Brie Morgan Bauer was 27 weeks pregnant when she began to feel a strange pain in her shoulders. She thought it was the flu. It wasn’t.
In Overland Park, Kansas, she ended up in the emergency room with contractions and her baby in fetal distress. Doctors performed emergency surgery, and on February 17, 2024, her son Beau was born. But Brie’s body did not recover: she suffered severe bleeding, her blood pressure collapsed, and she was intubated and placed in an induced coma while undergoing dialysis.
The diagnosis came later: streptococcal toxic shock syndrome, caused by a bacterium that progresses within hours and that doctors at the University of Kansas Health System warn is especially dangerous for pregnant and postpartum women. The damage was so extensive that surgeons had to amputate her hands and feet to save her life. Today, together with her husband Reid, she shares her story on Instagram so that no one else ignores a symptom that seemed harmless.
