A woman is warning others that she a pedicure that she had at a professional salon almost caused her to lose a leg.

Tracy Lynn Martinez, from North Carolina in the US, said that she contracted a serious infection in her foot after having a pedicure at her local beauty salon. She said this was caused by a callus cutter, as reported by CBS News

“I just wanted to share my story to save someone from going [through] what I’m going through or even death,” Martinez wrote on Facebook. She says she went to a “grade A salon” in Winston Salem, which she believed was very clean. “The whirlpool baths have the disposable bags, and they bring the new fresh tools in a new bag,” she says, “but also bring a nice bacteria infected callus cutter too.”

Her heel had been cut twice from the callus cutter, but thought nothing of it at first, WFMY reports.

It All Started Going Wrong

Martinez said a day after the pedicure, she started getting major chills. She was vomiting and thought she had a cold. But she started walking off balance and her leg was swollen, she realised there was something very wrong.

“I am ambulance to the Emergency Room to find out I am toxic and have a serious case of cellulitis caused by a strep infection in my blood stream caused by the scrapes on the outside of my heel from the the callus cutter,” she wrote in her warning Facebook post.

“I have been through hell, pain, shock, all of it…. But I want to raise awareness,” Martinez wrote. Martinez did not disclose the identity of the salon, but wants others to learn from her experience, urging others to “Say NO to the callus cutters/shavers.”

These Tools Cannot Be Disinfected

Martinez says the tools are actually not permitted in local salons, something which she only found out after the incident. “There is no way to properly disinfect this tool to continually [use] on people. I no longer recommend pedicures but definitely say NO to these callus shavers if you do go!” she wrote.

Was I Going To Lose My Leg…Or My Life

Martinez says she was in hospital for two weeks and is still recovering. She will be on medication for the next three months. The 35-year-old says she has to wear compression stockings for life to protect the leg from another infection. She will also be on another medication for the rest of her life.

“Every day was a new chapter of what was going to happen to my leg. Was I going to lose my leg? Was I going to lose my life?” Martinez said.

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