Australian Woman Undergoes 36 Surgeries, Has Both Feet Amputated After Mosquito Bite In Nigeria

An Australian socialite, Stephenie Rodriguez has narrated how both of her feet got amputated after she came down with malaria following a visit to Nigeria.

According to the 52-year-old woman, she endured an 18-month nightmare when she contracted cerebral malaria from a mosquito bite during a visit to Lagos, Nigeria.

Sydney Morning Herald reports that Stephanie had been invited for a photoshoot next to a pool of stagnant water while speaking at a business gathering of travel executives in Lagos.

The single mother and digital entrepreneur noted that it was while she was there, she got bitten three times by a mosquito on her left ankle.

Armed with enough insect repellant, Rodriguez said she continually doused herself in insect repellant, owing to a bad reaction she suffered from an anti-malarial drug in the past.

Days after she traveled to India, Rodriguez said she began to feel tired and exhausted but dismissed the feeling and put it down to ‘compound jet-lag’.

She then moved to Boston, USA which was her first time in country, but her trip was abruptly cut short when she was rushed to hospital after struggling to eat and drink.

An infectious diseases specialist had confirmed that Rodriguez had cerebral malaria just 24 days later, but by then she had fallen into a coma.

According to doctors, Rodriguez had only a two per cent chance of survival after Artesunate – a drug used to treat severe malaria – sent her into septic shock and organ failure.

In a last ditch effort to save her life doctors used vasopressor drugs to redirect blood flow from her limbs to her vital organs.

“It was the last trick in the bag, and they cautioned my family that if I survived, there would be collateral damage

“The vasopressors robbed my feet and hands, the things furthest from my heart, of blood and like frostbite, the areas without blood and oxygen began to die,” she said.

The drugs caused her feet and hands to blacken from necrosis and at one point she witnessed her own toe fall off into her hand.

“It was horrible, absolutely horrible. Completely unimaginable,” she recounted.

After being airlifted back to Australia, doctor’s recommended she would have to undergo an above the knee amputation along with several fingers.

Horrified by the thought she held off on the procedure, instead undergoing multiple skin grafts and surgeries to see if her condition would improve.

Eventually, she had to have her remaining toes amputated and slowly came to the realisation she couldn’t put it off any longer.

Wheelchair bound and unable to stand from unbearable pain, Rodriguez underwent drastic surgery to have both feet amputated and replaced with above-ankle bilateral osseointegrated implants and mechanical feet.

“It’s bizarre, but I had to cut my feet off to walk again,” she said.

Attached to the ends of each rod via an allen key are a pair of prosthetic feet which now allow Rodriguez to move freely again.

But after thirty-six surgeries, Rodriguez is the first woman in Australia to receive the implants and mechanical feet which was developed by Australian professor, Munjed Al Muderis.

The Iraqi who became a leading surgeon of robotic limbs convinced her that giving up her blackened dead feet was her only hope of walking again.

Following surgery and hours of painful rehabilitation Rodriguez celebrated a recent achievement of being able to walk in a pair of 4cm kitten heels again.

“I never really felt ‘dressed’ until I had a pair of killer heels on; the higher, the better. That’s just the sort of girl I was… still am,” she said.