Woman Lost Both Her Legs And Was Minutes Away From Death Due To Her Tampon

After developing Tampon-Related Toxic Shock Syndrome (TSS), a California model nearly passed away.

On the Steven Bartlett and Lauren Wasser podcast, The Diary Of A CEO, Lauren Wasser, who had both of her legs amputated as a result of TSS, discussed her near-death experience.

The 35-year-old claimed that her initial symptoms were merely flu-like.

Later, after her mother called the police to check on her welfare, they discovered her on her bedroom floor, unconscious and covered in feces and vomit.

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She had a heart attack and was placed in a medically induced coma before being taken to the hospital, where her fever had risen to 107 degrees (41.6 Celsius).

She was found to have TSS after an infectious disease specialist asked the medical staff to check if she was wearing a tampon.

Wasser learned that the gangrene damage to her legs was irreversible and that surgeons would have to amputate them when she came out of the coma.

"My feet were on fire, it was like someone was lighting my foot on fire, the burning sensation was insane," she told Bartlett on the podcast.

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"My right leg was worse than my left, my toes on my left were turning purple but my right side, there was a lot more damage, you could tell. So then the concern came in that basically they needed to amputate my right leg to save my life or I was going to die."

Wasser said that she first learned of the amputation after overhearing a nurse on the phone.

"I am lying there, my room is empty and I can hear a nurse behind a curtain, she is saying: 'I have a young girl here, she is 24 years old, who's going to need a right leg below-the-knee amputation'," she explained.

"I remember looking around and thinking, 'Is she talking about me, she's saying I am an amputation?'”

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"And I just started screaming, I was screaming for my mother, my godfather, I was screaming for everyone, saying; 'Do not let this person touch me'.”

"I was unaware of the severity of the situation for myself. That was the first time I heard the word amputation."

Wasser decided against having her left leg amputated at the moment since there was a 50% possibility that it could be saved.

Wasser was informed that she couldn't have any painkillers following the procedure.

"So for 24 hours they put me in my own little room and I felt every single thing that was done to me, I was screaming, I was crying, I felt like a shark had just f***king ripped through my leg.”

"My mother couldn't be in the room, no one could be because I was screaming, crying and freaking out. Not only was it traumatic having my leg chopped off but then to have to really feel what was just done to me was on another level."

Over the subsequent six years, her left leg caused her so much suffering that, shortly before she reached 30, she too had to have it amputated.

Wasser has since made it her life's work to spread the word about TSS.

"[Tampons] are made using chlorine bleach, dioxin and synthetic fibres, which create the perfect storm in our bodies," she said on the podcast.

"I have been working with a mother who lost her teenage daughter to TSS when she was 18 - Madeline Mosby.”

"Through the darkness and trauma of that we have joined forces in wanting to change the world and wanting to advocate and pass these bills.”

"She's been doing a lot of the groundwork like starting her foundation DontShockMe.org. There is a bill that we are working on to pass."