An intensive care doctor has shared a mum’s devastating battle with coronavirus which has seen her lose both hands and feet as he urged people to go and get the jab.
Dr Wesley Ely, from Nashville, Tennessee, posted a video on Twitter showing patient Autumn Nugent walking on prosthetic legs after medics were forced to amputate her limbs when complications from the virus caused blood clots.
He said the 32-year-old begged him to tell her story in a bid to convince others to get vaccinated.
Posting a video captioned ‘Covid took her hands and feet’, he wrote on Autumn’s behalf: ‘She sent me this of her walking with new legs and said to tell you… Blood clots of Covid can be prevented with a vaccine!’
He had previously chronicled the mum-of-three’s harrowing battle in a thread accompanied by photos of her at various stages of treatment.
He wrote: ‘Covid-19 is a disease of blood vessels that can affect your lungs, heart, brain, or any organ. Blood clotting sucks life from vital organs.
‘This patient asked to have her story shared so that others may learn and seek vaccination.’
Dr Ely explained that complications from Covid-19 caused blood clots in Autumn’s extremities, producing sores which resembled burns.
He added: ‘It took nurses many hours each day to change her wounds.’
In a follow-up post, he added: ‘She was going to live, and we were all thrilled. Still, it was sad to think that this young woman would lose her hands and feet as they continued to dry up, lifeless and still.’
The medic explained that she had to endure weeks of gruelling physical therapy while taking 12 different medications each day.
He added in a personal plea to get jabbed: ‘Her life is forever changed… This is the reality of what can happen to a very young and totally healthy person.’
A fundraiser has been launched to help towards Autumn’s medical costs, which it says have soared to nearly £150,000.
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