Incident that left Ruth Codd needing leg amputated as she has second removed years after first
She said she was 'p**sed off at life' until the amputation
Ruth Codd recently announced that she had her second leg amputated years after she had undergone surgery to remove the first one.
"Good news, we've had a full-circle moment. I'm back making TikTok content in my parents' house," Codd posted online in a reference to how her acting career began before she landed roles in The Midnight Club and The Fall of the House of Usher.
"Bad news, I can't do it upstairs, because I've just had my second below-knee amputation... there's a lot to unpack for everyone involved."
She then showed her followers her new wheelchair, which she dubbed 'Fat Tony' and quipped that it had 'the top speed of f**k all per hour'.
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Appearing on Under Your Skin with Grace Neutral, Codd, 29, explained that she had her second amputation years after the first as the joints in her foot had been 'destroyed' by years of walking on crutches and her 'quality of life' would improve if she had the leg removed below the knee.
Codd's first amputation had been done several years ago when she was 23, but the incident that ultimately caused it was when she broke her leg playing football in school when she was 15.
She said: "I was just messing around in school and fell over playing soccer, which is the worst part because I don’t even like soccer. At least I could have gone out in blaze of glory doing something that I loved but – no!"
The injury did not fully heal and after eight years of complications, where she suffered from 'nerve damage and chronic pain', she had her first amputation.
Back in 2022, she told the Irish Examiner that the injury had been the 'greatest challenge I’ve faced in my life so far' and that after she got injured playing the sport she was 'on and off crutches' and 'getting loads of operations'.
Codd explained that her 'whole life revolved around trying to heal my leg' and for eight years she was 'constantly going in and out of hospital', with her getting 'stuck in a really bad mindset' which left her 'p**sed off at life'.
She described the decision to amputate as 'a relief' as 'things finally started to turn around' and she felt she could get on with her life.
As for her second operation, the Celebrity Traitors star explained that after years of walking on crutches, she'd already had her toes amputated and the joint damage to her feet had 'gone past the point where they can kind of do anything about it'.
She said that since her leg was 'never going to get any better from this point' an amputation would at least 'stop it from getting worse', and it had been hampering her acting career.
Codd reckons she will be 'pretty unstoppable' once her leg heals and she can wear two prosthetics, but the 'hardest part' of the recovery is that she can't for several weeks since she needs to give it time to heal.
Joe Harker