Mom Goes Into Hospital to Give Birth, Leaves Without Legs

A UK mom of seven delivered her eighth healthy child at the hospital in December, but a medical glitch caused the woman to lose both legs as a result. Per the Torquay Herald Express, 31-year-old Ella Clarke had a potentially dangerous placenta condition during pregnancy common with women who've had cesareans (Clarke delivered most of her other children that way), and she suffered complications during this C-section that caused her to lose 12 pints of blood. She delivered a healthy baby girl, Winter Rose, the Mirror reports, but Clarke needed five blood transfusions and an emergency hysterectomy. Doctors placed the Torquay mom into an induced coma, and while she was under, blood clots formed in her legs and halted circulation. Surgeons were forced to sever both legs below the knee.

Clarke woke, unaware she had been in a coma for days and ready to hold her newborn. "Instead I was told doctors had amputated my legs." A hospital spokesman has expressed "sympathy" to Clarke and says they're conducting "a full and thorough investigation"—but that's little consolation to Clarke, who's now trying to acclimate to prosthetic legs, her days as a busy, active mom permanently upended. "What life can I have now?" she says, per the Mirror, adding that her kids are afraid to even hug her because they're scared by her "stumps." "This has impacted us far worse than you can ever imagine." The couple have started legal action against the hospital. (An Oklahoma mom had all four limbs amputated after a tick bite.)