“Child Crocs are dangerous and shouldn’t ever be worn on escalators,” one mother’s warning to parents everywhere began.
UK mother, Helen Wood, has taken to Facebook with a post highlighting the dangers of the popular children’s shoe, which she deems responsible for her son’s horrific injuries he attained while on holiday in Dubai.
Her five-year-old son Stanley had been standing on a declining escalator when the corner of his shoe was dragged violently into the side of the moving apparatus.
“Stanley has lost his big toe and has extensive tissue and ligament damage to the underside of his foot. He will need multiple operations to reconstruct the remaining part of his foot,” the Bromley local shared.
Gulf news reports that Stanley’s toe was so “mangled” that surgeons were forced to amputate.
“The entire tendon got pulled out right up to the calf muscle as the force of the machine was so strong,” plastic surgeon Dr Mohan Rangaswamy, who performed Stanley’s surgery, told the publication.
Mrs Wood and her son were forced to stay in the UAE while the rest of her family travelled home. She now plans to launch an awareness campaign alerting parents alike of the dangers rubber Croc shoes
possess.
“Our holiday turned into a nightmare and it all happened so quickly giving us hardly any time to react. We thought wearing these soft closed rubber sandals was safer for kids as it protected the feet.
“When Stanley lost his toe, we realised that we are not the only parents dealing with this and there have been several lawsuits against a famous company that produces these colourful, soft rubber sandals that kids love so much,” she told Gulf News.
And Mrs Wood was not wrong. In 2010, a study published in the Journal of Paediatric Orthopedics found that, in a two year period, over 75 per cent of children admitted to hospital for foot injuries were wearing rubber clogs at the time.
“One day he was running and skipping, the next he was in an emergency ward with life changing injuries. We are shocked and heartbroken that this has happened and angry that it has happened so many times before,” the devastated mum wrote.
“Child Crocs and similar style shoes are potentially lethal and letting your children wear them on escalators is putting them in real danger.”
We wish Stanley the best for a full and speedy recovery.