Lindsey Hubley thought the delivery of her first child was problem-free.
The mother and her fiance Mike Sampson were given the all-clear to bring their son Myles home a couple days after he was born.
But the 33-year-old was rushed back with abdominal pain and skin discoloration. She needed emergency surgery.
Doctors diagnosed Lindsey with necrotizing fasciitis, commonly known as flesh-eating bacteria, and amputated all four of her limbs to stop the infection.
Seven months later, Lindsey is mostly confined to a hospital bed and still in need of more surgeries including a kidney transplant.
The family is suing IWK Health Center in Nova Scotia, Canada, and five doctors because allegedly her whole placenta wasn’t removed after surgery which could have caused the dangerous infection.
Lindsey Hubley (left) went with her fiance Mike Sampson (right) and son Myles on a rare outing in her wheelchair. The 33-year-old has been mainly in the hospital since contracting necrotizing fasciitis after labor and losing all four of her limbs to the infection
Lindsey and her fiance are suing IWK Health Center in Nova Scotia, Canada, because they claim her placenta wasn’t completely removed after giving birth to their son. The negligence suit says that Lindsey wasn’t examined before she was discharged from the hospital
The grounds of their lawsuit is because they claim the hospital didn’t properly check Lindsey’s health before she left with her son.
The mother was rushed back to the hospital because she was in septic shock and multi-system organ failure due to an infection that was quickly progressing throughout her body.
Necrotizing fasciitis is a bacterial infection that spreads fast to surrounding tissues in the body.
If not treated, it can cause organ failure and even death.
This infection is rare but kills one in four people who contract it, according to the HealthLink BC.
Doctors put Lindsey into a medically induced coma before going into the emergency surgery.
During surgery, the infection was widespread which forced the doctors to remove all four limbs and perform a hysterectomy.
But these aren’t the only surgeries Lindsey will need in her lifetime.
She is waiting to have a kidney transplant because the infection sent her body into a multi-system organ failure.
Lindsey and her fiance filed a negligence suit against IWK Health Center and five doctors this week to the Nova Scotia Supreme Court.
Ray Wagner, the family’s lawyer, told the Canadian Press that the family is suing for negligent care towards the new mother after she gave birth.
They allege the doctors did not remove her entire placenta after she had her son and that there was still a small tear in her vagina.
A retained placenta, meaning the organ wasn’t completely birthed during labor, could be life threatening to a new mother.
It has to be completely removed otherwise it will result in extreme blood loss and infection, which can eventually cause death.
‘Our allegations are that had she been properly assessed when she presented at the hospital … a substantial part of the damage, if not all of it, could have been prevented,’ Wagner said.
Lindsey complained of abdominal pain the day after being discharged but she claims that no doctors examined her.
Instead, she was sent home and told it was only constipation.
She was rushed to Queen Elizabeth II Hospital in Alberta, Canada, the next day after the pain never subsided and a discoloration spread throughout her body.
That is when the doctors found the necrotizing fasciitis that had spread to all four limbs of her body.
Lindsey is now free of her infection but she is still waiting for a kidney transplant. She will go through rehabilitation after the infection left her bound to a bed and wheelchair. Her family said she remains in positive spirits. This is her holding her son Myles in August
Daily Mail Online contacted the hospital for a comment on the lawsuit, but a spokesperson said they are not able to respond about the matter at this time.
Her fiance has not been able to go to work since as he cares for their son Myles and continues to visit her in the hospital.
Lindsey’s sister-in-law Susan created a GoFundMe page to help the family pay for the growing hospital bills and inability for Mike to work.
The page has raised close to $100,000 for the family.
‘She has seen the GoFundMe page and she is so grateful and is overwhelmed with the support,’ Susan said to the National Post.
‘The main reason we wanted to do the page was it’s going to be a very long time before she’s going to be able to go home and when she can go home, we’re not entirely sure what she’ll need.’
The family said Lindsey has remained in positive spirits throughout this process, but she will still have to go through a lot of rehabilitation before she can leave the hospital and live a more normal life.