A woman living in California, USA, has contracted skin cancer after being cut while getting a manicure. She is Grace Garcia, 50, a mother of three who lives in San Gabriel, near Los Angeles.
Ms. Garcia had been getting her nails done at the same salon for more than two decades. However, in November 2021 she decided to venture to a new salon that looked elegant.
While the professional was getting a manicure, she cut the cuticle of her right ring finger. “She cut me, and the cut wasn’t just a normal cuticle cut. She cut me deep and that was one of the first times that happened to me. I’ve been doing (my nails) for years and years and years. I was upset,” Grace told ‘Today’.
Woman diagnose with skin cancer after getting a manicure
When she got home she put antibiotic ointment on her wound, but as the days went by it didn’t get better and it got worse and worse. Ms Garcia decided to go back to the salon to complain.
I was upset and went back and told them that the lady cut me and my finger is still bothering me,” she said. However, the only answer she received was: “Oh, we fired her after many complaints” and that was all she was told.
As the days went by, the woman noticed that a dark-coloured lump began to appear, which was very sensitive to the touch. In April 2022, the woman decided to see a general practitioner, who referred her to a dermatologist.
Woman diagnose with skin cancer after getting a manicure
The lump became bigger and bigger and looked like an open wound. In addition, a wart started to grow on her finger, so the doctors ordered a biopsy.
This medical procedure revealed that Ms Garcia had stage 1 skin cancer, called squamous cell carcinoma caused by Human Papilloma Virus (HPV). After that, the woman had to undergo Monhs surgery, a procedure that allows doctors to see 100% of the cancer and then remove it.
The patient’s physician Dr Teo Soleymani, a dermatologist at UCLA Health, told the Daily Mail that HPV tends to be more sexually transmitted. “‘In Grace’s case, she had a lesion, which became the gateway. So that thick skin that we have on our hands and feet acts as a natural barrier against infection and things like that. (But for Ms Garcia) that was no longer the case, and the virus can infect her skin,” she said.
Fortunately, Ms. Garcia did not require further treatment, but she should see a dermatologist frequently for check-ups. Doctors believe that HPV may have entered through the wound from using equipment that had not been sterilised beforehand.