
Common in babies, it is described by the Australian Journal of General Practice as a strangulation of an appendage or digit by a thread-like material, such as a hair, and can result in the possible loss of function.
While doctors warned Lia that surgery may be needed, they finally managed to remove the strand.
The hair had pierced the skin however, causing blood to flow from the wound.
After a few hours in hospital to ensure the swelling had receded, Amelie was discharged.
Mum's warning to other parents after close call
Lia is now urgently warning other parents to be aware of fallen hair strands, and check their baby’s hands, feet, clothes and nappies.
“Parents need to know this can happen,” she said.
“I was just thinking that if it was left there, what would happen.”
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