A British tourist has sternly warned others not to wear flip-flops on motorbikes after a pothole accident left her with exposed bones and a horrific infection.
Angel Willows, 28, was riding a motorbike in Bali, Indonesia, with her cousin when they crashed after hitting a pothole.
They crashed onto the concrete road and Angel, a personal trainer from Guildford, Surrey, was left with the combined weight of the scooter and her cousin on top of her. The metal bike stand had punctured her left foot, leaving a deep gash as she was wearing flip-flops.
The British tourist, who was in agony, was rushed to a nearby hospital but says her cousin, who is a nurse, had to inform hospital staff that the wound needed to be washed before it was stitched up. Angel also said the stitches had not been done properly, so her left foot continued to bleed, before turning a sickly yellowish colour.
She said: “I was in shock, at first I thought I just needed a plaster. We went to the nearest emergency department and they gave me stitches. It was very hard work. My cousin is a nurse and she had to give them instructions.”
After a chemist fixed the problem, Angel and his cousin flew to Sydney, Australia, where they still had several days left on their visa, to be examined by better-qualified doctors.
Angel Willows, 28 (pictured), was riding a motorbike in Bali, Indonesia, with her cousin when they crashed after hitting a pothole.
The bicycle stand pierced his left leg (pictured)
He needed to undergo several rounds of surgery and months of rehabilitation work.
There, doctors said his foot was severely infected and he 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 get more points, but it was a lot worse than I originally thought,” she said.
“I was scared when they told me I might have lost my foot because of the severity of the infection. They said it was very infected.”
“It wouldn’t stop bleeding after they stitched it up. I had to put my foot over a bucket while it filled up with blood. It was turning a horrible color.”
After returning to Australia, where they had been travelling for 10 months previously, the severity of Angel’s injuries began to become apparent.
He underwent an initial lavage surgery on the day he arrived at the hospital while doctors assessed his options.
Australian doctors had to graft skin and flesh onto his left foot.
Flesh and skin were removed from his groin area.
She said: ‘They said I was lucky to have gotten there when I did.
“The first day I arrived, they performed surgery to wash out the wound; I think there was still sand in the wound.”
In the following days, Angel underwent two more facelift surgeries, but her skin failed to heal or improve.
Doctors made the decision to perform skin flap surgery on his foot, taking a piece of skin from his groin to replace the skin on his foot.
She said: ‘So they did the wash three times but because the skin kept dying they told me they would need to take a piece of my leg off to replace it.
‘They prepped me and told me I would have to look at the open wound and that I would have to stand under the shower with the bone exposed and wash it before surgery.
Several years later, the only sign of his accident is the patch of skin on his foot.
“Now I have what looks like a big birthmark on the top of my foot. It’s just part of my story,” she said.
‘It was painful and a bit of a shock, but I was injected with morphine the whole time.
‘They then marked where they were going to remove the skin from my groin before putting me to sleep.
‘After I woke up, I needed a boot to learn to walk again, which took a couple of months.
“Now I have what looks like a big birthmark on the top of my foot. It’s just part of my story.”
Although she has been getting around by motorbike ever since, she says she will stay away from flip-flops.
She said: ‘I’ve been super cautious riding them now, always in trainers.
“If I had been wearing sneakers, I don’t think it would have been so bad.”