Model loses her second leg after 'flu' turned out to be toxic shock syndrome

The athlete-turned-model thought she only had the flu but what she had was so much worse.

Lauren Wasser suffered through a series of symptoms that resulted to a heart attack when she was just 24 years old. Little did she know that the symptoms were all caused by a tampon.

The Sun reported that Wasser ran out of tampons and she went to her local store to pick up a few in 2012.

As she was getting ready for a friend’s birthday party, she started to feel nauseated. She pushed through and still went to the party but she felt and looked very sick that her friends made her go home.

The next day, Shared revealed that her mother began to worry when she did not call her back. The mother sent authorities to her daughter’s place where she was found in such a grave condition.

Talking to StyleLikeU, Wasser recalled, “They got to my apartment. It took them 30 minutes to get inside. They found me on my bedroom floor, face down. I had a 107F fever, all my kidneys were failing, I had a heart attack.”

Wasser was quickly rushed to the hospital. Doctors and nurses went to her aid but they weren’t able to figure out why such a healthy young woman was on the brink of death.

It was just lucky enough that an infectious disease specialist was around at the hospital, who suggested to check if Wasser was wearing a tampon.

Afterward, they removed the tampon and the tests revealed that Wasser suffered from toxic shock syndrome.

Soon enough, Wasser was already responding well to treatment. She was temporarily put on life support as the physicians induced a coma.

When she eventually woke up, it was evident to her and the medical staff that her feet were swollen and were burning at a high rate.

In the end, the doctors agreed that Wasser had to lose one of her legs.

Then-24-year-old Wasser recalled that finding out she was going to be amputated was “surreal.” She said the thought was too painful and she felt very heartbroken.

Later on, Wasser filed a lawsuit against the tampon company and the store that sold her the product. She is also an advocate of raising awareness about toxic shock syndrome.

Wasser used to be a person who made a big deal of her physical appearance, but after she lost her leg, she said her whole outlook on life had changed.

She is still modeling despite her prosthetic leg. She even booked a job for Nordstrom where her leg was shown in one of its pages.