(London, UK) A female office worker had to be rushed to hospital when her hair got caught up in the rotating 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. Just like many other office workers, Miss Hutnyk put a small fan on her desktop in order to stay cool while trying to work. Since desk fans are notoriously inneficient at cooling in very high temperatures, she repeatedly moved the appliance closer to her face. Tragedy struck when her long blonde hair became trapped within the grilles of the desk fan and got pulled in by the rotating 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. I think my co-workers were acutally the traumatised ones – apparently my blood went everywhere.” Colleagues immediately called an ambulance and she was taken to hospital where doctors stitched her scalp and treated her for blood loss and shock. Doctors are said to be considering hair implants to repair the damaged scalp once the wound has healed fully.
A spokesperson from the company said: “This was a tragic accident and we take full responsibility for not providing proper cooling facilities in the office. We will be fitting each office with overhead ceiling fans 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 problem is that offices are not equipped to deal with such high temperatures, and ceiling fans won’t do it. 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.
Tags: air conditioners, communications, desk fan, health and safety, heatwave, office, telecoms, tragedy, workplace injury