Model’s leg amputated after a severe reaction to a tampon

This American model’s once glamorous life was turned upside down when her leg had to be amputated after she contracted toxic shock syndrome.

In 2012 Lauren Wasser (now 28), from California, had a brush with death after she contracted toxic shock syndrome (TSS), a rare but serious medical condition, in her case caused by a tampon.

A short while after changing her tampon she started experiencing flu-like symptoms but decided to ignore it and attend one of her friend’s party’s later that night, she told StyleLikeU.

“Just flu-like symptoms, I was feeling nauseous and my head was pounding,” Lauren recalls. “All I wanted to do was get into bed.”

After spending a brief time at the party, the model’s friends told her she didn’t look well and sent her home.  

“The next thing I remember was my blind Cocker Spaniel barking and pounding on my chest.

“I came to and I could just hear pounding on the door and someone saying, ‘Police, police, open up!’

“The police officer came in and he told me I really needed to call my mum because she is really worried about me,” she says.

According to The Sun, the young woman reassured her mom that she was okay and agreed to phone her first thing in the morning.

“My mum never heard from me . . .” 

“She called the police and they came round. It took them 30 minutes to get through my front door and they found me on my bedroom floor, face down.

“I had a high fever, my kidneys were failing, I had a heart attack,” she says.

After specialists performed various tests, Lauren was diagnosed with TSS and was immediately treated.

“They called the specialist down and he checked if I had a tampon in. As soon as they located it got sent to the lab and it came back as TSS, and as soon as they removed it I started being more receptive to treatment,” she recalls.

A short while later the young woman learned that her right leg needed to be amputated when she overheard a nurse talking to someone on the phone, Yahoo News reports.

“I remember her speaking to someone and saying, ‘I have a 24-year-old girl here who’s going to need a right leg below-the-knee amputation.”

“I knew my legs weren’t good but I just couldn’t . . . Hearing those words come out of her mouth and being by myself, it was so surreal,” she says.

Since sharing her incredible story, Lauren, who’s been teaching girls about the danger of TSS, has landed several modelling contracts, appearing in various campaigns wearing her gold prosthetic leg.