A young British woman working in an office in London was seriously injured recently when her hair was trapped by the blades of a desk fan, leading to servere blood loss and lacerations to the scalp. 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. As many of us frequently do during the summer, Miss Hutnyk decided to use a desk fan while she worked to try and keep cool. 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. Within seconds a large quantity of the young lady’s hair was torn from her scalp, along with a skin from her scalp. “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.” 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.
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.” Office and general workers trade union GMB scoffed at this response from the company, calling it “far short of the mark”. “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 full air conditioning both to help people concentrate on their work and ensure this kind of tragedy never happens again.” Miss Hutnyk, at the unions advice, is currently considering whether to pursue legal action against the company, which could be a landmark case in health and safety and employment law.
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