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Woman has surgery for infection caused by hair tie

Mary Bowerman
USA TODAY Network
Colorful hair ties.

A Kentucky woman is recovering after bacteria from a hair tie caused a serious infection in her wrist.

Like many people, Audree Kopp never thought twice about wearing a hair tie on her wrist, WLKY-TV reported.

Kopp told the station she was moving when she noticed a strange bump on her wrist.

"It just kept getting bigger and redder and worse," Kopp told WLKY-TV.

After a round of antibiotics, Kopp went to the hospital and received "emergency surgery" on Monday, ABC reported.

Amit Gupta, a hand surgeon at Norton Healthcare, said bacteria from the hair tie most likely entered Kopps body through a small cut on her skin.

"She had a large abscess on the back of her wrist, so I basically made an incision and drained the puss all the way down," Gupta told WLKY-TV.

So, should you toss out your hair ties? Gupta told ABC it's extremely rare for people to develop infections from a hair tie, but people should seek medical attention if they have a cut that looks infected.

"This is very rare, in my 25 years of experience I've never seen this," he told ABC.

Follow @MaryBowerman on Twitter.

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