Teen who agreed to be put into coma wakes up to discover limbs need amputating

A woman who was put into a coma woke up to the news that all four of her limbs would need to be amputated.

Amalie Henze told People she was managing her life with Crohn's disease and had 'been in and out of hospital' with some frequency.

In October last year she felt unwell and thought it was a bowel obstruction, a symptom of Crohn's, but then as she was admitted to hospital she started to experience other symptoms she previously hadn't.

She said: "The main one was that I was getting weird cramping in my bladder. I knew something wasn't right, so I looked at my mom and told her that I loved her.

"Moments later, when the nurse went to go take my blood pressure, they couldn't get a read on me.

"That's when they noticed my hand starting to turn purple and they both realized that I was going into septic shock."

The woman then went 'in and out of consciousness' for a time, as she told People she 'didn't know about the sepsis or the septic shock until after I finally came out of the coma'.

Septic shock is a life-threatening condition where a person's blood pressure drops to dangerously low levels after an infection, and the NHS says sepsis is a life-threatening condition where the immune system overreacts to an infection resulting in damage to the body's tissue and organs.

Once doctors knew sepsis was on the table, doctors told Amalie they thought it would be best to put her in a medically induced coma to help her fight the infection.

About three weeks later after some 'weird dreams' she came out of the coma and knew something was wrong.

"I knew something was going on with my limbs because the doctors and nurses and my family were very conscious about not letting me see what my hands and feet looked like at that point," she explained to People.

She would then be told that she'd need to have her hands and feet amputated, a moment she described as 'overwhelming' and 'definitely a shock'.

She said: "I think the scariest part, though, was probably when I did see what one of my feet looked like at the time because I just remember looking down and saw dark black.

"It didn't really make sense at the time, so it was definitely very frightening.

"But I found reassurance through my family and through the nurses and doctors telling me about prosthetics and how so many people are able to live their lives normally with their prosthesis."

Amalie said she 'had to relearn everything' and her family being around to help her was incredibly important even though it was 'super hard' having to rely on them for so much.

Since then she's been sharing videos of her life on TikTok as she found comfort in other creators who'd had stories similar to her own and hopes she can provide something similar.

She also said the site was a good place to share her story, and it has resulted in her being contacted by other people in similar situations.