Woman rushed to urgent care after getting 'tiny' paper cut on her hand
A US woman revealed she was rushed to urgent care after getting a paper cut on her hand.
When Mississippi woman Melinda Howard cut her hand while folding up cardboard boxes she didn't think anything more of it, saying the injury wasn't anything 'dramatic'.
“I was cramming a whole bunch of boxes, rolling them up and putting them into garbage bags, and one just caught my hand and gave me a paper cut, and I was like, 'Oh, for crying out loud'," she explained to PEOPLE.
She covered the cut with antibacterial cream before dressing it in a bandage before going about her day.
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However the cut would develop a bacterial infection which saw Howard needing treatment in hospital.
Around a week after cutting her hand, Howard noticed an aching sensation in her hand and when she took the bandage off, the 63-year-old noticed the area around the cut had become swollen and 'looked bad'.
After being taken to hospital Howard was given an antibiotic shot, oral antibiotics and an antibiotic cream to fight the infection.
Infectious Diseases Society of America spokesperson Dr. Amesh Adalja told Today that it's 'uncommon' to get an extensive infection from a 'mild skin laceration or abrasion'.
"But obviously these things can happen, and they do happen," he added.
Howard explained to PEOPLE that she suffers from thin skin after taking prednisone - which causes thin and brittle skin - for a number of years.
"I'm 63, but my skin is really thin and I am a slow healer, so I knew that I would have to keep it covered well over a week," she explained.
"If I took it off too soon, I would just reopen the cut and we'd be starting from scratch, and nobody wants to do that."
People have been asking me how my hand is doing? I think it’s doing better?
— Melinda Howard (@MelindaHoward4) November 10, 2025
Pic on the left is from Friday.
Pic on the right is from today (Monday).
I’ll let you decide ☺️ pic.twitter.com/oR5b30pAeH
How to protect yourself from getting an infected cut
According to guidance from the NHS, cuts and grazes should be cleaned with bottled or tap water and antibacterial soap before being covered with a dressing.
Adalja also suggests keeping an eye on the affected area to keep an eye on the early signs of infection. These are redness, swelling, and pain.
Fortunately Howard's hand has responded well to treatment and is now healing, with the long distance runner sharing regular updates on her recovery on social media.
"The swelling is pretty much gone. It is red, and the scabs are gone. The redness is much better than it was," she added.
"It was a tiny paper cut, but my hand just decided that it would overreact."
Brenna Cooper