I had my leg amputated after tripping on a night out and dislocating my knee
A WOMAN had to have her leg amputated after tripping up on a night out and dislocating her knee.
Lizzie Hindle-Newman, 27, had managed to get her shoe stuck in a grid cover, which caused her knee to snap forward and get caught on the main artery.
The chef was rushed to hospital where she had 16 hours of surgery to transfer a vein from her left thigh to her right leg.
She spent six days in intensive care last November while surgeons were in disbelief that her injuries were the result of a fall.
Lizzie, from Wythenshawe, Manchester, had several skin grafts to try and save her leg but each time she had surgery doctors found more dead tissue.
They soon realised her foot was dying and she was faced with the painful decision to amputate her right leg from above the knee.
Life-changing
The operation went ahead last month and her sister Angelica is now fundraising to aid her rehabilitation after months of agony.
Lizzie said: “It’s hard to get around how my life has changed in the blink off an eye.
“I just hope one day I’ll be able to go for a beach walk with my family again.
“At the moment, I don’t have any emotion. I have a lot of anxiety towards my stump.
“I have to shuffle on my bum to get around – my hands have started to hurt because I’m putting all my weight on them.
“I get agonising phantom pains from when the leg was there – sometimes they bring me to tears.
“I feel pain in my [right] knee, lower leg and foot even though they’re not there. It’s like no other pain I’ve felt.
“I have a large patch where the skin graft was taken, a large scar down the inside of my thigh where they took the vein to put in my right leg and also scarring all over the stump.
“In hospital, I felt devastated as I could see my leg was getting smaller and smaller.
“After the [wound] closure and skin graft, it wasn’t healing and just deteriorated.
“I made the choice to amputate because I couldn’t handle the pain – [it felt like] it wasn’t my leg.”
Screaming in pain
On the night of Lizzie’s accident, her wife Michelle, 36, had been working and was on her way to pick her up when she received a phone call to say she had fallen.
As Michelle arrived on the scene, Lizzie – who had only had a couple of drinks – was on the floor and they waited together for an ambulance.
Michelle said: “It was an absolutely horrific accident. Lizzie was screaming in pain.
“She had Vans on and there was a little gap in front of a grid.
“As she’d walked, her foot got stuck, her knee snapped forward and the main artery got caught.
“I got to her and the ambulance hadn’t arrived. It took 45 minutes for them to come.
“She blacked out when the ambulance came. She doesn’t really remember much from the ketamine and morphine.
“She had 16 hours of surgery at the MRI and was in intensive care for six days.
“When she woke up in the high dependency unit the surgeon didn’t believe what we were telling him because the injuries didn’t add up. He said it was more likely she’d been in a traffic accident.”
‘Her foot was cold’
While she was at Wythenshawe Hospital, she received a skin graft to her lower leg however as the weeks passed, Lizzie’s leg muscle began to die.
Michelle said: “When she went back after Christmas on December 27 and had an operation – whatever happened she came back and her foot had gone massive.
“Her foot was cold, it didn’t have a pulse, and as we got further down the line her leg was too far gone.
“She has two scars now at the top of her leg – one where the vein came out and one where the skin graft was taken.
“They had to amputate above the knee. Her muscle had turned black.
“It was the worst time of our lives. We hit rock bottom.
“They kept taking her down to surgery to clean out her leg and each time there’d be more dead tissue. They were cutting away each time.”
Adapting to life
Now, six months after the accident, the couple are looking to move forward and support each other following the life-changing event.
Michelle said: “Currently we’re just waiting for her first physiotherapy session with a specialist to get a prosthetic.
“She’s still on morphine. We’re looking at getting a prosthetic leg and getting her walking again as soon as we can.”
Despite over nine surgical procedures, Lizzie is trying to stay positive and will soon begin physiotherapy.
She has thanked Michelle, her family and friends for their ongoing support and even hopes to talk to other amputees in the future to give them hope.
Lizzie said: “It’s been a tough time. I’m very snappy because my heads all over the place.
“I don’t know how I’ve got such an amazing wife but she has put up with me and we’ve stayed strong for each other.
“I want to get a prosthetic now and get back to work – back to my ‘normal’ life. I’ve got to get used to adapting to life with half a leg.
“I would love to go around talking to people that are going through what I have in the future and show them it’s not the end of the world.”
Lizzie’s wife Michelle is determined to support her through the ‘traumatic’ journey to recovery.
The couple, who only married in September 2017, are trying to stay positive and adapt to their new reality.
Michelle said: “Life’s very different. It’s so frustrating. We have good days and bad days.
“We had to give our house up because we only had one wage coming in and had to move to the flat above the pub.
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“When the occupational therapist came in she said to apply for a council house, but we’re getting nowhere with that because we need a bungalow.
“Lizzie’s been through such a traumatic six months.”
You can donate to Lizzie’s fundraiser for her rehabilitation on Facebook.
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