Jodie Thomas of Cardiff, Wales is speaking out to warn other parents after her 4 year-old daughter, Sienna Rasul, was nearly killed by a serious infection she contracted while trying on shoes without socks.

Sienna started to get sick one day after going shopping with her mother. Jodie explained that the little girl had been wearing sandals and began trying on different shoes from the display without putting on a pair of socks. The next day, Sienna woke up crying in pain and was immediately taken to hospital. There, doctors immediately noticed a sore on the child’s foot and drew a line around the infected area.

The day after she was hospitalized, the infection had spread up Sienna’s leg and her fever spiked.

“I drove her straight in to hospital,” Jodie said. “She was shaking and twitching — it was horrible to see my little girl like that.”

Doctors informed Jodie that Sienna had sepsis and that they could avoid surgery by draining all of the pus from her leg. Sepsis refers to what happens when the body goes into overdrive to help fight an infection, releasing chemicals to help fight bacteria in the bloodstream that instead. This then causes inflammation throughout the entire body.

Sienna spent five days at Prince Charles Hospital in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales hooked up to an antibiotic drip.

“The shoes she liked had been tried on by other little girls so that’s how Sienna picked up the infection,” Jodie said. “I knew you risk getting things like athlete’s foot from trying on shoes but blood poisoning is far more serious… You don’t know whose feet have been in the shoes before you.”

Doctors believe that Sienna had a “breach” in her skin, either a bug bite or a cut on her foot, which allowed the infection to enter into her blood stream. Jodie took to Facebook after this ordeal to warn other parents in the hopes of ensuring that this does not happen to another child.

“For all parents please put socks on your children while trying new shoes on,” Jodie wrote. “I’m guilty of not doing it for mine and myself, but this can be the outcome (of) infection spreading throughout the body. You don’t know who’s feet have been in them before hand!”

“Sienna has had one hell of a outing and thankfully touch wood – made a full recovery,” she wrote. “Who would (have) thought trying new shoes on could make someone so ill. So with back-to-school shopping under way, carry a pair of spare socks!”

We’re so glad that Sienna has made a full recovery!