**WARNING, DISTRESSING IMAGES**
A woman lost an ear and had her scalp torn off after her hair became tangled in a drill at work.
Anna Mielewczyk thought she was going to die when she felt her skin being ripped from her head while working at a metal parts company.
A court heard how the 25-year-old suffered life changing injuries when her scalp and part of her ear were ripped off when her ponytail became wrapped around a rotating drill, the Daily Star reports.
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The shocking incident which unfolded at an engineering firm in the West Midlands resulted in Anna having to undergo surgery nine times and eventually led to the amputation of her ear.
Now the firm has been fined £62,000 after admitting to breaching health and safety guidelines.
Anna said: “My life has been devastated by what happened to me, yet my employer can get away with a fine of £62,000. How is that justice?
"My boss will carry on with his life, but I will have to deal with the results of the accident forever. I used to love life, was always active but now I feel like I am a prisoner in my own home as I am scared to go out looking like I do.”
Anna, who was working for P&D Engineering Ltd in Coventry, said the incident happened on September 10, 2019.
“I was working by myself and there was a loud crash from one of the machines and turned my head suddenly," she recalled.
"My hair must have got caught in one of the drills as it started to pull my head quite fiercely. I tried to yank my hair out of the drill by grabbing my ponytail in desperation and panic, but the machine was going so fast there was nothing I could do to resist it.
"I couldn’t reach the handle to turn it off and started to hear the horrific sound of my skin being ripped from my head, like a tape being pulled away from skin. It is a sound I will never forget."
She added: “I was screaming for help but there was too much noise from the machines and at that point I thought I was going to die. I thought about how I was never going to see my partner and family again and lost consciousness.”
An investigation by Health and Safety officials found that the rotating parts of the drill were not guarded in accordance with standard industry practise.
The investigation also found that the company's own risk assessment for using the drill identified a guard should be fitted, but had operated without one for a number of years.
Ben Posford, Partner and Head of Catastrophic Injury at London law firm Osbornes Law representing Anna, said: “Anna has suffered the most horrific injuries and is lucky to have survived this terrible incident all because her employer did not have the correct health and safety procedures in place.
"This case should offer a stark warning to all employers to have the correct measures in place to avoid another incident like this ruining anybody else’s lives.
My client is understandably upset that her former employer was given such a negligible fine and we will be pursuing them through the courts to get her some semblance of justice.”
P&D Engineering Limited, based in Coventry, pleaded guilty to breaching Section 2 (1) of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and were fined £62,334 and ordered to pay costs of £1,459.90.
