Brain Top Off!

An office worker in London, England was taken to hospital after her hair was caught in the blades of a desk fan, causing lacerations to her scalp and severe blood loss. Emily Hutnyk, 24, an administrative assistant at a major telecommunications firm in the London borough of Kensington and Chelsea, was trying to cope with the recent heatwave in the UK . Thermometers in the captial city rose to as high as 35 Centigrade (95 F) on July 1st, which meant if you worked in an office in London the conditions could become rather unbearable. Ms Hutnyk, like thousands of others, placed a cooling fan on her desk to help her cool down whilst working. So hot and humid was it that day that the young lady kept moving the desk fan closer to her face to try and cool down as much as possible. However her long hair, swept around by the wind caused by the fan, swept in between the grilles and got caught in its whirling blades. Only a few seconds later a clump of the victim’s long blonde hair had been caught by the blades and forcefully pulled out of her scalp, together with a significant amount of skin. “It all happened so quickly, “ said Ms Hutnyk later, “it sounds horribly painful but to tell you the truth I passed out pretty quickly and thankfully I didn’t really know much about it. The others in the office later said there was blood everywhere – they were more traumatised than me I think.” An ambulance was called and she was rushed to hospital, where she required 12 stitches on her scalp. Once her head wounds have fully recovered Miss Hutnyk may consider hair implant surgery, as some of the hair that was pulled out may never grow back.

An official from the telecomms firm later called the incident “an unfortunate accident, which we are taking steps to ensure never happens again by reviewing the cooling needs of the office. We will be fitting each office with a ceiling fan and banning the use of desk fans to prevent these kinds of incidents in the future.” However a representative from the office workers trade union GMB called this measure unacceptable. “The root cause of such disasters is that we don’t have equipment or laws in place in workplaces to help us cope with hot weather – ceiling fans aren’t enough. We are demanding that every office in the UK be fitted with at least a portable air conditioner both to help people concentrate on their work and ensure this kind of tragedy never happens again.” The advice from union officials to Miss Hutnyk is to sue her employers, as this constitutes a breach of health and safety law.

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