A man has recounted his terrifying experience when a minor burn on his thumb led to the loss of both his legs.
Max Armstrong spent six days in a coma after a near-fatal event while camping with his friends in Kiowa, Colorado, in December.
The 40-year-old had gone out into the bush with his pals for a week of exciting outdoor activities when he burned his thumb while preparing spaghetti for dinner.
“I grabbed a skillet the wrong way, and my thumb touched the hot part,” Armstrong explained. “I could feel it scorching as I placed it on the table, but I didn’t want to drop it.
“I didn’t think much of it, as I have gotten burns, scrapes, and cuts from living and being outdoors my whole life.”
After finishing his meal, Armstrong cleaned his wound and bandaged it. However, a few days later, he noticed that one of his legs had started to swell up.
He initially dismissed it because he didn’t think the pain was significant at the time, and he suspected he had unintentionally injured his ankle at some point.
However, by December 7, he was prepared to pack his tent and end the day.
“I decided to go home, and my buddy suggested we go to the hospital,” the outdoor enthusiast explained. “At that point, my toenails started turning purple, and the swelling had increased.”
Armstrong, perplexed as to why his lower limbs were swelling up, went to AdventHealth Parker Hospital.
“At this point, the burn on my thumb had become pretty ugly; it had turned black and looked like it was eating away at my thumb,” said the trekker.
As he sat down to discuss his strange symptoms with physicians, the company owner described how his eyes began ‘rolling back in his head,’ and he began ‘talking nonsense.’.
Doctors then realized that strep A bacterium had invaded the burn on his thumb and swiftly progressed to sepsis, which may be fatal if not treated appropriately.
Following his transfer to AdventHealth Porter, which offered better facilities for his needs, doctors placed Armstrong in an induced coma for six days.
Armstrong unexpectedly regained consciousness on December 13th, despite warning his loved ones to prepare for the worst.
“Everyone was very happy to see me,” he told me. “The doctors informed them that I might not survive; there was a lot of worry that I would never wake up.
“My family was extremely happy; I could hear them cheering, and then the nurses came in and started cleaning me up.”
But the pleasure rapidly faded when Armstrong realized that his feet were both ‘totally black,’ and medics informed him that he would have to have his limbs amputated.
He revealed that while he was in the coma, the infection had totally eaten away at his feet and extended to his legs, making it impossible to save them.
So, on December 23, Armstrong underwent a three-hour operation to amputate both of his legs, followed by a month of recovery in the hospital.
Speaking about the moment he awoke after the surgery, he said, “When I woke up, I assumed my legs were still there, but then I realized they weren’t.
“I touched down my leg and realized my legs weren’t there; I asked the nurse, who verified that I had my legs amputated.
“She told me that my family was waiting for me and kept on reminding me of them, which anchored me.”
With this incentive, Armstrong left the hospital on January 14 to attend the Sky Ridge Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation Center in Colorado, where he spent the next 16 days.
Despite needing a wheelchair for life, he wants to master triceps and shoulder workouts, calling them his “lifeline.”
“It was a hunting trip with friends that turned into a bit of a nightmare,” Armstrong said of his experience. “Sadly, dinner was enough to give me strep A.”
