She Gave Birth to Her Son, Then Lost Her Hands, Feet

Two days after giving birth to her son Myles in early 2017, Lindsey Hubley went home. The 33-year-old first-time mom wouldn't be there long. Hubley's perineum had torn during delivery, and the infection that subsequently developed was a ruinous one: necrotizing fasciitis. The flesh-eating disease traveled to her extremities; sepsis set in. Doctors thought her brain function might have been destroyed. It wasn't. But it would be well over a year before she left the hospital again, and the 400-plus days she spent there were marked by 32 surgeries. The dead tissue couldn't be removed for months, a period she spent with blackened, reeking fingers. She lost her hands and wrists, lower legs, and the dead flesh that remained on her body. In a lengthy piece for Topic, Lindsay Jones explores what came next.

She visits Hubley at her home in suburban Halifax, Nova Scotia. There, she finds a woman fiercely committed to mothering her son amidst a sea of challenges: there's the lawsuit (she has accused the hospital of negligence), the dialysis (she's hoping to be approved for a kidney transplant), the pain (some days it's so severe she requires a fentanyl patch), the depression (when a hernia surgery that would have ultimately allowed her to carry Myles is postponed), and the setbacks (a fall resulted in a broken hip). "The amount of effort that Lindsey exerts just to accomplish the simplest aspects of parenting is astonishing," writes Jones. "It astounds me, her Herculean willingness to try over and over despite her physical limitations." And Hubley makes it clear that she thinks it's all worth it. "I would do this all over again to have him." Read the story in full here. (More Longform stories.)