‘Healthy’ Virginia woman, 33, has her leg amputated after severe bout of FLU caused her organs to shut down
A healthy 33-year-old woman had her left leg amputated after suffering from a severe influenza infection.
Allison Miller, from Virginia, became ill in March 2014 with a sore throat, headache and a general feeling of being “run down.”
She left work early, but a few days later she suffered back pain and blackouts, causing her to be rushed to the hospital, where doctors diagnosed pneumonia β or pneumonia caused by an infection.
She also suffered from sepsis β or when the immune system overreacts and starts attacking healthy organs β within 24 hours of her admission.
The communications manager was put into an induced coma and connected to a heart-lung bypass machine (ECMO) β which supports the heart and lungs β but this reduced circulation to her left leg, forcing doctors to amputate it above the knee.
She also suffered serious damage to her lungs, which required her to go to hospital for check-ups every few months.
Allison Miller, 33, who lives in Virginia, spent three months in the hospital after her flu infection turned into sepsis. She is pictured above
Ms Miller’s left leg was amputated above the knee during the infection as circulation to the limb was cut off. This happened because she was placed on an ECMO machine, which reduced circulation to the left leg
Mrs. Miller told me FOX News Digital: βThinking it was the flu or something I could get over, I kept waiting to turn the corner β like, this is the worst. It will be better.
“And that clearly wasn’t the case.”
Ms Miller initially went to hospital for a chest x-ray on Friday after leaving work early, thinking she had a ‘bad cold’.
But doctors said the chest X-ray showed “nothing alarming” and sent her home with a nebulizer and cough syrup.
However, when her symptoms worsened, she was rushed to hospital for treatment.
Doctors said she had bilateral bacterial pneumonia β a serious condition in which an infection in the air sacs in both lungs causes them to fill with pus and fluid, making it difficult to breathe.
The ECMO machine she was placed on works by pushing blood through an artificial lung outside the body, allowing blood to pick up oxygen and release carbon dioxide.
The machine is designed to reduce pressure on the heart and lungs.
But as a result, there was insufficient blood flow to her left leg, leading to amputation.
Sepsis can also increase the risk of amputations because it causes blood clots and can cause a sudden drop in blood pressure, cutting off circulation to the extremities such as the hands and feet.
Mrs. Miller was in a coma for three weeks until her condition improved.
But she then spent another two months in the hospital recovering from her injuries and then learning how to use a prosthetic limb.
She was also on a ventilator for two months.
Ms Miller, who was described as active and with a passion for international travel, feared the amputation would mean she would no longer be able to live as before.
But six months later, she and her mother were driving through California’s Big Sur together. Just over a year after the amputation, she was also able to travel to Vienna in Austria, and Paris and Nice in France.
Six months later she made another trip to Amsterdam, in the Netherlands, and London, in Great Britain.
Ms Miller had not been vaccinated against the flu and believes this may have partly led to her serious infection.
She said: ‘I missed the memo that flu vaccines were for everyone.
“And because I was 33 at the time and otherwise healthy, it didn’t even seem like something I should consider doing.”
This year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends the flu vaccine for everyone six months and older.
But studies show that healthy adults under age 65 have a vanishingly small risk of serious complications and death from the flu.
However, in rare cases, they can suffer from the complications, such as Mrs. Miller’s amputation.
Vaccines can strengthen the immune system, reducing the risk of an infection becoming serious.
But doctors point out that the flu shots are not bulletproof, with the shots reducing the risk of visiting the doctor with the infection by an average of 40 to 60 percent.
This is partly because the formula for the vaccines must be determined six months before the flu season based on data from the Southern Hemisphere, meaning the vaccines are not always a complete match for the most common flu strain that circulates in winter.
About 49,000 Americans die from the flu each year, while 10,000 people are hospitalized and an estimated nine million people become infected.