How Victoria Mugo, a Kenyan Woman in the US, Lost All Her Hands and Legs

Victoria Mugo of Aurora, Colorado says she is grateful to God to be alive today despite being a quadruple amputee. Victoria, 38,  says she lost both her hands and legs earlier this year after she suffered septic shock from Pneumonia infection.

Victoria, a mother of one, was wheeled to the Emergency Ward at The Medical Center of Aurora (TMCA) on January 9th this year with Pneumonia. Hours later, she suffered septic shock - a toxic response to the infection. Doctors said she only had a 20 percent chance of survival.

“You don’t get any sicker than Victoria was. She had about an 80 percent chance that she would not survive,” said Carolyn Golas, Sepsis Coordinator at TMCA.

She was put on life support but when she woke up, her hands and legs were dying and were thus all amputated. “I could just snap them and not feel anything,” she says.

Victoria says her faith in God is her strength and what matters most is her son Alexander.

Last Monday, Victoria went back to TMCA, where she had been bedridden for months to thank doctors for saving her life. 

“I am not sitting in a corner feeling sorry for myself because I don’t have my arms or my legs, I’m walking now (on prosthetic legs),” Victoria said.

Sepsis kills approximately 250,000 Americans annually. Sepsis is the result of a massive immune response to a bacterial infection that gets into the blood and often leads to organ failure. The key is catching and treating it early, say doctors.