An Ohio woman was hospitalised for more than 80 days after a dog lick gave her a severe bacterial infection.
The last thing Marie Trainer remembers is lying down on her couch at home because she felt nauseous.
Ten days later, she awoke from a medically induced coma with both arms and legs partially amputated.
Trainer had contracted capnocytophaga - a bacteria commonly found in the saliva of dogs which can be transmitted through a bite, or in Trainer's case, a lick.
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She and her husband have two dogs at home, and doctors believe one of them licked a small scrape on her arm causing the life-threatening infection, reports KTLA.
"That organism is very virulent," said Aultman Hospital's medical director of infectious disease Dr Margaret Kobe.
"It has the ability to induce your immune system to do some pretty horrible things," she told KTLA.
Capnocytophaga caused Trainer's blood to clot which in turn restricted blood flow and caused necrosis and gangrene.
Without amputation, she would have died.
The severity of Trainer's infection is rare, affecting one in a million people.
She says despite her trauma she won't get rid of her dogs.
Newshub.
