A YOUNG chef had to have her leg amputated after she tripped over on a night out with friends.
Lizzie Hindle-Newman, 27, was drinking in Manchester when she trapped her foot in a grid cover and dislocated her right knee.
The fall cut off the blood to a major artery and resulted in 16 hours of surgery at Manchester Royal Infirmary to transfer a vein from her left thigh to her right leg.
However despite doctors’ best efforts in nine surgeries and skin grafts, Lizzie’s foot began to die and her right leg was amputated above the knee earlier this month.
Lizzie had to quit her job as a chef and now she and wife Michelle, 36, have given up their home and moved into an upstairs flat above the pub where they work – forcing Lizzie to ‘bum shuffle’ downstairs each day.
At the moment, I don’t have any emotion. I have a lot of anxiety towards my stump.
Lizzie
Lizzie, from Wythenshawe, Manchester, 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 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.
“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.
On the night of Lizzie’s accident, Michelle had been working and was on her way to pick her up when she received a phone call to say she had fallen.
Michelle said: “It was an absolutely horrific accident. Lizzie was screaming in pain.
Lizzie said: “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.
The couple, who only married in September 2017, are trying to stay positive and adapt to their new reality.
You can donate to Lizzie’s fundraiser for her rehabilitation here.
