A four-year-old boy in China had to have his finger amputated after his father took him to a foot massage parlour to treat a fungal infection in his nail. According to the South China Morning Post, the boy’s father took him to the Luozhendong Foot Massage Parlour in Chongqing Municipality of China to treat an infection in his left index fingernail in July. The shop had claimed that it had a medicine called “nail removing cream,” which they said could work wonders for the boy’s problem. 

At the foot massage parlour, they applied the boy’s infected fingernail and bound it up with an elastic bandage. The father paid the parlour 600 yuan ($86 or Rs over 7,000) for the treatment. However, after two days, the father found his son’s finger had atrophied and turned black, per SCMP. 

The father then rushed his son to the hospital, where doctors diagnosed gangrene – a serious condition where a loss of blood supply causes body tissue to die. The doctors said that the boy’s fingertip had to be amputated to avoid further infections. He was graded to have a 10th-class handicap. 

According to SCMP, the father has demanded more than 200,000 yuan ($29,000 or Rs 23 lakh) in compensation from the shop, which rejected his claim thinking it was too much. The father also reported the matter to the local district consumer council in February. 

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After an investigation, the consumer council found that the “nail removing cream” was not properly licenced. It also discovered that the cream only had sterilisation properties and was not able to cure anything. Moreover, the council found that the shop’s name was different from that on their business licence.

The consumer council held the foot massage parlour responsible for the boy’s handicap and urged it to suspend its business and give the boy’s family 160,000 yuan ($23,000 or Rs 19 lakh). 

Following the incident, the local government also reminded consumers to seek hospital treatment for health conditions. 

Meanwhile, on social media, users said the boy’s father had been irresponsible. “What an irresponsible father, taking his son to a foot massage shop instead of a hospital to treat his disease,” one person wrote.