FORT MORGAN, Ala. (CNN) — An Atlanta woman is raising awareness about beach safety after a trip ended up sending her to hospital.
Sally Dixon and her sisters traveled to Fort Morgan in August for a girls trip and walked down to the beach to dip her toes in the water.
After she turned around to head back to the house, she suddenly stepped into a big hole in the sand.
“My left leg actually went knee deep down into a hole, and so my body kept going forward. I was so shocked, I didn’t really know what was happening,” Dixon told WPMI-TV.
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Dixon said her sister called 911 and rushed her to the emergency room. She found out she had a tibia plateau fracture, a break of the lower leg bone just below the knee.
Dixon posted photos of her injury on Facebook. In her post, she wrote that she spent eight hours in the ER, two hours in surgery. She also wrote she needed pins, plates and 17 staples.
“Instead of spending four glorious, fun filled days enjoying the beach with my sisters, I ended up...having to endure what is probably the most horrific physical pain I’ve had in my life.”
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Dixon told the news station that the ambulance ride and hospital stay could end up costing her nearly $20,000 out of pocket after health insurance.
She is now encouraging any visitors to the beach to consider this message: fill your holes when you dig at the beach.
“We all know there are people who like to walk on the beach at night. We all know there are kids that love to run with their parents and look for shells and things like that,” Dixon told WPMI. ““I even put a hashtag that said, ‘Fill Your Holes’, because I thought something needs to be done. People need to know that they can cause real damage to other people.”
Dixon said she hopes the beach will consider putting up warning signs with a similar message.
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