As every parent knows, when the summer ends, you've got to dig deep into your pocket for back-to-school supplies.
Along with the usual pens and paper, kids also need new clothes and shoes.
So while a trip to the shopping center seems like a typical activity with your child, one mother from Aberfan, South Wales is warning her fellow parents about the potential harm of forgoing socks.
"I've been worried sick, they've had to drain all the poison from her leg."
A day after Jodie Thomas, 26, took her four-year-old daughter Sienna Rasul to try on new shoes, the youngster was taken to the clinic after she began crying out in pain.
She admitted to the doctors Sienna had tried on several pairs of shoes barefoot, which turned out to be the cause of her poor health.
"I was really shocked when the doctors said it was from trying on new shoes," Thomas said, The Sun reports.
"I've been worried sick, they've had to drain all the poison from her leg."
"Normally she would have socks on but it's summer time so she was wearing sandals."
"The shoes she liked had been tried on by other little girls and that's how Sienna picked up the infection. By the next day it had spread up her leg and her temperature was raging," adding that doctors said Sienna most likely had a "breach" on her foot.
"I drove her straight in to hospital, she was shaking and twitching - it was horrible to see my little girl like that."
Doctors had diagnosed Sienna with sepsis, a life-threatening condition, and while they originally thought they'd have to operate during her daughter's five day hospitalization, Thomas said they "managed to drain all the pus from her leg and say the anti-biotic drip will do the job".
"You don't know whose feet have been in the shoes before you."
Although Sienna is back home from the children's ward at Prince Charles Hospital in Merthyr Tydfil, she's still being monitored until she makes a full recovery.
But while her little girl heals, Thomas is urging parents to make sure they don't take their children shoe shopping without putting on socks.
"I knew you risk getting things like athlete's foot from trying on shoes but blood poisoning is far more serious," the mother-of-three explained.
"You don't know whose feet have been in the shoes before you."
"Sienna has been really ill, the infection was moving up her leg and spreading to the rest of her body. I'm so glad I got her to the hospital quickly."
"With mums and dads doing back-to-school shopping I would advise them to take a spare pair of socks with them."
"This frightening case shows us that sepsis strikes indiscriminately and can affect anyone at any time," said Dr. Ron Daniels is the chief executive of the UK Sepsis Trust.
"Whenever there are signs of infection, it's crucial that members of the public seek medical attention urgently and just ask: "Could it be sepsis?"
"Better awareness could save thousands of lives every year."
What is sepsis?
Sepsis is a life-threatening disease caused by a body's reaction to an infection, which then attacks its own organs and tissue.
According to Healthline, the illness occurs when "the chemicals the immune system releases into the bloodstream to fight an infection cause inflammation throughout the entire body instead."
Before a doctor can diagnose a patient with sepsis, carriers must have at least two of the five symptoms:
- A fever above 101ºF or a temperature below 96.8ºF
- Heart rate higher than 90 beats per minute
- Breathing rate higher than 20 breaths per minute
- Probable or confirmed infection
In more serious circumstances, individuals may have symptoms including: patches of discolored skin, decreased urination, changes in mental ability, problems breathing, abnormal heart functions, chills due to fall in body temperature, and extreme weakness.
If a patient develops septic shock, they will only have a 50% chance of survival.
[H/T: The Sun, Healthline]
What was your worst experience at a shoe store? Let us know in the comments!
