A UK mother has issued an urgent warning to fellow parents after her five-year-old son suffered horrific injuries when his shoes were dragged into an escalator.
Helen Wood shared her story on Facebook, claiming that popular children’s shoes Crocs were unsafe to be worn by kids.
"Child Crocs are dangerous and shouldn't ever be worn on escalators," she wrote.
"Our beautiful 5 year old son Stanley has sustained horrific and life changing injuries as a result of his Crocs being dragged into a moving escalator."
Stanley lost his big toe, and suffered extensive tissue and ligament damage to his foot while on holiday with his family in Dubai to celebrate his fifth birthday.
He was travelling down an escalator when his shoe and foot got stuck in the side of the escalator.
"He will need multiple operations to reconstruct the remaining part of his foot," his mother wrote.
Gulf News reports Stanley was rushed to a local hospital after the incident.
Stanley's toe was so mangled that surgeons were unable to reattach it to his foot.
"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 Gulf News.
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"We needed to cover the open wound with a flap. The patient was left with a bone sticking out and a large wound, it was trauma situation and this was an avulsion wound where most of the tissues were injured at different levels."
Stanley's mother says she was not aware the shoes her son was wearing were "so susceptible to being dragged in to escalators".
Top Comments
Our sons Croc shoe got caught in the side of an escalator and my husband lifted him up and pulled his foot out of the shoe before he got to the bottom of the escalator. The shoe was then ripped apart by the escalator. He was very lucky. We feel so sad for this little boy. Crocs should have to be taken off of the market.
My kids and I were walking down a stopped escalator, and at the bottom was a Croc jammed in the teeth of the escalator. What was worse that inside the Croc, also caught in the teeth, was a tiny sock. What a close call for that little foot! My kids were quite silent staring at it, and have been extra careful on escalators ever since. It was quite a shocking sight.