Toddler who almost lost a toe after trip to beach
A TODDLER lost part of her foot after a trip to the beach turned into a nightmare.
Aria McCart’s left big toe became infected – possibly because dog urine got into a small cut. The toe swelled to twice its usual size and was close to being amputated.
Doctors decided instead on emergency surgery to remove all the skin from the toe and from part of the surrounding foot. The 18-month-old was quarantined for two nights in hospital in great pain.
Her mother, Amy-Leigh Cavanagh, said Aria had been playing on the beach all afternoon and fell ill at home. ‘When I picked her up I could feel her body was on fire, even though she was just out of the bath, I could tell it wasn’t right,’ said the 26-yearold owner of a dance school,
‘She was feverish and lethargic. I just thought she was coming down with a cold. I called NHS 24 for advice but they said I was doing all the right things.’ Five days after the beach trip the toe was looking much worse despite a doctor prescribing antibiotics.
Miss Cavanagh, who is also mother to Alea- Jay, four, said: ‘I was expecting it to be looking better, but to my horror it was twice the size and there was puss coming out of it. I freaked out. It was horrendous.’
She took Aria for treatment at University Hospital Crosshouse near their home in Ardrossan, North Ayrshire.
‘The doctors were asking me all sorts of crazy questions like had she been into contact with any chemicals or anything,’ said Miss Cavanagh. ‘They weren’t 100 per cent sure what the infection was. When we saw the main doctor he thought about the beach.
‘He said anything could be in the sand. It could have been a bite, chemicals or even dog urine, that’s got through a tiny cut. The doctors were scared. They never said out loud, but we read between the lines and she could have lost her toe.
‘When they operated they had to remove all the skin from her toe and part of her foot where the infection was. She was terrified. She’s too little to understand. When the doctors came around she would start screaming.’
Miss Cavanagh said she was determined to raise awareness of the risks of going barefoot outdoors.
‘I felt it was my fault and I should have had shoes on them,’ she added. ‘We’ve been to the beach a hundred times, and as soon as we’re there it’s like, shoes off. And I’ve thought, they go on grass without shoes too.
‘But the doctors said it could happen to anybody. It’s upsetting. It was horrible. I didn’t know something like that could happen. I just want to raise some awareness.’
She and her partner Ian McCart, 24, are now hoping that the skin grows back on Aria’s foot.
‘All sorts of crazy questions’