A TEENAGER was forced to undergo ear surgery at Broomfield Hospital after a piercing left it severely infected.
Bianca Hart, 18, is still having nightmares about the "horrendous pain" she suffered after a cartilage piercing became so infected surgeons had to remove parts of the outer ear, leaving permanent scars.
The student, who began her undergraduate course at the University of Nottingham just last week, is now keen to warn others to be aware of the risks.
"I just don't want anyone else to have to go through it. It was the most horrendous week I have ever been through in my life," said Bianca.
The Chelmsford teenager visited a South Essex studio on Friday, August 29, with a friend for a £10 cartilage piercing on her right ear.
But she claims at no point was she talked through the risks, asked to sign a consent form or shown that the needle to be used was fresh from the packet.
"Then three or four days later my ear started going purple, but because I had never experienced a piercing before I thought it was just what happened, and didn't think too much about it," added the psychology and criminology student.
"But it continued and I was up during the night crying because I was in so much pain, and there was pus coming out of it."
Such was the pain that Bianca visited a GP surgery where she was prescribed antibiotics and told to clean the wound with TCP, an antiseptic.
But when she returned to the studio a few days later, she was advised she simply needed a longer bar "to let it breathe" or the problem may become worse, and to hold off cleaning for a couple of days.
Having followed this advice, on Friday, September 12, the pain only became worse, and the infection led to severe vomiting. Her mum, Bridget, rushed her to the accident and emergency department at Broomfield Hospital.
Bianca was placed on intravenous antibiotics, and finally taken to theatre for a 45-minute operation to remove the "disintegrated cartilage".
A week later she was finally released from hospital where she had to head straight to freshers' week in Nottingham, complete with a large bandage round her head, and more antibiotics that have stopped her having alcohol.
She added: "I had so many things planned for the last three weeks before university.
"I wasn't able to see friends and family because some couldn't get to the hospital before I left, and mum was really upset as she'd wanted to enjoy that time, and instead she just watched me in pain.
"I had been so careful about the piercing, and when I spoke to the microbiologist and asked did they know what had been the cause, I was told it had been whatever went in, so it was either the needle or the bar."
The Chronicle has chosen not to identify the studio, but when contacted staff were adamant they always required signed consent forms, used sterilised, sealed needles for each new piercing, and had never had a complaint about their practice before.
