A woman has revealed she is “grateful to be alive” after she woke up to find she had no arms or legs following an illness.
Tatiana Timon was a dancer before she fell ill after returning from a holiday, due to a tiny mosquito bite.
The 35-year-old had travelled to Angola to pursue her passion for Zumba dancing when she contracted the deadliest form of malaria, leading to an emergency quadruple amputation.
"I was clueless," said Tatiana, who admitted she should have checked the risks of travelling to Angola online, but said her mind was only focused on Covid at the time, MyLondon reports.
Soon she had become so weak and feverish that she couldn't make it to the bathroom by herself. She was rushed to hospital, where tests confirmed her symptoms were caused by a deadly form of Malaria.
The illness rapidly worsened and within hours Tatiana, who had not taken antimalarials on her trip, was put in an induced coma. While she doesn't remember any of what happened next, Tatiana said her friends and family watched on helplessly as the Malaria turned into sepsis - blood poisoning.
"All of my friends and my family were worried because the doctor was telling them that I was going to die, like I was about to die three times,” she said.
Her work even paid for her father to fly to London from Réunion Island to "say goodbye".
Tatiana, who maintains she only survived because of how fit her body was, explained that to prevent the sepsis spreading to her vital organs, doctors had to amputate all four of her limbs.
The memories are hazy, and Tatiana can only recall snapshots - like being wheeled into an operating theatre and seeing a "big saw" before the operation to remove her lower legs.
She said: "When I woke up from the coma I knew, I saw that I was in hospital, and I knew something happened to me. But at that time I didn't know how bad it was, like I just knew something had happened."
Tatiana remembered the nurses had put a board opposite her bed, decorated with a picture of herself and her own name, as well as facts about her, like the fact that she was born in Réunion Island before moving to London eight years ago.
The dancer said at first when the nurses offered to help her with tasks, like holding her phone so she could call people, she'd say "I can do it myself… I can hold the phone, it's fine, just do your job". It took a while before her situation really sunk in.
"It's really hard to explain," said Tatiana, who said physical movement felt like a mental block, rather than a physical impossibility, at first. She explained: "I knew my body was there but I just couldn't move it. It was like, when you're in your bed and you don't want to move."
In the weeks and months since, Tatiana has had to begin the slow process of accepting her new body - and adapting to it. Her friends, family, and entire community have been left awestruck by her unshakeable positivity through it all.
"I've always been positive, I'll make a joke about anything," said Tatiana. "A negative thing I can turn into a positive thing to make my life easier, because I don't like stress." Shrugging, she added: "It happened, so I need to deal with it."
Tatiana is still learning to do basic daily tasks, like use the washing machine and cook for herself - but she is determined to become 100 per cent independent. Already moving gracefully on her new prosthetic legs, the dancer has recently learnt to make coffee with no hands.
"It's not going to stop me doing my thing," said Tatiana, who hopes to start dancing and hitting the gym again once she’s mastered the basics - a feat which should be possible, thanks to the fast-acting doctors who were able to amputate her limbs below the joints, giving her much more mobility.
"What happened to me changed me; changed me inside," said Tatiana, who said she feels wiser, like she's 10 years older. "I have the support of my friends, my family. I'm just grateful I'm alive," she said. "Just being grateful is enough."
