A woman whose hand had to be amputated after a freak accident while drying her hair has since issued a warning.
On February 7, 2024, Mary Wilson, from James Island, South Carolina, was drying her hair in the bathroom of her home when she suddenly passed out.
When her partner found her lying on the floor 20 minutes later, the hairdryer she had been using had burnt her hand 'all the way to the bone', she says.
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“She’s telling me, ‘Your hand, your hand.’ I look at my hand. I don’t even register that’s a part of me,” Wilson told ABC News 4.
"It doesn’t even look recognizable.”
Believing that the dryer 'shocking' her had caused her to pass out, she continued to say: “The way I [fell] on top of the dryer, like it was under me, and I was in a weird, contorted placement and the dryer was still running.”
Wilson was quickly rushed to hospital where it was discovered that she had suffered extensive nerve damage and third-degree burns on her left hand.
As a result of her injuries, Wilson had no other choice but to get her hand and wrist amputated.
Now only having one hand, she has had to learn new ways of doing things - which hasn't been easy.
“The biggest thing is not being able to do the simple things I want to do, or things take so much longer," she said.
But Wilson added that it has since 'put into perspective' how 'insignificant' the other issues she had been going through prior to the incident were.
Having previously working as a dog groomer, she says that she misses working with the dogs everyday and isn't sure if she'll ever be able to go back.
Because of what happened, Wilson has since called for appliances, like hair dryers, to turn off automatically once they exceed dangerous temperatures - like hers had done.
She also notes that some hot appliances do have this function, adding: "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 [the blow dryer] did, then maybe my injuries wouldn’t have been so bad.”
But despite the accident, Wilson has managed to stay positive and will soon be getting a prosthetic hand.
"I'm still going to live my life to the fullest. It’s just a hand. What is this, 10% of my body?" she said.
"Losing my hand may be something that changes who I am, but that doesn’t mean that it defines me on everything."
Furthermore, she also said that the love and support of her community has helped her through this life-altering adjustment.
“It’s support that I never even knew that I had,” Wilson added.
“It definitely meant a lot.”
Dylan Murray