A woman lost her hand in a freak accident involving a hairdryer and has been forced to step down from her job as a dog groomer due to the injury.
Mary Wilson from South Carolina was drying her hair before bedtime when disaster struck, leaving her with a life-changing injury.
After washing her hair before bed, she unexpectedly lost consciousness with the hair dryer still running at full power.
She wasn't discovered for 20 minutes until her partner found her lying on the floor, per 15 News.
Recalling the ordeal, Wilson said: "She’s telling me, 'Your hand, your hand.' I look at my hand. I don’t even register that’s a part of me. It doesn’t even look recognizable."
Rushed to the hospital, Wilson underwent emergency surgery where doctors made the difficult decision to amputate her hand and wrist due to the extensive nerve damage inflicted by the intense heat of the hair dryer.
Wilson believes that a sudden shock from the appliance triggered her blackout. Expressing her frustration, she noted that, unlike other hot hair tools, the hair dryer lacked an automatic shut-off feature.
"You see it with hair straighteners and flat irons - they do have that ceramic plate that once it gets to a certain temperature, it turns off. If it did, then maybe my injuries wouldn’t have been so bad," she explained.
Prior to the life-altering incident, Wilson enjoyed a career as a dog groomer. However, with only one hand remaining, she faces uncertainty about her ability to continue working with animals.
"It really kind of puts in perspective all the other issues that I was dealing with in my life six months ago are so insignificant to things that I’m having to go through now, or challenges that I’m going to have to be going through in the future," she told WSFA.
Despite grappling with the aftermath of the accident, Wilson remains optimistic about the future.
Eagerly anticipating the prospect of obtaining a prosthetic hand, she said: "I’m still going to live my life to the fullest. It’s just a hand. What is this, 10% of my body? Losing my hand may be something that changes who I am, but that doesn’t mean that it defines me on everything."
Grateful for the outpouring of support she has received, Wilson expressed her appreciation: "It’s support that I never even knew that I had, and it definitely meant a lot."
