A Canadian teenager bravely navigates her new life after waking up in intensive care and learning she will soon become a quadruple amputee.
Amalie Henze, now 19, woke up on November 4, 2023 after what she described as a series of “strange dreams” – to learn she had been in a medically induced coma for three weeks due to septic shock.
Almost immediately, she told People magazine, she knew something was wrong with her arms and legs.
“I knew something was going on with my limbs because the doctors, nurses and my family were very careful not to let me see what my hands and feet looked like at that moment,” she recalls of her first surreal moments of consciousness.
On November 5, doctors told him they would have to amputate both his hands and both feet.
“I was shocked when I found out I had to have my hands and feet amputated. I remember the first time the doctors told me. It was a real shock,” Henze said.
“I think the scariest moment was probably when I saw what one of my feet looked like at that point, because I just remember looking down and seeing dark black,” she added.
“At the time it didn’t really make sense, so it was very scary. But I found comfort in my family, nurses and doctors who talked to me about prosthetics and how so many people can live normally with their prosthetics.”
The shocking prognosis came after Henze was admitted to the emergency room a month earlier with what she thought was a bowel obstruction — a common complication of her Crohn’s disease, she told the magazine.
“At that time, I was in and out of the hospital because of constant obstructions in my small intestine. I was trying to manage that and figure out a plan to finish high school and just move on with my life,” she said of her life before the amputations.
However, when she went to the hospital on October 8, she began experiencing strange bladder cramps and felt something else was going on.
“I knew something was wrong, so I looked at my mom and told her I loved her. A few moments later, when the nurse went to take my blood pressure, she couldn’t get it. That’s when they noticed my hand was starting to turn purple and they both knew I was going into septic shock,” she said.
Doctors placed Henze in an induced coma to give him the best chance of fighting off the massive infection.
“I didn’t know about the sepsis or septic shock until I finally came out of the coma, and that’s when the doctors explained to me what had happened,” she told People.
Photos Henze shared on her TikTok account showed her early in her recovery, with a tracheotomy in place and several tubes running through her bed.
The healing process, she admitted, was long and exhausting, requiring transfers to three different facilities to meet her changing needs.
“I was on TPN (intravenous nutrition) for a long time. I was also fed through a gastric tube. It was a very long process to get used to not being able to move, as I was bedridden for a large part of my hospital stay,” she said.
“I had a tracheostomy, so I had to go through a lot of breathing treatments to relearn how to breathe on my own. I couldn’t talk while I had the tracheostomy, so once it was removed, I had to manage my speaking differently because my voice was quite strained,” she explains.
After working to rebuild some core strength, Henze learned to acclimate to his new life without his hands and feet.
“It was really weird. I had to relearn everything because there were so many things I couldn’t do on my own,” she said of the rehab process.
“I had to learn to rely more on my family members to help me do basic things, like going to the bathroom, taking a shower and eating.”
The rehab stay also gave Henze time to share the news of his situation with people outside of his family and closest friends.
Once she opened up, Henze said, her friends were “very supportive.”
“It’s definitely been an adjustment, but I’m happy to have the people I have in my life now,” she added.
Henze also leaned on her family and added that she had received “a lot of help” in maintaining her mental health following her hospitalization.
“Being less independent has been very difficult for me because I have always been a very independent person. Having to rely on my family for a lot of my basic needs has been very difficult,” she admitted.
“I feel really bad for my family because I feel like I’m taking up all their time. They’ve been really good at reassuring me that everything is okay and that they want to help.”
She also discovers unexpected positives in her situation, including remission of her Crohn’s disease and learning to walk again with the help of prosthetics.
“If I had to say I have an advantage, it would be being a double amputee, with both legs, because it’s an easier process to learn how to use both prosthetics than it is for other people in my program who only had to learn how to use one,” she explained.
In just a few months, Henze has already found ways to do the things she used to do with her new body. On her TikTok, she’s documented herself applying makeup and painting using props attached to her elbows.
Henze now hopes to raise enough money to get upper limb prosthetics that will help her be more independent.
“It’s just a question of funding at this point because they are very expensive to get,” she said.
Henze noted that she’s been feeling “much better and more confident” lately, and she enjoys sharing her positive outlook with her nearly 31,000 followers on TikTok.
“When I had my very first surgery, for my ileostomy bags, I found comfort in creators on TikTok who also have ileostomy bags and have very similar stories to mine. They really helped me feel more confident in my ileostomy bag,” she told People.
“So I think they were my main inspiration for wanting to share my experience of septic shock and becoming a young amputee. I would like to be that kind of person for other young amputees, like these influencers were for me when I was going through a really difficult time.”
According to Henze, only 28% of septic shock patients survive. Being one of the few to survive such a medical emergency has given her new meaning to life.
“The fact that I was able to survive this certainly means something,” she said.
“I don’t know exactly what it is yet, but I hope that in the future I can continue to make a difference in the community of young amputees or any young person who experiences medical trauma.”