Lindsey Hubley had to have both her hands and legs amputated shortly after she gave birth to her first child in March. Now, she’s speaking out about the experience and what happened after she was diagnosed with necrotizing fasciitis.
The 33-year-old Hubley of Halifax, Nova Scotia told her tragic story to Cosmopolitan last week. She once worked in IT and was happy to learn that she would have her first child with fiance Mike Sampson. She gave birth to a healthy boy, Myles, on March 2, 2017.
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Later, she discovered she had necrotizing fasciitis, a condition commonly described as a “flesh-eating” bacteria. It destroys tissue under the skin and its name literally means “causing the death of tissues,” according to the CDC.
“I later learned that an infection had caused blood clots to clog the veins carrying blood to my extremities, and my limbs were dying,” she told Cosmopolitan. “Although the antibiotics were killing the infection, doctors determined in the weeks that followed that there was no chance I’d regain use of my hands or feet, and I’d need a quadruple amputation.”
Her attorney, Ray Wagner, told People Magazine she is suing the hospital, Izaak Walton Killam Health Centre, claiming she was infected after her doctors left part of her placenta in her body. She says they failed to repair a vaginal tear.
“They didn’t properly examine her,” Wagner told People of the doctors. “If they had done that, our contention is, her injuries would not have been as significant as they are. She may have still had some issues, but they wouldn’t be anywhere as close to where they are now.”
Hubley told Cosmopolitan she still needs over 20 surgeries and remains in the hospital, seven months after Myles was born.
“It’s been very hard to accept that this is who I am now. Of course, there are days when I’m down, wondering how this happened to me, and whether it’s all a dream,’ she told the magazine. “But for the most part, I’ve managed to stay positive and be thankful that I’m still here to get to know the son I carried for nine months. After all, I came very close to not knowing him, and him not knowing me. And that would have been devastating.”
Hubley is also rehabbing, and will learn how to walk and feed her baby. She wants to be able to walk down the aisle at her wedding to Sampson.
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“What we’ve been through has made our relationship so much stronger,” she said. “He’s been my rock, and I’ve been his.”
A GoFundMe page was set up by Hubley’s sister-in-law to raise funds for her prosthetics and treatment. In seven months, over 1,300 donors have raised $98,000.
