A Kentucky nurse who went to get a kidney stone removed was shocked to learn that both of her arms and legs had to be amputated.
Forty-one-year-old Lucinda Mullins’ kidney stone became infected after receiving treatment, which made her become septic, according to LEX18.
A wife and mother of two boys, Mullins was first taken to Fort Logan Hospital in Stanford but had to be rushed to the University of Kentucky Hospital in Lexington, where doctors were forced to amputate all four of her limbs to save her life.
Despite the shocking medical horror, Mullins told the story to the local outlet with a “brave face.”
“I’ve lost my legs from the knees down bilaterally, and I’m going to lose my arms probably below the elbow bilaterally,” she said between emergency procedures.
“The doctor I used to work with, he kind of was like, ‘This is what they had to do to save your life. This is what’s happened.’”
To stay in good spirits, the nurse said she tells herself, “These are the cards I’ve been dealt, and these are the hands I’m going to play.”
More than anything, she is grateful to have survived the infection.
“I’m just so happy to be alive. I get to see my kids. I get to see my family. I get to have my time with my husband. Those are minor things at this point,” Mullins said.
She is also thankful for the amount of support she has received, including a GoFundMe page that has already received nearly $75,000 of the family’s $250,000 goal to go toward her medical expenses.
“At one time, I think they told [me that] 40 people were in the waiting room here,” Mullins said while in the hospital. “The calls and the texts, the prayers and the things people have sent. The little words of encouragement… I just can’t fathom that people are doing things like that for me.”
Mullins has a long road of recovery ahead, including rehab, physical therapy, and prosthetics.
