Kentucky ‘warrior’ mother of two, Lucinda Mullins has taken her first steps on her own since losing all four of her limbs to sepsis after routine kidney stone surgery.
In a video posted to her TikTok page on Wednesday, Mullins, 41, was seen walking out of a room at Cardinal Hill Rehabilitation Hospital in Lexington, showing off her new prosthetic legs.
She took a few short steps without any support from the nurses nearby, as she was apparently strapped to a walker.
Nurses at the hospital also appeared to join in the celebration, holding up her former prosthetics as she recited a scene from The Princess Diaries in which a stylist says, “Paolo take ‘this’ and ‘this’ and give you a princess.” ‘
Mullins would later share the video on her Facebook page, writing, “I made my first TikTok today,” as she praised the work of her physical therapists.
Lucinda Mullins, 41, posted a video of her taking her first steps under her own power since being forced to amputate all four of her limbs
Mullins, a mother of two boys, was also recently fitted with robotic arms that move when she shrugs. WKYT Reports.
photos posted to a GoFundMe raising money for her adaptive equipment shows her using the black metal arm to grab items from a basket.
The moves mark huge milestones for Mullins, herself a nurse, who had to have her limbs amputated after becoming septic during a routine operation to have kidney stones removed before Christmas.
She and her husband DJ previously described to DailyMail.com how she became dizzy and collapsed after pulling out her stent, and her blood pressure dropped to dangerously low levels.
Mullins was immediately rushed to a local hospital, where doctors discovered that an unremoved kidney stone had become infected.
Mullins had to have her limbs amputated after she became septic during a routine operation to have kidney stones removed before Christmas
She was told she had gone into septic shock and her organs were starting to shut down. Doctors stabilized her and placed her on a ventilator before transporting her to a larger hospital in Lexington.
For a week, Mullins “didn’t move, talk or react,” DJ said.
“They said she was on the edge of a cliff and it was going to get worse.”
Over the next few days, as her organ function began to improve, blisters broke out across her extremities.
When she regained consciousness, doctors told Mullins she would survive the infection – at the cost of her hands and legs.
The mother-of-two says her family’s support helped her through the ordeal
Surprisingly, Mullins said she “was at peace” and “made peace with it” when doctors told her the news.
“There was just a presence of God around me telling me that this was all going to be okay,” she explained.
‘I was alive and I saw my family and my friends again. And if that was a sacrifice I had to make, that was fine with me.
‘That was the only way to save my life and I never doubted it. I just felt that God had chosen me for this and that he was going to use me in a big way.”
She subsequently underwent a series of amputations, ending with the removal of her forearms in February.
After hours of physical therapy sessions, Mullins was able to eat on her own again and learned to sit up on her own
To get through the recovery, Mullins said she relied on the comfort of knowing her family would be with her every step of the way.
“I know there are going to be hard times, but just knowing that I can see my kids again and that I have the support of my family, I think that gave me peace to be okay.”
With their support, Mullins was able to feed herself within a few weeks. She posted a video on her Facebook page showing how she used a black strap that attached to her arm with a fork sticking out of it.
She soon also learned to sit upright and scroll with her nose on her phone.
Mullins’ friends say she really is a ‘princess’ and a ‘soldier’ as they celebrated the news of her first steps on Tuesday
In March, Mullins began the grueling task of learning to walk on artificial legs again.
‘Steps in the right direction. One lucky girl,” her friend Heather Beshears captioned the photos. ‘These are the training legs. They will introduce the knees when she is ready.”
Now Mullins’ friends say she really is a “princess” and a “soldier” as they celebrated the news of her first steps on Tuesday.
‘Really a soldier, so strong!’ a friend commented on her post. “You will come back, nothing will stop you.”
Another called the video “amazing” and “a blessing.”