40-year-old Max Armstrong ended up in the hospital with his legs amputated after burning his thumb while on a camping trip. He had been camping in Kiowa, Colorado in December when he burned his thumb on a skillet.
Fast forward a few days, and his left leg started to swell up with his toenails turning purple. By the time, he made it to the hospital six days after the camping trip, he was near death. Doctors realized that he contracted strep A bacteria in his burn. That turned to sepsis and left him close to dying. They had to place him in a medically induced coma for six days.
He finally woke up nearly a week later. But his feet had turned black on both legs. Doctors were forced to amputate his legs due to the camping trip. He's now in a wheelchair.
He said, "It was a hunting trip with friends that turned into a bit of a nightmare. I grabbed a skillet wrong and my thumb touched the hot part, I could feel it burning as I moved it to 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 in the outdoors and being outdoors my whole life. After dinner, I cleaned up the burn, put a bandage on it, and left it."
Camping Trip Amputations
He continued, "Sadly, dinner was enough for the burn to get strep A." Max said that he cleaned the burn and wrapped it on the camping trip. But had got infected anyway.
Max said, "Two days after I got the burn one of my legs started to swell up. I attributed it to hurting my ankle at some point without realizing. There was no significant pain at this point but that was only two days later. On December 7 I decided to head home and my buddy, suggested we go to the hospital. At that point, my toenails started turning purple and the swelling had increased."
He continued, "Initially when I woke up, I thought my legs were still there and then I came to realise that they weren't. I felt down my leg and realized that my legs weren't there, I asked the nurse and she confirmed 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."
He's working on physical recovery now following the amputation.
