A student teacher feared she'd die when a hair clip sliced through her scalp and lodged in her head for two hours after a horror car crash. Jeena Panesar had her hair tied up in a claw clip when she lost control of the car while driving home from work in Swadlincote, Derbyshire.
The 19-year-old says she was travelling at 50mph on a 60mph road when her vehicle hit a tree before skidding for 50 metres and flipping over - crushing her head against the roof. The impact of the crash rammed the claw clip into the back of Jeena's head until 'most or all' of the hair accessory was embedded skull-deep in her flesh.
Jeena escaped the wreckage and desperately sought help from a nearby motorist before passing out and being blue-lighted to hospital where the 10cm-long clip was removed. Shocking selfie-style images show the giant 30cm wound running from the back of her scalp to her left eyebrow, which she's not able to move even six weeks on.
She's now warning motorists to ditch wearing claw clips while driving and use an elastic bobble instead to avoid the same gruesome experience. Jeena, from Derby, said: "It's sad to say but I kind of thought I was going to die. When the car started crashing the claw clip wedged into the back of my head. Then the car roof clamped down into my head, so it was a joint effort from both.
"It was just really painful. If you've ever worn a claw clip and forgotten to take it out and lay down on your back, it's that pressure and that discomfort. I had to lie there with what I'm assuming is most or all of it stuck in the back of my head. I think I might have been really cold and just in too much shock to feel all of the pain.
"When the clip was in the back of my head, they [the paramedics] didn't let me see the damage that had been done because they didn't want to scare me. When I arrived at the hospital, a female nurse was like, 'oh that's probably really painful'. She turned me over and then took it out.
"Because I work in a school, I keep my hair up in a claw clip at the back because I can't be bothered to brush it. I didn't know wearing a claw clip while driving was a problem until I had the accident. It has definitely deterred me from wearing claw clips.
"Now I've seen it's happened to other people too so I'm part of a rare handful of people in this world who have experienced that. Don't wear a claw clip whatsoever when driving. If you want to tie your hair up, just use a rubber band."
After the crash, Jeena crawled out of the car's shattered window and was able to flag down a driver in a passing car, before passing out. Jeena regained consciousness to find concerned passersby had called her parents and the paramedics who drove the injured student to Queens Medical Centre in Nottingham.
She stayed in hospital for three days, where surgeons cleaned and stitched up the skull-deep wound. Six weeks on from the incident, Jeena's still got a lengthy scar and has lost movement in her left eyebrow due to muscle damage in her forehead.
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Her viral post has been viewed more than three million times and has racked up almost 1,000 comments from horrified TikTok users. One said: "I'm ever wearing a claw clip in a car again." Another said: "I'm slowly taking off my claw clip on the bus." A third added: "My jaw literally dropped."
