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Hair Ties Giveth, and They Taketh Away

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Previously considered the easiest way to keep your hair from getting stuck in your lip gloss, hair ties have emerged in this news this week as the accessory capable of both giving life and taking it away.

Dr. Patricia Quinlan was on a Thanksgiving flight from Philadelphia to San Francisco when she noticed a man onboard the plane slumped over in his chair. She quickly determined that he was suffering from dangerously low blood pressure and that he needed intravenous fluids, stat. So she and two other medical professionals who happened to be onboard disinfected a needle using some of the flight’s whiskey and used masking tape to seal up a leak in the IV bag. Dr. Quinlan then used her hair tie as a tourniquet and successfully hooked the passenger up to the IV, proving that even though hair ties can give you deadly infections, they can also save your life.

Up next week: the life-altering capabilities of bobby pins.