Hispanic woman in Texas loses hands and feet to septic shock after giving birth

A Texas woman lost her hands and feet to septic shock days after giving birth to her daughter, in what she described as an uneventful cesarean delivery, Univision reported Sunday.

Krystina Pacheco, 29, of Pleasanton, gave birth to her baby daughter, Amelia, on Oct. 24, 2022. Two days later she was discharged, and that's when she started running a fever and feeling strange pains.

The woman assumed her pain was part of her recovery after the C-section, so she asked a nurse for ibuprofen. Later, the pain increased and Pacheco went to the doctor, who referred her to a local emergency room.

From there, Krystina was airlifted to a hospital in San Antonio, where doctors discovered that her body was suffering from septic shock. This deadly condition is caused by a severe localized or systemic infection that requires immediate medical attention. According to the National Institutes of Health, "without prompt treatment, it can lead to tissue damage, organ failure, and even death."

"I just remember that I couldn't breathe or see anymore. I started to slowly fade away," Pacheco told ABC News. "I would hear my husband saying, 'Please come back to us, please, your children need you. I need you. I need you to be here and help me with our babies,' and that's the last thing I remember."

In Krystina's case, the condition began to affect her heart, lungs and kidneys, according to her husband Jacob Pacheco, adding that his wife simultaneously underwent dialysis to help her kidneys and an ECMO machine, a device that removes carbon dioxide. carbon from the blood and sends blood with oxygen to the body.

“They didn't want to tell us how close he was to death, but you could see it in the faces of the doctors every time he asked,” said Jacob Pacheco, revealing that for that moment they gave his wife a 20% survival rate.

Krystina stayed in intensive care for two weeks. On Thanksgiving Day, doctors told Jacob that his hands and feet would have to be amputated due to the damage they had sustained.

In addition to her undergoing initial surgery to amputate her arms and legs, the woman underwent nearly a dozen skin grafts over the next few weeks as the skin around her amputations was damaged.

In late January, three months after her admission, Krystina was released from the hospital and transferred to TIRR Memorial Hermann, a rehabilitation center in Houston. On February 11, more than 100 days after the process, the woman was able to return home and make up for lost time with her family.