A 59-year-old woman’s toe had to be removed after a visit to her regular salon for a pedicure.
The Normal Pedicure Experience
Anita House, of Flowery Branch, Georgia, went to a nail salon together with her sister on the last weekend of February 2019 to receive pedicures.
According to House, she had visited that same salon multiple times before with no issues, Fox News reported.
House believes it was at a nail salon where her infection began, eventually leading to an amputation.
What Happened
The pedicure began, and the salon worker who was handling House’s feet proceeded to remove an ingrown toenail on the large toe of House’s right foot, a practice that’s arguably done often at nail salons.
“They would often see it and get it out,” House said, referring to her ingrown toenail. “I’ve never had an issue with it … but she cut it, and she cut deep. It bled. That’s [my guess] of when bacteria got in. I can’t prove it in a court of law, but if I was a betting woman, that would be my bet.”
House ended up seeing a podiatrist, who gave her antibiotic cream plus an oral antibiotic, which House was instructed to take for a week. However, the treatment didn’t work, and her toe became redder and swollen.
House’s Toe Was Removed
She went on to see another doctor who removed her toenail. Four weeks after House’s toenail was removed, she still noticed no improvement.
That was when she met with an infectious disease specialist Dr. Manuel Rodriguez.
House lived her life, even taking a vacation in September 2019. However, that same month, she started to feel ill. It was on Oct. 15, 2019, when House’s right toe was removed.
“We decided to take it off in the joint into the foot, just in case [the infection] had jumped to the second bone,” House said, adding that the procedure was performed by a doctor (not Rodriguez) at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta.
House said she feels self-conscious at the beach, and the loss of her toe has affected her hobby of practicing yoga. She now uses a dancer’s pad to help support the ball of her foot.
Up to 14% of the general population copes with fungal infections. At the same time, a rare number of people develop a bacterial infection “on top of a fungal nail infection” that can “cause serious illness,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
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