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A Texas teacher had to have a quadruple amputation after a sore throat turned into sepsis. Last April, 51-year-old Sherri Moody was on a class trip with her students when she started to feel under the weather.
At first, she thought it was just another cold, something she usually deals with at least once a year as a teacher. However, within a day, she started to experience more severe symptoms, including fatigue and a high fever. A few days later, Moody said she was having trouble breathing and was taken to the emergency room.
"I've never gone to the ER before in my life," Moody told TODAY.com. "I was very healthy, very in shape. I ate right, exercised."
Doctors told Moody that she had double pneumonia, which led to sepsis. Two days later, her organs began shutting down as a result of septic shock.
Moody was placed in a medical-induced coma while doctors gave her powerful drugs to combat the sepsis. While the drugs kept her alive, they also restricted blood flow to her arms and legs.
"I literally watched my wife's feet and hands die," Sherri's husband, David, said. "They were black, and they were mummified."
Once doctors woke her from her coma, they told her that she needed to have her arms and legs amputated.
After spending several months in the hospital and at a rehabilitation center, Moody was sent home, but she still has a long and harrowing road ahead of her.
Despite the challenges Moody is facing, she's taking them in stride and doing her best to stay positive.
"I'm very mentally strong," Moody explained. "I just choose to be happy. It's not to say that I don't have a breakdown every now and then and just cry a little bit. I don't let it last long."