SSM Health St. Clare Hospital - Fenton: Mom Warns Other Parents After A Loose Hair Around Her Baby's Toe Cut Off His Circulation

Press release from SSM Health St. Clare Hospital - Fenton:

February 14, 2022

A St. Louis area mother is warning parents about a hidden danger that could unexpectedly land a child in the emergency room. Until last month, Sara Ward had never heard of Hair Tourniquet Syndrome – until it happened to her baby, Logan. One day, Logan somehow got a single strand of hair wrapped so tightly around his toe that it was cutting off his circulation.

“We noticed a line going across Logan’s toe and some redness. It wasn’t getting better over the course of a few days, so we took him to his doctor,” Ward said. “We started with his pediatrician and eventually went to Urgent Care and the emergency room.”

Ward’s son was admitted to SSM Health Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital because circulation was not improving and there was a risk that he’d eventually lose his toe. About a dozen nurse practitioners, pediatricians and surgeons examined the toe, using tweezers, scalpels, magnifying goggles and special lights to remove the hair without luck. Medical professionals even tried using Nair, a hair removal cream, to break down the hair.

After a few hours, a surgery was scheduled to remove the hair, which would require Logan to be put under anesthesia while physicians sliced the side of toe to remove the hair. But then, the swelling started going down; Logan’s pain lessened. It took about a week for Logan's toe to get back to normal, but seeing the swelling go down meant he was improving. No one is exactly sure if Nair did the job or if earlier efforts dislodged the hair, but the surgery was canceled and Logan recovered.

Hair Tourniquet Syndrome can affect toes, fingers, or male genitals and is usually most common in babies and toddlers. The skin starts to form over the hair and gets embedded deeply into the tissues, making it almost impossible to see. When a child is uncomfortable – kicking and screaming – removing the hair is made even more difficult.

“Many people might be thinking, it’s just a hair, why is it so difficult to get?” Ward said. “I know I thought that, but the hair strand can wrap so tightly around the limb and then it begins swelling and constricting the area. The ordeal was frightening to witness as a parent, because I felt helpless.”

While Ward isn’t exactly sure how the hair became wrapped around Logan’s toe, the medical team speculated that there was a random piece of hair in his pajamas that wrapped around his toe; combined with Logan’s kicking and screaming the hair likely wrapped around his toe, restricting blood flow.

“While Logan’s case was extreme, we were very lucky that we were able to save the toe and narrowly avoid surgery,” Ward said.

Logan is back home and feeling much better but Ward is warning other parents to check their baby’s toes and fingers on a regular basis. She is grateful to the team at SSM Health Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital for providing exceptional care during an extremely difficult time for her family.

This press release was produced by SSM Health St. Clare Hospital - Fenton. The views expressed here are the author’s own.