Doctors at Chợ Rẫy Hospital perform a microsurgery for a 28-year-old woman whose scalp was ripped off after her hair got stuck in a factory machine. — Photo courtesy of the hospital

HCM CITY — Doctors at Chợ Rẫy Hospital in HCM City have successfully performed a microsurgery for a 28-year-old woman whose scalp was ripped off after her hair got stuck in a factory machine.

On January 18, while working in a factory in Tây Ninh Province, the worker bent down and her hair was trapped in a machine.

Her colleagues quickly put her scalp into a sealed plastic bag and placed the bag in ice water.

She was immediately sent to Gò Dầu District Medical Centre in the province for emergency treatment, transferred to Xuyên Á General Hospital in HCM City and then went to Chợ Rẫy Hospital.

The woman lost all the skin and hair on her head and a part of her left ear was ripped off, said Dr. Ngô Đức Hiệp, head of the hospital’s Department of Burn – Plastic Surgery.

Chợ Rẫy Hospital activated its red alert procedure and quickly conducted necessary tests. After no skull damage was found, doctors performed the 4.5-hour operation to reattach the scalp, Hiệp said at a press conference on February 20.

The patient was lucky that she received proper first aid and was transferred to the hospital within six to eight hours after the work accident, Hiệp said.

One month after the operation, her hair grows and her health condition is stable, he said.

The hospital receives eight to 10 cases in which the scalp is torn off a year. —VNS