3-Year-Old’s Foot Was Run Over by a Lawn Mower. Her Mom Thinks Her Crocs Helped Save Her Life
Alison Dorton lives in East Tennessee with her family
On May 7, Alison Dorton was at work at Texas Warehouse in East Tennessee when she received a text from her son asking if she could pick up some sugar for sweet tea on her way home
At the time, Alison saw the text on her watch but didn’t respond because she was in the middle of training
However, when she saw that Tripp had called her twice shortly afterward, she was puzzled. Later, she learned there’d been an accident
Warning: this article contains graphic images that may be disturbing to some readers.
One mom is sharing on social media about a recent accident that unfolded in her family.
On May 7, Alison Dorton started her first day at her second job at Texas Warehouse in East Tennessee. She had been there for about an hour-and-a-half when her oldest son, Tripp Smith, 15, sent her a text asking if she could pick up some sugar for sweet tea on her way home.
At the time, Alison saw the text on her watch but didn’t respond because she was in the middle of training. However, when she saw that Tripp had called her twice shortly afterward, she was puzzled. In their family, she says, they’re not callers — they’re texters. Plus, her son knew she was busy.
After missing the calls, Alison glanced at her watch again and saw a new message from him: “Sophia got hurt. It’s bad.”
Upon reading the message about her 3-year-old daughter, Alison, 33, immediately told the worker who was training her, who urged her to call Tripp back for more details. When she finally spoke with him, Tripp explained that Sophia had a cut on her foot, but it didn’t seem too serious.
It wasn’t until Alison heard her husband speaking with 9-1-1 in the background, telling them that Sophia’s foot had been run over by a lawnmower, that she began to panic.
“I was in complete shock,” Alison tells PEOPLE exclusively. “I went back to my trainer, and she asked if everything was okay. I was so in shock that I said, ‘No? … At least I don’t think so? My 3-year-old was run over by a lawnmower … But I don’t know how bad it is?’ My trainer immediately jumped into action and sent me home to be with her. I ran out to my car, and honestly, I just remember thinking over and over, ‘I need to get to her.’ ”
Alison rushed home, and when she arrived, the ambulance was already in her driveway. Stepping inside, she saw her oldest son cleaning up blood. He told her that Sophia and her husband, Matthew, 43, were already in the ambulance.
Alison quickly ran back outside and climbed into the truck, where she found EMTs tending to her daughter.
“It was still very surreal,” Alison recalls. “The EMT was wrapping her foot, so I couldn’t see the gash — just the side of her toes, which were a little skinned. I honestly wasn’t sure exactly how bad it was. I asked, and the EMT said, ‘Well, it’s not good.’ They wrapped her foot and started an IV. I was still in shock, trying to understand what happened and how bad it was.”
Alison quickly changed clothes, knowing she’d be going to the hospital. When she stepped back outside, the 9-1-1 team informed her that they were transporting Sophia to the hospital with lights and sirens, and that she and Matthew should follow behind.
Still in shock, Alison and her husband drove to the hospital. It was then that she learned Sophia had been outside with her husband while he was mowing the lawn.
Despite keeping a close eye on her, out of nowhere, Sophia darted in front of him, tripped and fell. In that moment, her husband let go of the self-propelled lawnmower and ran to his daughter.
“Seeing her hurt, especially for something that was preventable, was heartbreaking,” Alison says. “The fact that she ran across his path and tripped right in front of him was a ‘freak accident.’ He was watching her closely, being careful to keep her away from the mower until that happened.”
“Toddlers are so fast,” she adds. “As a parent, you want to do everything you can to keep them safe. We’d never had firsthand experience with mower incidents, so we thought letting her play outside while keeping her away from the mower was the ‘safe’ thing to do.”
When they arrived at the hospital, Sophia was in imaging to check for any vital injuries to her foot. Alison and Matthew had to sit in the waiting room for what felt like an eternity. The clerk couldn’t give them any information, so they waited about 30 minutes, unsure of what was going on. Finally, they were called back.
When they reached her, Sophia was crying happy tears. Alison burst into tears, feeling immense relief to know her daughter was “okay.”
“We have received an outpouring of love and support from family and friends,” Alison says. “We left in such a rush that we didn’t have anything with us when we went to the hospital. My brother-in-law drove an hour to the hospital and back to bring us everything we needed. My mom drove two hours to be with us, and she stayed to help. She’s a retired surgery nurse, so having that support was invaluable.”
Doctors sedated Sophia to stitch up her foot, which had a 7 cm. laceration. As Alison tried to process the situation, she realized something remarkable: the Crocs Sophia had been wearing during the incident were still perfectly intact, save for some blood and green marks from freshly cut grass.
Alison later took to TikTok to share her story, reflecting on how Sophia usually doesn’t wear shoes while playing outside.
“She had her favorite little Crocs on, and let me tell you, had she not had those Crocs on, she probably would have lost her foot. It could have been so much worse,” Alison says in the TikTok video which gone viral, garnering 8 million views and around 10,000 comments.
“The mower ripped the Croc off, and the Croc actually got lodged in the blade, which stopped the mower’s blades,” she continues in the video. “It did injure her foot, but it was the best-case scenario for a scary situation. The blade cut around her heel, hitting all the fatty parts of her foot, but it missed the bones, tendons, and other vital structures.”
“We are so thankful that it wasn’t worse than it was, it definitely could have been,” Alison tells PEOPLE. “We were lucky she was wearing shoes that day. We were lucky that the Croc came off her foot and jammed the blades from spinning any further. We were all so lucky. Many aren’t.”
Through it all, Alison says Sophia has been a “champ,” despite the fear and the blood.
“She’s doing better now — we’ve become frequent flyers at her pediatrician’s office to make sure she’s healing properly,” she adds. “She did break one stitch last night, but after talking to both the ER and our follow-up doctor, we agreed not to replace it, and she’s doing well! She’s even tiptoeing around, which is a good sign.”
“We are muddling through it the best we can,” the mom adds. “I think we all have a different version or viewpoint of what happened and so all of our trauma is just a little bit different. Tripp was a fantastic big brother and helped her and dad to get her taken care of and he contacted me and my mom. Matt for being responsible for the accident, and then also the trauma of holding the portion of her heel in his hand while waiting for the ambulance and all of the blood, plus the recovery.”
“And for me, this happening while I wasn’t home and then the trauma of her being stitched up and recovery,” she continues. “I’ve become a pro at bandaging!”