Magdalena Malec was 31 when she entered the hospital due to an ectopic pregnancy. She left months later without both legs, without her right arm and without the fingers on her left hand.
It all began in December 2014, at Luton and Dunstable University Hospital, United Kingdom. She was discharged with painkillers while bleeding and suffering cramps. She returned on Christmas Day, with the non-viable fetus already lodged outside the uterus, and only then did they perform emergency surgery. During her recovery, her body developed ischemia that turned into gangrene: medical staff failed to recognize the classic signs of sepsis or follow their own protocol to treat it in time.
She waited six months with her limbs decomposing before they amputated them. She also needed a kidney transplant and now depends on dialysis and prostheses. “Nothing can give me back what I had”, she said. The hospital apologized and acknowledged that everything could have been avoided. Her lawyer called it a chain of warning signs ignored until it was too late.