A British tourist has issued an urgent warning to others not to wear flip-flops on motorbikes after a pothole left her exposed bones and left her with a horrific infection.
Angel Willows, 28, was riding a moped with her cousin in Bali, Indonesia, when they crashed after hitting a pothole.
They hit the concrete road below and Angel, a personal trainer originally from Guildford, Surrey, was left with the combined weight of the scooter and her cousin on top of her. The metal bike stand had pierced her left foot, leaving her with a deep wound because she was wearing flip-flops.
In agony, the British tourist was rushed to a nearby hospital, but claims her niece – who is a nurse – had to tell hospital staff that the wound needed to be washed before it could be stitched. Angel also claims that her stitches were not done properly, causing her left foot to continue bleeding, before turning a sickly yellow colour.
She said: ‘I was in shock, I thought I just needed a plaster at first. We went to the nearest emergency room and they gave me stitches. It was a bad job. My niece is a nurse and she had to give them instructions.’
After a pharmacist fixed it, Angel and her cousin flew to Sydney, Australia, where they had a few days left on their visas so they could have it checked out by more qualified doctors.
Angel Willows, 28, (pictured) was riding a moped in Bali, Indonesia, with her cousin when they crashed after hitting a pothole
The bicycle stand pierced her left leg (photo)
She had to undergo several operations and months of rehabilitation
There the doctors stated that her foot was seriously infected and that she was at risk of losing it.
“To be honest, I didn’t realise how bad it was until I got to Australia. I thought I was going to be in and out with more stitches, but it was a lot worse than I initially thought,” she said.
“It was scary when they said I could have lost my foot because of the severity of the infection. They said it was really, really infected.”
‘It wouldn’t stop bleeding after they stitched it up – I had to hold my foot over a bucket as it filled with blood. It turned a horrible colour.’
When they returned to Australia, where they had traveled 10 months earlier, Angel’s injuries became increasingly serious.
She underwent initial surgery the day she arrived at the hospital while doctors assessed her options.
Australian doctors had to transplant skin and flesh onto her left foot
They took flesh and skin from her groin area
She said, “They said I was lucky to be there at that time.
“The first day I got there, I had surgery to clean out the wound. I think there was still dirt in the wound.”
In the following days, Angel underwent two more surgeries, but her skin did not heal or improve.
Doctors decided to perform a skin flap surgery on her foot, removing a piece of skin from her groin to replace the skin on her foot.
She said: ‘They washed it three times, but because the skin kept dying, they said they had to take a piece out of my leg to replace it.
‘They prepped me and told me to look at the open wound and to stand in the shower with my bone exposed to wash it clean before the surgery.
A few years later, the only sign of her accident is the skin mark on her foot
“I now have what looks like a large mole on my foot – it’s just part of my story,” she said
‘It was painful and a bit of a shock, but they kept injecting me with morphine the whole time.
‘Then they marked where they would remove the skin from my groin before they put me to sleep.
‘After I woke up, I needed a boot to learn to walk again. That took a few months.
“I now have what looks like a large mole on my foot. It’s just part of my story.”
Even though she’s now on a motorcycle, she says she’ll keep the flip-flops far away.
She said: ‘I’m very careful when I ride it these days – always in trainers.
“If I had been wearing sneakers, I don’t think it would have been that bad.”