We Should All Count Our Blessings

If anyone has a right to complain, Claudia Mejia does. This dear mother knows what the word affliction means. As human beings we're all prone to complain about our hardships, people problems and afflictions in life; but no one has it as rough as this woman. Claudia lives in Florida and was admitted into a local hospital in 2006 to give birth to a baby boy. When she woke up from the procedure, her legs and arms were gone. She had contracted streptococcus (a flesh-eating bacteria) while in the hospital, which resulted in the amputation of both arms and both legs. Can you imagine?

Despite all odds, this dear mother has been strong to keep going. I remembered when the incident first came out in the news. Her boyfriend (the father of the child) married her in the hospital after her limbs were amputated. That's a good man! I admire this couple and think about them whenever I start to feel sorry for myself because of my own health afflictions (which don't compare to the loss of limbs). I can't imagine the overwhelming hardships and sorrow that this family has been through. My heart goes out to them. I have been praying for them and think of them often.

Woman Goes to Hospital to Give Birth and Mysteriously Becomes Amputee

STREET KNOWLEDGE MEDIA | September 8, 2008

ORLANDO, Fla. — A Sanford mother says she will never be able to hold her newborn because an Orlando hospital performed a life-altering surgery and, she claims, the hospital refuses to explain why they left her as a multiple amputee.

The woman filed a complaint against Orlando Regional Healthcare Systems, she said, because they won’t tell her exactly what happened. The hospital maintains the woman wants to know information that would violate other patients’ rights. Claudia Mejia gave birth eight and a half months ago at Orlando Regional South Seminole. She was transported to Orlando Regional Medical Center in Orlando where her arms and legs were amputated. She was told she had streptococcus, a flesh eating bacteria, and toxic shock syndrome, but no further explanation was given. The hospital, in a letter, wrote that if she wanted to find out exactly what happened, she would have to sue them.

“I want to know what happened. I went to deliver my baby and I came out like this,” Mejia said...

Mejia said after she gave birth to Mathew last spring, she was kept in the hospital with complications. Twelve days after giving birth at Orlando Regional South Seminole hospital, she was transported to Orlando Regional Medical Center where she became a quadruple amputee. Now she can not care for or hold her baby. “Yeah, I want to pick him up. He wants me to pick him up. I can’t. I want to, but I can’t,” she said. “I Woke up from surgery and I had no arms and no legs. No one told me anything. My arms and legs were just gone.” Her 7-year-old son, Jorge, asks his mother over and over what happened to her. Neither she nor her husband has the answer. “I love her, so I’ll always stick with her and take it a day at a time myself,” said her husband, Tim Edwards.

The couple wants to know how she caught streptococcus, during labor or after. She doesn’t know. She knows she didn’t leave the hospital the same. “And why, I want to know why this happened,” she said. Her attorney, Judy Hyman wrote ORHS a letter saying, according to the Florida statute, “The Patients Right To Know About Adverse Medical Incidents Act,” the hospital must give her the records. When the statute is named ‘Patients Right To Know,’ I don’t know how it could be clearer,” Hyman said. The hospital’s lawyers wrote back, “Ms. Mejia’s request may require legal resolution.”

In other words, according to their interpretation of the law, Mejia has to sue them to get information about herself. That’s the sticking point, the interpretation of the Patients Right To Know act, a constitutional amendment Florida voters passed a little more than a year ago. Mejia’s other attorney, E. Clay Parker, said the hospital is not following the law. “We were forced to file this and ask a judge to interpret the constitutional amendment and do right,” Parker said.

Mejia hopes the right thing is done. She said not knowing exactly why it happened is unbearable. She only hopes she’ll be able to soon answer her little boy’s question, ‘What happened?’” He told me everyday, ‘What happened,’ and I don’t have any answers for that,” she said. ORMC said Mejia is requesting information on if there were other patients or someone on her floor with the streptococcus. They said, if they release that to her, that would be a violation of other patients’ rights.

SOURCE: Woman Goes to Hospital to Give Birth and Mysteriously Becomes Double Amputee

Woman Who Lost Arms, Legs to Flesh-Eating Bacteria Settles Lawsuit

AP via FoxNews | May 19, 2009
After 4 years of trying to get some compensation the wait is finally over. However regardless of the settlement amount the damage has been done.

SANFORD, Florida — A woman who became infected with flesh-eating bacteria after giving birth, leading to the amputation of her arms and legs, has settled her lawsuit against the central Florida hospital.
Court records show that 27-year-old Claudia Mejia Edwards, of Sanford, will receive an undisclosed sum from Orlando Health.

Edwards’ attorney confirmed the settlement Monday but wouldn’t comment on the amount.

Edwards was admitted to Orlando Regional South Seminole Hospital in Longwood on April 28, 2005, and gave birth to her son, Matthew. Fever set in over the next few hours, and her conditioned worsened over the next couple days. Doctors eventually concluded her body was being attacked by Group A Streptococcal infection. They amputated all four limbs, hoping to save her life.
SOURCE: Florida Woman Gives Birth-Loses Limbs - Comic Book Resources Forums

Jesus said in the Bible that it's better to enter into Heaven maimed than to be cast into Hell whole. The Bible says that God has chosen the poor rich in faith (whether poor in wealth, poor in spirit, or poor in health)...

Mark 9:43 and 45, "And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched ... And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter halt into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched."

The greatest encouragement that I could give anyone who is afflicted in any way is to make sure that you are saved. Make sure you're going to Heaven when you die. I was saddened when I watched a documentary about the origin of the universe, narrated by Stephen Hawking, who is a quadriplegic and an atheist. Christopher Reeves who played Superman, died in his sins without Christ. Mr. Reeves adamantly rejected Christ.

Oh how sad and tragic. They suffered in life and now also in eternity. I thank God that I've been born-again in Christ Jesus. If you my friend acknowledge your guilt of sin for breaking God's Commandments, and receive Christ's sacrifice as payment for your sins, then you are saved. Jesus died, was buried and rose again three days later for our justification. Jesus shed His literal, precious, blood for our sins (1st Peter 1:18-19). Life is short.

All of the beautiful music in this world isn't so beautiful anymore when you've lost all your limbs. All of the pleasures and enjoyments of life can disappear in a moment. One car crash. One surgery gone bad. One accident.

I knew an Indiana man who was driving a truck and suddenly went blind. He pulled over to the side of the road and the next day found himself in a wheelchair for the rest of his life with an incurable disease. I think it was bacterial meningitis, a horrible disease which can happen to anyone at anytime. Proverb 27:1 warns not to boast of tomorrow, for thou knowest not what a day may bring thereof.

I knew another young man in Chicago, only a teenager, who had been walking down the street with his buddies. A rival gang drove by and fired shots at them. He was hit in the neck and immediately became a quadriplegic, bound to a wheelchair for the rest of his life, totally paralyzed in a nursing home. He was only a teenager.

There are millions of such tragic situations. Go visit a local nursing home and you'll hear some horror stories of how people ended up where they are. You just never know what the next day will bring. God is good and it's hard to say that when everything is going bad; but if we take to heart the Scriptures which Jesus spoke in Mark 9:43 and 45 (about being better off crippled and going to Heaven, than healthy and cast into Hell)... if we'll consider these Scriptures then we'll one day rejoice in our afflictions, knowing that we will enjoy perfect health in Heaven in the Lord.