Posted on 10/01/2007 6:07:01 AM PDT by decimon
An art student who fears she was almost killed by her belly button stud in a car accident has warned about the potential dangers of body piercings.
Jessica Collins' seatbelt forced the stud through her stomach almost to her spine in the crash in Munich.
Her mother, Amanda, of Cardiff, compared the impact to a bullet and said her daughter was lucky to survive.
From her German hospital bed Jessica, 19, who hopes to return home soon, has urged friends to remove their studs.
The crash a week ago while she was on a working holiday taking photographs of cathedrals, left the student with facial injuries and blood on her brain.
But her family, who flew out to be with her, say the most serious damage was the result of her seat belt thrusting the piercing into her stomach.
Jessica Collins's belly button stud I can't say I've ever heard of anything like this before, but for a decorative bit of jewellery it's not worth the risk Chris Beadle, Jessica's stepfather
She lost blood and underwent a three-hour operation. Her mother will stay in Munich until the 19-year-old can leave hospital.
Her stepfather, Chris Beadle, who has returned to the family home in Radyr, Cardiff, said: "She's only a slight girl to start with, but the lap belt has pulled so tightly that the front part of her waist was pushed up against her spine.
"The doctor described it like a bullet hole.
'Freak accident'
"He was fascinated from a medical point of view. He'd never seen anything like it before".
Jessica, who is studying at Pontypridd College, had had the stud since she was 15.
But Mr Beadle said his step daughter was determined to make others with piercings aware of the possible risks.
Jessica Collins's wounds The wounds on Jessica's stomach as she recovers in hospital
"When she started realising what had happened, she was adamant that she didn't want it happening to anyone else," he said.
He said many of Jessica's friends had removed their own studs since the crash.
"It was a freak accident. I can't say I've ever heard of anything like this before, but for a decorative bit of jewellery, it's not worth the risk."
A friend who was driving, Devdutt Shaftri, of Butetown, Cardiff, received a broken leg in the crash, and has been released from hospital.
The family say police told them nobody was at fault for the crash.
Jessica was in intensive care for five days, and is not expected to return to the UK until the week after next.
A lady I used to work with tried almost every fad that came down the pike, but she wouldn't get the tramp stamp because she didn't want people to think she was a tramp. Go figure.
I wouldn't want my daughters to get one, but my wife and I know a few ladies with a small ankle tattoo. Not mine nor hers style, but for a tattoo, thats about as edgy as I like to see.
I had a tooth pulled, and the 2 stitches drove me up the wall for the duration.
Pontypridd College??? Pontypridd College??
She was a 17-year-old girl who had her labia pierced by a 'friend' during a sleepover (without her parents knowing, of course). She developed labial cellulitis.
Now bacteria simply looooooooooove warm, moist, dark places. And when a person is unhygienic, bacteria take that as a gold-stamped invitation to party. And that's exactly what happened. Hygiene habits don't change, even when an infection becomes evident. And since this girl's piercing was in a rather private part of her body, she elected to keep it private, even after the infection hit full-tilt boogie.
When she arrived at my ER, she was delirious, had a temp of 105 oral, and was in full-blown septic shock. It turns out that she had been at the house of the same 'friend' who had pierced her when she had a seizure. The 'friend' called 911, and at that point our paths crossed.
Since I was the one tasked with inserting a Foley catheter, I was the person who discovered the source of her infection. Her external genitalia was utterly destroyed. I mean, it was gone. There was no perineum, no vestibule, nothing- completely necrotized. And the smell was unimaginable.
I've seen a lot of really nasty wounds, so it takes a helluva lot to phase me. I gasped "Oh my God" and turned away to retch.
Well, we couldn't save her. She died that morning of refractory septic shock secondary to her infection. So yeah, I think body piercings are a pretty stupid idea. Well, NonValue, you asked for it...
Close call. Humanity nearly lost those 75 IQ points.
-Contact Details
-Ynys Terrace
-Rhydyfelin
-Pontypridd, Mid Glamorgan
-CF37 5RN
I think the school mascot is the Ponty Python.
Well, she did get into Pontypridd College.
Also "nameplates" and "targets."
Well, your story is in keeping with the get-the-word-out nature of the original report. Time to wand the teenagers.
I have a sister who worked in an emergency room. She told me of the times young people would come into emergency with infected swollen tongues from their tongue piercings gone bad. The doctors would pull the stud out and admonish the person never to do that again. She said the operation was pretty painful. They should show one of them to future tongue-stud wearers.
That could be a thread in it’s own right with a little bit more of your superb writting to, ummm, flesh out the details...
You are assuming her "friend" was a gurl...
Me?
Well, I don’t know who “Belly Stud” is, but I wonder if he’s ever met “Belly Girl.”
That sign could easily be updated by replacing “France” with “Democrats”.
I'd stopped these two kids walking down the street the other day to this house that was blasting loud music every night till 1:00 or 2:00 inthe morning.I wanted to tell them to turn it down late at night cause people had to get up in the morning.One of them had long,stringy died black hair with enough metal in his face to overload any metal detector on the planet.He didn't look any older than 16.
Now that is a glorious belly. A piercing would detract from its loveliness.
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