Woman recovering after freak accident with power drill tears off scalp

(Photo courtesy Central European News)

A 27-year-old Czech woman whose skin and hair were ripped from her head after an accident with a power drill is almost fully recovered thanks to plastic surgery and stitches, Central European News (CEN) reported.

Petra Novotna, a mother-of-four who works as a volunteer firewoman, said she remembers “everything” from the incident, which happened about a month ago.

“I went to run, and then I saw my scalp was no longer attached to me— it was lying next to me instead,” Novotna told CEN.

Novotna reportedly had been using the electric drill when strands from her ponytail became wrapped in the device. The drill bit sucked up the rest of her hair then pulled the woman forward, ripping off the skin from her forehead, eyebrows and eyelids, as well as her entire head of hair.

She was rushed to the University Hospital of Vinohrady in the Czech Republic capital of Prague, where she arrived in serious condition. But doctors were able to use tissue from Novotna’s arms and legs to restore her scalp. The remaining skin on her head was nearly impossible for surgeons to reattach, CEN reported.

Novotna is now on the mend and said she is looking forward to going home. Her doctor Andrej Sukop said the surgery was complicated and took nine hours, but it was successful.

“In fact, the operation was such a success that we have already had several enquiries from other hospitals who want more details on exactly what we did,” Sukop told the news station.