A mom has issued an important warning after her 5-month-old had a serious medical emergency. Sara Ward of St. Louis, Missouri, rushed her son Logan to the hospital after a single strand of hair got wrapped around his toe.
The condition, known as hair tourniquet syndrome, caused the blood flow to cut off in Logan’s toe and now the mom is sharing how her quick action saved her son from the worst.
In a post the mom shared on Facebook, she admitted that before the incident she’d never heard of hair tourniquet syndrome.
So it stands to reason that many other parents might not be aware of it either.
The mom first saw that something was off, when “we noticed a line going across Logan’s toe and some redness on Saturday night,” she wrote in a post from January 25. “It wasn’t getting better over the weekend so we took him to his doctor on Monday.”
Sara first brought Logan to his pediatrician — but eventually they ended up in an urgent care clinic and the emergency room.
Logan was ultimately admitted into the hospital because “circulation was not improving and there was risk of losing his toe,” Sara explained.
It was hair tourniquet syndrome, a condition that Dr. Heidi Sallee, a pediatrician at SSM Health Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital, explains to CafeMom is “when a piece of hair or a thread get wrapped around a body part, often a toe or a finger and is so tight that it cuts off the circulation of blood to the part of the body that is past the tight hair or thread, which causes swelling.”
It took a whole team of medical staff to try to get the hair off of Logan — but it wasn't easy.
“He had a total of 12 Nurse Practitioners, Pediatricians and Surgeons look at it and they tried to find the hair with tweezers, scalpels, magnifying goggles and special lights,” Sara wrote on Facebook. “They tried Nair to break down the hair and they booked an OR for surgery to try and remove it under anesthesia.”
Often in these cases, doctors will have to "slice the toe" on its side "to cut whatever is restricting the toe and make sure they got it all," Sara added.
Thankfully, Logan ultimately didn't need surgery and they got the hair off.
“Many of you might be thinking, ‘it’s just a hair, why is it so difficult to get?’ I know I thought that,” Sara wrote.
The problem is when the skin starts to grow over the hair and the hair gets embedded in the skin tissue.
“It makes it impossible to see,” she wrote. “Plus add in a screaming, kicking baby and it makes it 10x more difficult.”
They don’t know exactly how Logan got the hair stuck on his toe, but Sara tells CafeMom that his doctors said “most likely, a piece of hair was in the footies of his pajamas and it just started to wrap around the toe from all the kicking.”
The doctor tells CafeMom that the condition is thankfully uncommon.
But is most likely to happen to young children or children with developmental delays. She says the swelling and lack of circulation can cause “significant pain,” but that parents might often miss what’s going on because their child is just fussy or crying.
“It is important to remove the hair or thread safely, without causing more harm, as soon as possible,” she says. “A hair (or thread) tourniquet should be cared for in the emergency room if you cannot get the child in to see your regular pediatrician immediately,” she added.
“Some pediatricians may direct you directly to the emergency room if their office cannot accommodate this emergency. If the tourniquet is not removed, it can lead to permanent tissue damage. The good thing is that permanent injury is extremely rare,” she says.
Of course, Logan’s case was an extreme example of what could happen, but the mom decided to share his story so other parents will be aware of the risk.
“Check your baby's toes and fingers for hair,” Sara urged online. “If you see one wrapped around them, try to remove it as soon as you can. If you can’t and the redness is worse, see your pediatrician right away.”
At the time, the mom wrote that they were home and waiting for Logan's follow-up appointment to make sure that he kept improving.
"These kids are always keeping us on our TOES!" she joked.
*Disclaimer: The advice on Cafemom is not a substitute for consultation with a medical professional or treatment for a specific condition. You should not use this information to diagnose or treat a health problem without consulting a qualified professional. Please contact your health-care provider with questions and concerns.
