- Mom-of-two Lucinda Mullins, 41, lost both her legs after a routine kidney stone surgery in December became a desperate battle against sepsis
- ‘I just want people to know this is not a sad story,’ Lucinda told DailyMail.com. ‘This has a happy ending. I’m alive. I get to be with my children and my husband’
- She is now awaiting word from her doctors to find out when she’s due to have her hands and forearms removed
What began as routine kidney stone surgery became a desperate battle against sepsis that left doctors with no choice but to amputate.
But while it’s hard to think of a more devastating outcome than unexpectedly losing all of your limbs, mom-of-two Lucinda Mullins sees it differently.
In an uplifting interview with DailyMail.com, Lucinda insists she’s not a victim but a ‘warrior’, grateful to be alive and determined to walk again with the aid of cutting-edge prosthetics.
‘I just want people to know this is not a sad story,’ insists Lucinda, 41, fighting tears. ‘This has a happy ending. I’m alive. I get to be with my children and my husband.’
The septic shock that kicked in days after Lucinda underwent an innocuous elective procedure in December to flush stones from her right kidney meant her legs had to be removed immediately.
Her arms were so badly damaged as her blood pressure dipped perilously low that her hands and forearms will also need to be amputated in the coming days.
But for the time being Lucinda is finally back at her rural Kentucky home with relieved husband DJ, 43, and sons Teegan, 12 and Easton, seven.
‘Surprisingly, I wasn’t upset, I didn’t question it. I wasn’t angry,’ Lucinda says of the harrowing moment that medics informed her she was going to become a quadruple amputee.
‘I know there will be hard times ahead but just knowing I could see my kids again and that I had the support of my family, I think that gave me peace to be okay with it.’
DailyMail.com visited Lucinda’s home in Waynesburg, an hour south of Lexington, to see the remarkable progress she’s made after six weeks in hospital and grueling daily rehab sessions.
She’s learned to ‘booty scoot’, stretch her muscles and sit upright by herself. She’s also able to use her nose to scroll though the countless supportive texts and messages pouring in from all corners of the US.
Easton is on hand to help mom sip coke through a straw and gently apply her lip balm, while Teegan pushes her around in a wheelchair that Lucinda will eventually be able to control with just her head movements.
‘Easton’s more of a mama’s boy. He doesn’t leave her side. He helps feed her, brushes her hair, he’s got to sleep right beside her. He’s keeping a close eye on her for sure,’ adds DJ.
‘The older one he’s had a lot of questions of course, which we all have. But he’s done well with it.’
Devout Christian Lucinda ticked the first item off her post-hospital bucket list when she attended Sunday service at the Ferguson Baptist Church, joining twin sister Luci Smith, 41 and mom Reba Hatfield, 81, in the congregation.
Each day begins with a painstaking two-hour process whereby Ryan dresses and wraps his wife’s recovering wounds to keep them clean, watertight and free of further infection.
But Lucinda is determined to get back to her job as a certified medical assistant at Bates, Miller & Sims, a local family practice, as soon as possible.
‘Once a warrior, always a warrior, ‘ she vows, evoking her days as a cheerleader at Southwestern High School in nearby Somerset, home of the Warriors football team.
‘I have had the same job for 17 years. I started right out of college at that office. I work for really good people. I can’t imagine just not being there.’
Lucinda was a fit, healthy mom, an avid camper and an active member of her church when she went to the hospital on December 1 to have multiple kidney stones removed, the second such procedure she underwent in as many months.
She was fitted with a temporary stent, a routine measure, which she took out when she got home, as per her doctor’s instructions. Soon afterwards she felt dizzy and collapsed.
‘I heard her hollering for me. That’s when she was laying in the bathroom in pain coming in and out of consciousness,’ recalls DJ, a project manager at a highways marking company.
By the time Lucinda was helped inside Logan Hospital in Stanford her blood pressure had dipped to a dangerously low to 50/31.
An infected kidney stone had sent her into septic shock, the most severe form of sepsis which can quickly cause organ failure and death.
‘They said she was on the edge of a cliff and it was about to get worse. A whole week passed and she wasn’t moving, wasn’t talking, wasn’t responding,’ adds DJ.
When Lucinda finally gained consciousness she had been moved to the UK Hospital in Lexington, where she was hooked up to a ventilator, a dialysis machine for her kidneys and an ECMO, a device to help her heart and lungs.
She was healthy enough to come off life support but doctors had shattering news.
The same machines that kept Lucinda alive by pumping blood from her extremities to her core to raise her blood pressure, had effectively doomed her arms and legs.
It was a literal case of life over limb, Lucinda points out.
‘I said, shoot it to me straight. I want to know it all. He explained what they had to do to save my life, that I was going to have surgery the next day to lose my legs,’ she recalls.
‘And I was at peace. I was okay with it. There was just this presence of God around me that told me this is all going to be okay.
‘I was alive and I got to see my family again and my friends. And if that was a sacrifice that I had to make, you know, I was fine with it.
‘That was the only way to save my life and I never questioned it. I just felt that God chose me for this to happen and he was going to use me in a big way. We’re not done with our story yet.’
Weeks later, Lucinda is awaiting word from her doctors to find out when she’s due to have her hands and forearms removed.
The surgeons will aim to amputate below the elbow so she has enough tissue left to remain a candidate for osseointegration, an advanced reconstructive surgery whereby prosthetic implants are anchored directly to the bones of the arm or leg.
The technology provides direct feedback to the bone so recipients have much better balance, posture and functionality than they would have with a traditional prosthetic.
It’s more expensive but well-wishers have already donated more than $265,000 via a GoFundMe account dedicated to Lucinda’s recovery.
DJ is determined to get the best possible treatment for his wife of 13 years. The pair began dating in their teens after they met riding jet skis at Pulaski County Park.
He waited around ten years to propose because ‘he wanted a good job and he wanted to do things right’. Teegan was born a year later.
They didn’t waste any time because Lucinda had always wanted to be a mom and a wife.
‘She’s the only one in this whole process that hasn’t changed. Her faith, her attitude, her outlook, it’s all still the same. She has inspired a lot of people,’ adds DJ.
‘I’m sure the insurance is not going to cover everything but we also want her to have the best possible thing out there. I mean, she’s only 41 years old. I just don’t want anything holding her back.’
There was no shortage of support when Lucinda left the hospital last Friday, with a police escort and crowds gathering en route to welcome her home.
‘I cried probably more on the way home than I’ve cried through this whole situation. I could never say thank you enough to all these people for what they’ve done,’ says Lucinda.
This wasn’t the life she envisaged for herself as recently as six weeks ago.
But bolstered by her faith, family and the unwavering love of DJ and the boys, Lucinda is focusing on what the doctors saved rather than what she’s lost.
‘I know things will never be the same and that’s okay. But just to be able to have somewhat of a life that I had back before would be great,’ she tells DailyMail.com.
‘And if this inspires people, that was not necessarily what I set out to do. But God has given me a testimony and I’m going to share it.’
