Woman's shocking injuries after falling headfirst down escalator
A TikTok user has unexpectedly gone viral after sharing videos of a set of deep scratches on her face caused by a rather unusual injury.
Kendall Whitney, from Milwaukee in the US state of Wisconsin, was left with a broken nose and four parallel cuts between her eyebrows when she tripped and fell headfirst down an escalator.
The accident happened just as she arrived at a baseball game with friends. As Kendall, 21, turned to talk to one of her friends, she lost her balance and fell down about seven stairs, landing face-first on the sharp metal edge of one step.
While she initially couldn’t feel the pain, she told Yahoo News Australia her friend forced her to seek help at a nurse’s station after seeing the horrific injuries.
“I tried convincing her I was fine and that we should go to our seats, but I was in fact profusely bleeding from my head and nose,” Kendall said.
“They (the nurses) took one look at my face and told me I needed to go to the hospital to get stitches."
After waiting four hours at the hospital, Kendall was informed that she had broken her nose. Her doctor decided the cuts weren’t big enough for stitches, and worried that gluing the wounds shut would only irritate her skin and prevent it from healing properly, so she was eventually sent home with several heavy duty pain medications.
Escalator scars could be permanent
Since the accident on June 4, Kendall’s scars have started to heal, but she believes they may never fully disappear.
“I think there will still be marks no matter what,” she said.
“The emergency department doctor said they will continue to heal over time but they will probably be on my face to some extent forever.”
Incredibly, this prognosis hasn’t bothered Kendall at all - who has instead decided to openly share her accident with the world.
“I’m not typically a person who pays attention to what others say about appearance. I think they are cool and they’re a great conversation piece,” she said.
Clearly, the internet agrees. Two videos posted on Kendall’s TikTok account have quickly clocked up over 10 million views.
“It’s insane. I had no idea that people would either be able to relate to the story or just so interested in what happened,” she said.
While she gets the occasional negative comment, Kendall said she posted the videos to make people laugh.
“Once I saw what I looked like, combined with how funny the story was, it just made for a funny video. I try to be able to laugh at myself when I do embarrassing things or make funny mistakes.”
All jokes aside, Kendall said the accident has left her shaken, and found herself unexpectedly nervous when she recently faced another escalator.
“I got on and I could feel my heart start pounding and I had to hold my friend’s hand. Just a little bit of anxiety but I think that’ll go away eventually.”
Though Kendall, a nursing student, can see the funny side of the accident, she is warning others to be careful when travelling on escalators.
“I think that being aware that even though you just a riding an escalator they are really quite dangerous,” she said. “Just paying attention to your surroundings because escalators are a lot more dangerous than you think.”
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