This is what happened when 5-year-old Lani's hair got caught in the gear belt.
This little girl is lucky to be alive after a fun day of go-karting turned into a nightmare.
Five-year-old Lani Use was riding an old gas-powered go-kart with her family members in Louisiana, and they were all having a good time.
"She was really, really excited," mom Macie Gautreaux told Inside Edition.
Macie had pulled Lani's hair back in a bun, but with all the bouncing around in the kart, Lani's hair came loose.
That's when the blonde strands got caught in the gear belt.
As she was yanked back toward the engine, the right side of her scalp was torn off from her hairline to her neck. Her skull was fractured in four places.
Family members screamed. And after Lani's grandfather got her free by cutting her hair with a knife, her grandmother held her scalp on her head.
"I thought she was gone. I didn't think she was going to make it," Macie said.
"That's my baby girl," dad Jacob Use said.
Lani was rushed to a nearby hospital, where her prognosis was grim. But doctors were able to save the little girl's life — and hair.
And for now, Lani is done with go-karts.
"It's definitely a miracle that she is here with us today," Macie said.
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