Pennsylvania woman gets infection from nail salon. Then it leads to her finger being amputated: ‘I coulda lost my arm’
A Pennsylvania woman decides to treat herself to a manicure at a local nail salon. However, she notices something strange on her finger that leads to a scary emergency hospital visit. If she waited to get treatment, she believes the situation could have ended even worse.
In a video with over 1.5 million views, TikToker Ashley Christmas (@ashthegoddess09) sits on the floor as she records, showing her bandaged hand.
She says that soon after her manicure, she started to feel “tingly” in her right middle finger.
“I didn’t think anything of it,” she says. “I just kinda brushed it off.”
Days later, she noticed that her finger was “extremely swollen and painful.” However, because she dislikes hospitals, she decides to wait it out for a few more days. Her finger’s condition didn’t improve.
Finally, she heads to the emergency room, where the staff gives her pain medication. They transfer her to a hand specialist at another hospital to check out her swollen finger.
She stays the night at the second hospital and takes antibiotics. The next day, the doctor examines her hand and decides to make an incision to drain the infected pus.
Did the antibiotics work on the infected nail?
Unfortunately, the antibiotics and first procedure don’t completely fix her pain and swelling. So, they decided to surgically remove her nail and make multiple incisions on her finger.
“They flushed it, cleaned it out, whatever,” she explains.
The hospital discharges her, and she returns to the hand specialist a few days later. After seeing her finger, he decides to readmit her to amputate the tip of her finger after another unsuccessful flush of the infection.
“They were afraid that there still might have been some infection,” she says. “This time it was very aggressive.”
Christmas shares that she was taken aback at first, as she loves to dress up and get her nails done.
“My confidence was instantly shot,” she shares. However, she’s ultimately thankful the infection didn’t spread to her hand or arm.
She shares that she initially filmed the TikTok about a year ago but finally wanted to share her story as she looks into legal advice. However, in her latest update, she says that personal injury firms she reached out to don’t want to take on her case because the nail salon’s lawyer wanted to settle.
“They tried to throw out an [expletive] $5000, but what the [expletive],” she says, holding up her amputated finger.
In a TikTok direct message to The Mary Sue, Christmas says she recently switched attorneys and plans to “proceed with the lawsuit.”
How common are infections from nail salons?
While nail salons are held to high standards of cleanliness, including sanitizing between customers, infections are still shockingly common.
According to Memorial Hermann Health System, polishes and nail tools may harbor MRSA, Staph, or other pathogens that can be easily jump to the nail or finger during a service. These bugs can be extremely dangerous, potentially causing major injury or death if they cause an infection.
In less severe cases, customers may also catch fungal infections, which can damage the nail permanently.
In the comments of Christmas’s viral TikTok, others say her story makes them think twice about getting a salon manicure.
“I’m realizing imma have to go to cosmetology school JUST to learn how to do my own hair and nails,” one writes.
Another insists, “I will never go to another nail salon again.”
“No one can ever convince me to get my nails done! I just cannot…as pretty as some of them look,” a third says.
@ashthegoddess09 If you visit nail Salons, WATCH THIS ‼️‼️this video was recording almost a year ago, I’ll post an update soon #nailsalon #nailinfection #amputee #explorepage✨ #fyp ♬ original sound – Ashley Christmas
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