Tennessee girl Sophia Dorton foot run over by lawn mower saved by Crocs, mom Alison Dorton claims
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A mom from Tennessee has made a pledge to purchase Crocs for her kids for life. She gave credit to the popular foam shoes for saving her 3-year-old daughter’s foot and potentially her life after a scary accident involving a lawnmower.

Alison Dorton, aged 33, shared that while her husband was mowing the lawn on May 7, their youngest daughter Sophia was playing in the backyard. Suddenly, the little girl stumbled and fell, as captured in a TikTok video and reported 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.
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.

Fortunately, Sophia’s Croc shoe got stuck in the mower’s blades, causing them to stop. This quick action by the shoe prevented a serious injury to her daughter’s foot and possibly even saved her life, her grateful mother revealed.

“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.  
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.

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