A woman who beat the odds and walked again after being paralyzed in a sky-diving accident was suddenly told she might have to have her foot amputated six months ago.
According to The Daily Mail, 24-year-old Emma Carey became paralyzed in 2013 when her emergency parachute became tangled while she was sky-diving in Switzerland.
Carey miraculously recovered after plenty of hard work and was finally able to walk on her own once again.
Then, about six months ago, she cut her foot and didn’t realize how serious the injury really was.
“The surgeon told me... that my foot might have to be amputated,” Emma wrote on an Instagram post.
Emma later revealed that she didn’t even realize the cut was there because she has very little feeling in her legs and feet after the sky-diving accident.
“The next day my entire leg was ridiculously swollen and the cut looked pretty bad so I went to hospital,” Emma wrote. “They said it was infected so put me on antibiotics and kept me in overnight.”
“A week went by and it wasn’t getting any better so I went back and again they said it was infected and put me on antibiotics,” she added.
After two months and four rounds of antibiotics, Emma finally realized that the medication just wasn’t working for her—she was getting worse.
An orthopedic surgeon later put Emma’s leg in a cast and told her she might have to have her foot amputated.
“A week later they took the cast off to check on the wound and my foot was white. The skin had gone necrotic which basically means it had started to die,” she wrote. “I saw my foot and started crying because I knew it wasn’t good.”
A friend of Emma’s later contacted a holistic nurse, who took the cast off right away and began assessing the situation.
“She said my foot was dying and that even one more day in the cast could mean that I might have to have it amputated,” Emma explained. “Since then I have been seeing Amy and she has brought my foot back to life and now the hole is finally getting so small!”
While Emma doesn’t want to be angry at her doctors, she says this experience has taught her to always get a second opinion.
“Luckily we can all learn from this and know that if you ever have a bad feeling about what a doctor is telling you, then you should listen to your intuition. You know your body best so ALWAYS get a second opinion,” she said. “If something feels off then it probably is, so you should always seek a second opinion from another professional and take a more holistic approach. The patient should always be involved when discussing a treatment plan, because they know their body best.”
