An American teenager is warning people to stop biting their nails as her habit of nail-biting led her to nearly having her finger amputated.
Lauren Nichols, a college student from Texas, recently posted a video on TikTok, telling how her finger got a lethal infection and had to be removed entirely.
Nichols started her TikTok video, saying: “To my fellow nail biters, stop what you’re doing. I almost had to get the tip of my finger amputated because I bite my nails.”
After that, the teenager explained her suffering in detail. She said that the ordeal started with a “green spot” that she noticed back on January 8.
The next day, Nichols went to the hospital to have her finger checked by a doctor who identified the condition as paronychia, a type of skin infection that happens near the nails and is primarily caused by injury or irritation in the area.
But it was not as simple as Nichols expected. The green spot continued to grow to a point where her whole finger went sore and she decided to pop it on January 13.
Unfortunately, popping the finger did not work out as Nichols had to have surgery after it, and she closely missed amputation.
Nichols said: “I go back to the doctor, and it turns out I have to have a surgery. I dead a** almost had to have my fingertip amputated because I bite my nails.”
The TikTok video has been seen by above 2.3 million people so far and we can hope that Nichols’ ordeal has a lesson for all the people who regard nail-biting as a harmless habit.
Explaining the whole thing to BuzzFeed news, Nichols said: “He [the docotor] told me that he has to amputate the tips of people’s fingers because the infection gets too bad, and that I’m lucky I came when I did.
“Since this has happened to me, I have stopped biting my nails because I never want to have to go through that again.
“I made the TikTok to educate people to not bite their nails because it can have serious consequences.”
This is not the first case of its type. Just a month ago, a similar warning was shared by a Scottish woman on Facebook with some really disturbing photos of her friend’s finger.
She explained how the finger got infected really bad and the person had to be rushed to the emergency medical care center to have immediate surgery.
The caption of that post read: “A message to nail biters out there STOP!!!
“Someone I know who prefers to remain nameless who bites their nails ended up having to get rushed to Glasgow Royal Infirmary today for emergency surgery because they had bitten their nails down too far and had got an infection in the finger.
“This person had been to two chemists and spoken to two separate pharmacists over the past few days who had advised to use magnesium sulphate and keep it covered.
“It still got worse and when finally went to A&E this morning was told if left much longer it could have been fatal as the infection was traveling up the arm hence the emergency surgery!
“So please please stop biting your nails!”
Replaced!