Freeing a 4-Year-Old's Lip from an Electric Nail Trimmer Took a Fire Crew and a Rotary Cutting Tool

A 4-year-old girl arrived at a pediatric emergency department in Riyadh unable to close her mouth. A battery-powered nail trimmer was clamped onto her lower lip, drawn tight into the small opening on the underside of the device. She had been playing with it alone about an hour earlier, pressed it against her lip and switched it on.The emergency consultant tried to work it loose by hand, then stopped, judging that another pull risked tearing more tissue.That decision, and what followed it, is the core lesson of a case series posted online September 4 in the American Journal of Case Reports by a team at King Abdullah Specialized Children's Hospital. Three preschoolers were treated at the same hospital over a six-month period for mouth injuries caused by motorized electric nail trimmers.