Relieved mom credits 3-year-old daughter’s Crocs for saving her foot after ‘freak accident’ with lawnmower

A Tennessee mom has sworn to buy Crocs for her children for the rest of their lives after she credited the popular foam slides for saving her 3-year-old daughter’s foot — and maybe her life — after a freak accident with a lawnmower.

Alison Dorton, 33, said her youngest daughter, Sophia, was frolicking in her backyard while her father was mowing the lawn on May 7 when out of nowhere the little girl tripped and fell, according to a TikTok video she recorded and reporting by People.

Sophia’s foot got caught in the self-propelled mower before her dad sprinted to his daughter’s side and called 911.

Alison Dorton shows off her daughter’s bloody Crocs after her foot was run over by a lawn mower.

“Freak accidents happen, you guys, they happen,” Dorton said in an emotional video.

Luckily, her daughter’s Croc got lodged in the blades, grinding them to a halt, Dorton explained, saving her daughter’s foot and, her relieved mother added, possibly her life. 

“Had she not had those Crocs on, she probably would’ve lost her foot,” the emotionally spent mom said. “It probably would have been so much worse.”

The miracle shoe stopped the blades, but not before they left a nearly 3-inch gash in Sophia’s tiny heel. 

The blades missed the 3-year-old’s bones, her tendons and “all the important parts of the feet,” her mom said.

 “Hands down, I will forever buy them Crocs for the rest of their lives,” she said.

Dorton held up the tiny shoe, her daughter’s favorite, as her voice wavered and tears streamed down her face in the TikTok clip.

“Her little tie-dye,” she said. “There’s not a mark on the Crocs. They’re completely fine,” she added, aside from a little blood and grass stains. 

The freak accident happened on the morning of May 7. Dorton knew something was wrong when she kept receiving calls from her oldest son, Tripp, 15.  

Eventually, her son sent a text that terrified her:  “Sophia got hurt. It’s bad.”

Dorton called her son and could hear her husband, Matthew, 43, talking to a 911 operator in the background. That’s when she learned that sweet little Sophia’s foot had been run over by the lawnmower. 

“Most men are not 911’ers,” she said, especially her husband. “So I know it was bad.”

The freak accident happened on the morning of May 7. Dorton knew something was wrong when she kept receiving calls from her oldest son, Tripp, 15.  

Dorton raced home from work to find paramedics already working on Sophia in the ambulance, wrapping her foot and hooking her up to an IV. 

“It was still very surreal,” the mom said. “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.’”

The paramedics told the parents that they needed to go at “light and sirens” speed and to meet them at the hospital.

Doctors sewed up her foot and Sophia cuddled her stuffed bunny rabbit while she recovered in the hospital bed.

“She’s doing better now — we’ve become frequent flyers at her pediatrician’s office to make sure she’s healing properly,” Dorton said. 

She said her daughter has been a “champ” through the recovery. 

“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.”

“And for me,” she added, “I’ve become a pro at bandaging!”

Dorton’s praise for Crocs has put the shoe on the other foot, so to speak, since often the popular brand is chastised for making a dangerous shoe, not a life-saving one.

In February, Dozens of schools in at least 20 states banned students from wearing Crocs to class, claiming students are more likely to struggle to walk in them during an emergency.

Disney World even “outlawed” the popular shoe because they kept getting chewed up and stuck in its escalator’s teeth.