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Woman mistakes superglue for cream and seals lips shut

Woman mistakes superglue for cream and seals lips shut

Secrets were safe with a New Zealand woman on Thursday — her lips were sealed — with superglue.

Otago Daily Times reported a woman from South Dunedin, New Zealand called police in distress close to midnight but she couldn't utter a word. The 64-year-old woman had woken up in the night and reached over for a tube of cold sore cream, but picked up a tube of glue instead, according to the newspaper.

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Police told the Telegraph the woman could only grunt from her glued lips, and so they weren't sure if she had been gagged. Even worse, the woman said she had a cold that left her nose blocked.

Through a series of grunts, murmurs and taps, she managed to communicate her location to emergency responders, according to the Telegraph. Doctors at a nearby hospital unsealed her lips with paraffin oil.

Glue mix-ups are quite common, according to a recent report in New South Wales, Australia that found more than 900 people had mistaken superglue for eye drops over eight years.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported that even more people had accidentally put other types of medication in their eyes, including nasal sprays or ear drops.

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However, superglue has also saved the day in medical situations more than once. Doctors in Kansas recently stopped the bleeding in the brain of a baby with an aneurysm using superglue, according to Reuters.

A special type of superglue named Kryptonite, used to glue bones back together after heart surgery, has been credited with faster recovery times.