New life update on man left in coma and given 4% survival chance after pulling out ingrown ‘nutsack’ hair
A man who doctors called ‘brain dead’ after he pulled out an ingrown hair has issued a positive update on his health.
Back in 2022, Steven Spinale did the rather innocent act of pulling out an ingrown hair from an area near his groin.
One of his TikTok videos quips: “It’s just an ingrown hair on your nut sack… what’s the worst that can happen?”
Riders stuck upside down
But this seemingly harmless decision would be one which would change his life forever after he contracted sepsis, with his sister providing regular updates on his progress over the last four years.
She said in a TikTok video at the time: “Steven was pretty sick a month before being admitted. He was turned away at numerous hospitals thinking he was making it up.
“He didn’t have insurance. He started vomiting blood and they still sent him home.
“Next day, my sister had to call 911 because he couldn’t breathe. He was admitted and they found he had a rare bacteria in his bloodstream that was shutting down all his organs.”
Steven only woke up from his coma in November 2025 (GoFundMe)
Symptoms of sepsis are often difficult to spot, with the NHS advising that anyone with ‘blue, grey, pale or blotchy skin, lips or tongue’ or confusion should be taken to A&E for urgent treatment.
In Steven’s case, he’d developed sepsis from a rare bacterial infection after removing the ingrown hair, with the bacteria ‘ravaging through his body and shutting down all his organs’.
He was placed in a medically induced coma for five weeks, and faced a long road to recovery when he woke up.
The one solace for Steven is that he’s managed to retain all of his limbs, as sepsis victims can often end up losing their arms and legs, as severe inflammation and tiny blood clots cause tissue to die and develop gangrene.
Steven Spinale was in a coma for five weeks (TikTok/@michelle220777)
On his sister’s long-running TikTok account, he was finally able to thank everyone for their support as he issued another promising life update.
He said: “Hey, everyone, my name is Steven Spinale. Thanks for watching all the videos my sister makes about me. I just want to give you an update, I’m doing good. I’m working again, I’ve got a small child now and I’m living life to the fullest. Thank you for everybody’s support.”
It’s fantastic news for Steven, and his family clearly never lost faith in his ability to recover from the life-threatening illness and struggles he faced during his time in hospital.
Sepsis wasn’t the only peril that he had to deal with however, as the Texas native also caught influenza A, double pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) while in hospital as well as suffering a ‘small stroke after the sepsis reached his heart’.
It’s perhaps no surprise that doctors weren’t feeling too good about Steven, giving him just a four percent chance of survival, but his sister made it clear that they ‘never lost hope’ in a previous TikTok which showed him waking up for the first.
“We never lost hope. And luckily [he’s] alive today.”
“We never lost hope of faith. And thank God we didn’t because look at him now,” she added in another clip. “[Doctors] aren’t the final word.”
So the next time you’re thinking of plucking an ingrown hair from an intimate area, maybe consider that it might not be worth it.
Featured Image Credit: TikTok/Michele Spinale
