How a woman in the US lost all four limbs after contracting a flu

An Ohio woman is warning people about how a flu virus caused her to lose four limbs during the Covid pandemic in 2020. According to Fox News, Kristin Fox developed complications as a result of the virus, which impacted her life forever.

Fox revealed to Fox News Digital over the phone that she developed a sore throat on a Friday in March 2020. Her position quickly became life-threatening. After her blood pressure and oxygen levels dropped to dangerously low levels, she was placed on a ventilator in a local hospital.

“I felt like I was dying,” Fox explained.

“Within 30 minutes, I was on a ventilator, and they said I probably wouldn’t make it,” Fox described what happened on the fourth day after contracting the flu when a nurse arrived to check on her.

She discovered in the hospital that she had gotten bacterial pneumonia, which was causing organ failure. One of her lungs had collapsed, and her kidneys were deteriorating.

Fox revealed that after observing her condition, the hospital called in a priest on Tuesday night. The hospital personnel did not expect her to survive, yet she did.

Fox’s arms and legs were eventually removed

Doctors discovered she was septic by Thursday. In order to save her essential organs, doctors put her in a medically induced coma and gave her vasopressor medicines.

“The doctors told my family they should prepare for the loss of some fingers or toes, because they were pulling so much from my extremities to try to keep my organs alive,” Fox went on to say.

Fox’s arms and legs were eventually removed to preserve her life. She was later pulled out of her coma following the amputation surgery. She was discharged from the hospital on May 17, 2020.

“They literally wrapped me like a mummy because I didn’t want my kids to see — I hadn’t told them yet about losing my arms and legs,” Fox said.

What is sepsis?

Dr. Marc Siegel, clinical professor of medicine at NYU Langone Medical Centre and Fox News medical contributor, described the flu as “a great enabler” of more serious sickness.

“A bacterial secondary infection is very common, upwards of 20% to 30%,” he told Fox News Digital. “This can be anything from a sinus infection to bronchitis, meningitis or pneumonia.”

The flu can trigger an inflammatory response known as a cytokine storm, which interferes with the body’s ability to fight off a later bacterial infection, according to the doctor.

“If bacterial pneumonia goes undiagnosed for awhile, sepsis can occur, as the bacteria spreads to the bloodstream,” Siegel said.

“If blood pressure drops too low, blood flow to the extremities drops off and tissue can die, leading to the need for amputation.”

Although secondary bacterial infections are prevalent, they are “very uncommon” to cause sepsis, according to Siegel.

High temperature, tiredness, disorientation, and weakness are all warning indications of sepsis.

To assist prevent limb loss, Siegel advises getting the patient to the hospital as soon as possible and starting broad-spectrum antibiotics.

“When the source of the infection is confirmed, use vasopressors to clamp down on arteries to preserve blood flow to vital organs and increase blood pressure,” he said.

Doctors should also keep an eye on the extremities and serum lactate levels, which assess the amount of lactic acid in the blood.

These levels can rise if the body’s tissues do not receive enough oxygen, according to Siegel.

Fox hopes that her tale will raise awareness of the symptoms of sepsis among everybody, both patients and the medical community.

“I can’t go back and change [things],” she stated. “I can only hope to be an advocate for the future.”

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