Man Undergoes Surgery After Finger Gets Severe Infection Due To Nail Biting

How many times have you been reprimanded by your elders for constantly nibbling away at your nails? How many times have you stared in mild horror at the state of your nails after you had been stress-biting the hell out of them? Too often, right? And yet, the habit is hard to drop, no matter how hard you try. Well, how about the real-life incident of a man contracting a severe infection due to nail-biting?

A woman in Scotland, Karen Peat, took to Facebook recently to share confronting images of her friend’s infected fingers following his hard-to-break habit of nail-biting. He was recently rushed to the hospital when the infection worsened and had to undergo surgery.

“Someone I know who prefers to remain nameless who bites their nails ended up having to get rushed to Glasgow Royal Infirmary today for emergency surgery because they had bitten their nails down too far and had got an infection in the finger,” Peat wrote on January 7. “This person had been to two chemists and spoken to two separate pharmacists over the past few days who had advised to use magnesium sulfate and keep it covered it still got worse.” The case could have deteriorated more if the infection had been left untreated longer as then it would have spread to his arm and turned fatal.

After being rushed to the emergency department, Peat’s finger was operated on, following which he was put on an antibiotic drip for a few days. He has lost the nail in his finger and the chances of it growing back are rather slim. So, seeing the predicament of her friend, Peat implored everyone to “please please stop biting your nails!”

While Peat’s friend was rather lucky, the situation could have ended up being far worse. And as we know, prevention is better than cure, and in this scenario the best solutions are:

1. To keep your nails short. So, if there is nothing to bite, there will be no risk of infection either.

2. Nail-biting is an unconscious habit, so learn to recognize your behavior and whenever you feel the urge to bite your nails, just pop in gum or mints.

3. Use bitter-tasting clear polish to coat your nails.