COVID: Woman loses hands and feet after infection caused severe blood clotting

Since the beginning of the pandemic, we’ve been seeing many heartbreaking stories of how the coronavirus has destroyed the lives of people all over the world. For some, infections were so severe that their body could no longer fight it off. Others have had no choice than to live with the consequences and complications of the infection. Autumn Nugent is one such brave and resilient mother who suffered from the virus but also overcame it with strength and positivity.

The 32-year-old mother has now asked her doctor to share her story to motivate others to get vaccinated.

Sacrifice

Nugent’s encounter with the coronavirus was unlike any other. According to her GoFundMe page, everything started when she had gone to get a surgery after cracked her bone. Heather Charse, who organises the page, wrote:

Following that second surgery, Autumn began to have difficulty breathing. By the time she made it to Vanderbilt, she was full-on septic shock and completely unconscious. It was a perfect storm of a COVID viral infection attacking her lungs plus bacteria invading the surgical wound in her arm.

Both of these problems caused her blood to get too thick and what happened to Autumn was that not only her veins clotted off, but even the arteries of her arms and legs.

As a result, the severeblood clotting caused blood to stop flowing to her arms and legs. Her doctor, Dr. Wesly Ely, confirmed on Twitter:

Covid-19 is a disease of blood vessels that can affect your lungs, heart, brain, or any organ. Blood clotting sucks life from vital organs.

COVID caused blockage of blood to her arms & legs.

Hunger for life

She spent weeks in the hospital, on various treatments to help with COVID, viral and bacterial sepsis, shock, and multiple organ failure. The blood clotting had also resulted in her developing wound that looks like burn injuries. Over time, Nugent did get better, but her arms and legs had to be amputated as they had gone 'without blood flow for a too long.'

Despite losing some incredibly vital parts of her body, Dr. Ely said that her hunger to live a better life grew exponentially. He said:

Her desire for life became a huge inspiration to all of us. I gained way more from her than she ever gained from me.

Here you can see her during rehabilitation just after she finished doing some amazing planks. Even with healing wounds, she was doing 2 minutes of planking – such is her physical and mental strength!

The mother-of-three is now busy getting used to her life with prosthetic legs. Dr. Ely posted this video of her walking around with her brand-new feet, along with an important message from the COVID survivor.