Girl's shocking escalator injury at Sydney Airport train station
The four-year-old almost lost her foot in a frightening ordeal at Sydney Airport.
A four-year-old girl almost lost her foot in a terrifying injury that has led her mum to warn others of the commuter hazard.
What was meant to be a pleasant weekend away in Sydney for Brisbane mum Lisa Brennan and her daughter Fiadh turned into a nightmare involving a trip to hospital emergency.
After arriving at Sydney Domestic Airport last Friday and taking the steep escalator down to the train, the child's left Croc shoe unexpectedly got stuck.
"Maybe middle-way through she [Fiadh] just started shouting 'my shoe, my shoe' and I was trying to pull her shoe out but then she started getting really hysterical and I realised something was wrong," Ms Brennan told Yahoo.
"So I started shouting at people to please press the emergency stop button but people in front of me just didn't understand what was happening. There was a guy behind me that could see her foot was stuck, so he jumped over me and ran down and pressed it.
When thankfully getting the frightened child's foot out, the damage became apparent.
"The whole Croc was ripped and there was a slit in her sock," she said. "When I took the sock off I could see her foot was black and blue. It looked like there were chunks out of it.
"If someone hadn't pressed the emergency stop button and her foot had gotten to the bottom of the escalator, the doctor said her foot could've been gone."
It is believed the friction from the soft plastic shoe rubbing against the side of the escalator made it melt and become stuck.
Injury will take weeks to heal, child now 'terrified' of escalators
After rushing to hospital, a doctor at Sydney Children's Hospital revealed Fiadh's middle toe was broken and there was extensive damage to her skin.
"The doctor said it would take about four weeks for it to heal up," Ms Brennan said. "They're more worried about it getting really infected.
"She's only four so she'll have to stay out of kindy just in case it gets damaged there and I'll have to take the time off work as well. Financially it's going to be quite difficult.
"She finds it very difficult to walk and is still waking up at night in pain." The mum also said Fiadh is now "terrified of escalators".
Not first time Croc gets stuck in escalator at train station
After getting in touch with the train station, Ms Brennan claimed the operations manager said this had happened before.
"He told me it had happened months ago to another child with crocs and that it cost them $20,000 to get their escalator fixed," she said.
This made her question why the station didn't "put signs up to make people more aware that these Crocs are so dangerous".
"They're so in now and little children are wearing them," Ms Brennan said.
She was also "shocked" by the response, claiming the man "blamed" her for the incident, saying "every parent should know that crocs are the most dangerous shoe to put on a child when travelling on an escalator".
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Not being aware herself, she wondered if it was "common knowledge," especially given that the medical staff at the hospital "couldn't understand how a croc got stuck in an escalator".
"Hopefully others can be more aware in the future," she said.
Yahoo reached out to Airport Link, who encouraged travellers to "exercise caution" while on escalators.
"Be careful when wearing soft shoes and open footwear and always stand between the yellow lines," a spokesperson said. The company does not comment on individual customer cases.
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