Missouri mom loses all 10 toes, hand, several fingers after battle with deadly sepsis infection
Rachael Acuff, who first went to the hospital in June 2018 after noticing blood in her urine, is doing her best to adjust to life after her 10 toes and right hand were amputated in order to stop a deadly infection causes by sepsis. Acuff's health issues didn't end with her release from the hospital in August, as she underwent her most recent amputation just two weeks ago. The Missouri mother said she has grown closer to God and stronger in her faith.
A Missouri mother who spent over a month in the hospital in dire condition is adapting to life without her 10 toes and right hand after they were amputated in an effort to stop a deadly infection from spreading throughout her body.
Rachael Acuff, who first went to the hospital in June 2018 after noticing blood in her urine, said that she even heard hospital staff tell her family to prepare their goodbyes while she was sedated.
Acuff's health issues didn't end with her release from the hospital in August, as she underwent her most recent amputation just two weeks ago. (MDW Features)
“Once I got to the hospital everything started happening really fast after they took my blood pressure which was so low it almost didn’t register,” Acuff, 32, told MDW Features. “They moved me to a room right away and began running a list of tests. The last thing I remember was being told they were moving me upstairs and then I was sedated for three weeks. When I woke up my mom explained to me that I had septic shock, DIC (disseminated intravascular coagulation) and toxic shock syndrome from an unknown source.”
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Acuff said that she was treated with four antibiotics while in the hospital’s intensive care unit and that at one point she was on a ventilator, feeding tube and dialysis to treat kidney failure. She was eventually moved out of the ICU before being sent home after 46 days in the hospital, but the damage from the infection had wreaked havoc on her hands and feet.
In August 2018, she started her amputation journey, which continued through last month. Doctors began with the removal of dead tissue on four fingers on her left hand, followed by the removal of dead tissue on all five fingers on her right hand. In September, she had the amputation of all 10 toes.
Acuff said she has grown closer to God and stronger in her faith. (MDW Features)
In March of this year, Acuff endured the amputation of her right pinky finger, and just two weeks ago had a trans-radial amputation of her right hand two inches above the wrist, MDW Features reported.
Acuff told the news outlet that she’s grown stronger in her faith and relationship with God, and has learned to “soak up every moment good and bad.”
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“There is no medical reason I should be alive,” she told MDW Features. “So, something more powerful is in my corner for sure.”
She said she is sharing her story in the hopes of encouraging others to speak up for their own health.