Blood poisoning

When I was perhaps five or six years old, and living in a small town in Missouri, a neighbor who lived a few houses down from us moved to another state, either Arkansas or Alabama. The neighbors had a young boy, somewhat younger than I was and closer to my brother's age. My brother and I used to play with him.

Sometime after they moved, my parents drove down there to visit them, in order that my brother and I could play with him again. We spent a few days there, staying at their house.

One day, while playing out in the yard in my bare feet, I stepped on something. I looked and a thorn was sticking into my heel. I took it out and continued playing. My heel bothered me later, though, and a red line eventually started to form. My parents said that it was an infection that I got from the thorn, blood poisoning. My parents decided to drive us home and see a doctor there, though, because we didn't know any doctors where we were.

On the long drive home I kept looking at my heel. The red line kept getting longer and was going partway up my leg.

Eventually, we made it home and found a doctor, who gave me a tetanus shot.

My mother says that the doctor told her that a few more hours and it would have been too late.