A four-year-old girl has caught a life-threatening sepsis from trying on new shoes in a shop, doctors say.
Sienna Rasul fell seriously ill the day after putting different sizes on her bare feet while she was out with her mum Jodie Thomas.
Doctors diagnosed sepsis from bacteria in the shoes on display racks at the shops they visited and have been draining the poison from her leg.
The frightening case has raised health concerns and prompted a warning for parents doing back-to-school shopping.
Brave Sienna spent five days on a drip in hospital with her mum Jodie, a 26-year-old hotel worker, keeping a bedside vigil.
Jodie said: “I was really shocked when the doctors said it was from trying on new shoes.
“I’ve been worried sick, they’ve had to drain all the poison from her leg.”
Sienna was wearing sandals when she was taken to Cardiff on a shopping trip for new shoes.
Jodie said: “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.”
Mum-of-three Jodie took Sienna to the doctors when she started crying in agony the day after the shopping trip.
The doctor spotted the infection and used a pen to draw a line around where the infection had spread.
Jodie, of Aberfan, South Wales, said: “By the next day it had spread up her leg and her temperature was raging.
“I drove her straight in to hospital, she was shaking and twitching – it was horrible to see my little girl like that.
“They said it was sepsis and thought they would have to operate.
“But the doctors have managed to drain all the pus from her leg and say the anti-biotic drip will do the job.”
Sienna has now been allowed home from the children’s ward at Prince Charles Hospital in Merthyr Tydfil but she is still being monitored.
Jodie is now urging parents to make sure their children have socks on when they are trying on shoes.
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