Ohio Woman Scalped in Industrial Accident

[childOfLacroix]

A Norton woman is hospitalized after her scalp was ripped from her head when her hair became caught in a machine during her shift at an automotive parts company.


Monica Thayer, 25, is in the intensive-care unit at Akron General Medical Center after undergoing surgery early Tuesday. Surgeons reattached about 75 percent of her scalp, according to Thayer’s family. The remaining 25 percent was too mangled and more plastic surgery is expected in the future.


Mary Thayer said her daughter was initially elated when she started working the night shift at JR Engineering in Barberton.

The company makes parts for a wide range of national and international companies.

Monica Thayer was at work at 11 p.m. Monday, her sixth day of work, when she went to clear out a machine she was operating, her mother said. Her long brown hair, which hung to midback but was always pulled back for work, became tangled in the machine.

“It caught hold of her hair and just pulled her in,” said Mary Thayer, who has worked at the same company for about 25 years and has operated the same machine.

She spoke to her daughter just before surgery. “She said she just felt a jerk and it just pulled her.”

The machine ripped Thayer’s scalp from just above her eyebrows backward toward her neck. Writhing in pain, her mother said, Thayer pleaded for co-workers to cut her loose. It wasn’t until paramedics arrived that she was freed. Thayer was then taken by helicopter to Akron General, which is just a short distance away by ambulance.
“It was that serious,” Mary Thayer said. “It literally tore the entire scalp off her head.”

Kathy Mefford, human relations director for the company, said it is still investigating the incident and could not immediately comment.

Monica Thayer, a Norton High School graduate, lives with her mother. She is single and has no children. Her new job pays $8 an hour and does not offer health insurance. Workers are required to assemble parts, and temperatures inside the Ninth Street Northwest factory are often warm.

Mary Thayer said her daughter “just thinks she lost some hair” and is not fully aware of the extent of her injuries....

For entire article:
http://www.ohio.com/news/break-news/...maker-1.317964

That's awful. This woman's life is ruined because of an accident at an $8.00/hour job. Even if she recovers, she will never be the same again; the injury is too traumatic, and will cause medical problems that go way beyond how she looks (which--let's be honest--will be enough for future employers to not want to hire her).

[longnecker]

[QUOTe

That's awful. This woman's life is ruined because of an accident at an $8.00/hour job. Even if she recovers, she will never be the same again; the injury is too traumatic, and will cause medical problems that go way beyond how she looks (which--let's be honest--will be enough for future employers to not want to hire her).[/QUOTE]
It is a shame but obviously she was not following even common sense safety procedures.

[max1]

Yep, it sucks to have to follow the rules but they are there for a reason. I have run safety programs in a number of different environments and a lot (not all) accidents happen when folks set aside the rules and think it cant happen to them. I have do it myself.

[childOfLacroix]

I wonder if the company was following the safety regulations, though. Someone commenting on the article pointed out that her breaks were probably being tracked down to the second; why was she even allowed on the floor without a hair net? Liability issues should be tracked as closely as money issues...because, once things like this happen, they are money issues. Keep in mind that since she was making $8.00/hour, it's likely the person supervising her was making only a buck or two more; nobody's getting rich working there. From my experience in the workers' compensation world (defense, not plaintiff), a lot of supervisors at low-paying places don't follow the rules themselves, let alone make employees do it. They have the attitude of, "I'm not paid enough to care that much." Companies know this, but look the other way; they, too, think that nothing bad will ever happen.

It's also been my experience that people who are truly injured are hesitant to file a claim, and when they do they are made to jump through hoops of fire just to get their medical bills paid. The liars and cheats, meanwhile (the ones who don't have a damned thing wrong with them), go after as much as they think they can get, game the system at every turn, and make out like bandits. The workers' compensation system is not dissimilar to the welfare system in this regard.

[Kid Lester]

F*cking OWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

[Joe Walther]

Yep, it sucks to have to follow the rules but they are there for a reason. I have run safety programs in a number of different environments and a lot (not all) accidents happen when folks set aside the rules and think it cant happen to them. I have do it myself.

This is a fact, Max; but people also have to realize that it is rarely a unilateral decision to "set aside" the rules. Employees may start the ball rolling for whatever reasons and, again for whatever reasons, employers go along with it. But, whenever a disaster occurs and the investigations begin, the whole shebang devolves into a masterful game of finger-pointing.

But safety must become a top-down philosophy. Violate the safety rules and you're toast, whether you're a plant manager turning a "blind" eye to the violations or a working stiff running a machine and just doing as you please and to hell with safety rules.

However, it just doesn't work this way. And, while a majority of companies in this country treat safety concerns seriously, I know of companies all across the nation, one of which resided right here in Delaware until it went bankrupt, where management uses a formula--no calculus required--to determine safety policies.

While they don't broadcast it, the boys and girls assigned to the mahogany foxhole located somewhere in the management bunker calculate the odds of a negative outcome, determine its cost in terms of money and social impact. They then measure this against the fines they'd encounter if they get caught along the way and determine that it's often cheaper to pay the fines.

It works well until a major safety issue hits the news and all those savings go right down the tubes.

[childOfLacroix]

I see this both ways: the employee should not have been operating machinery unless her hair was in a net. But she also shouldn't have been allowed out onto the floor without her hair in a net. Restaurants enforce hair-netting rules all the time; this company should have had a similar policy. Perhaps they did, and the $9-$10.00/hour supervisor just didn't feel like enforcing it.