A five-year-old girl from central Israel was brought to Meir Medical Center in Kfar Saba on Wednesday after her lips got entangled in an electric nail trimmer.
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Doctors enlisted the help of firefighters after every attempt to remove the device inadvertently reactivated it. Together, they successfully deactivated the trimmer and safely removed it.
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Doctors at Meir Medical Center removing the nail clipper from the girl's facing
(Photo: Meir Medical Center)
Dr. Ehud Rosenblum, head of pediatric care at Meir Medical Center’s Emergency Room, said: "The girl arrived at the emergency room scared and in pain. We used the Internet to try and understand how the device worked and realized that any pulling or movement in an attempt to release it would create resistance and reactivate it again and again.
"This is a device that does not have an on and off button or removable batteries and operates automatically as soon as it senses resistance. We began preparations to sedate the girl, and simultaneously called in a team of firefighters. Together, we tried to understand the best approach to stop the device’s operation," he explained.
"Luckily, after removing the device’s grip, we discovered the girl suffered from a relatively small cut to her lip, and after delicate suturing, we began waking her up. The incident ended well, and the girl is doing well."
Fire and Rescue officer Assistant Battalion Chief Aharon Golman, who oversaw the operation, said: "When we arrived at the scene, we saw that the electric device intended for cutting nails was caught in the girl's lips. Due to the child's age and sensitive incident, we acted with caution and dismantled the device in an almost surgical operation until it was removed.
"At first, we disassembled the plastic parts and exposed the device’s internal components, located the battery's cables, and deactivated them. We exposed the main mechanism consisting of many cogs. We worked with the medical team to find the direction in which the wheels rotated and turned them the opposite way, releasing the device's grip."
The girl's father, who was very alarmed by the incident, recounted: "Trimming children's nails can be a very challenging task when the child is scared of the procedure and refuses to do it. We had to trim her nails only while she was sleeping.
“The device came in that morning, and we checked it to make sure the operation wouldn’t be painful. We could never have imagined that our daughter would put it close to her lips and that it would be impossible to release it,” he added.