A primary school teacher who lost all her limbs to sepsis has returned to teaching after being fitted with bionic limbs.

Kath Tregenna, 47, came down with a fever in the run-up to Christmas two years ago, and it became so severe she had to be admitted to hospital.

The mum-of-two then suffered between seven and 11 cardiac arrests and her family was told to say their goodbyes.

She said: ‘I owe my life to the 111 operator who noticed some of the symptoms of sepsis and called an ambulance.’

To stop the sepsis spreading, doctors performed a quadruple amputation on both her legs below the knee and her two arms below the elbow.

She then spent a month in intensive care, and spent the New Year rediscovering the world around her but without any limbs.

Kath taught primary schoolchildren at the International School of London before catching the deadly blood infection.

She added: ‘As I was going through my recovery, I really knew in my heart that I wanted to get back into the classroom and get back to teaching.’

While on her rocky road to recovery, Kath was prescribed prosthetic arm hooks that were uncomfortable and heavy to wear.

‘I always had this dream of being able to go back to teaching and I just knew I couldn’t do that with these heavy hooks,’ she said.

As she re-learned how to take her first steps, the school fundraised enough money to cover the costs of a Hero Arm from the UK tech company Open Bionics.

After being fitted with her first bionic arm, Kath became much more independent and a few months later, she got another prosthetic fitted on her other arm.

Now back in the classroom part-time, Kath has been amazed at the response to her bionic arms from the children.

She said: ‘It’s all thanks to arms I am able to teach again.

‘From writing on the school board to carrying books, children are obsessed with the Hero Arms and always ask me to show how they work.

‘From the moment I arrive at school, I’m using the arms to do all sorts of tasks.

‘Going out wearing the arms actually makes me feel very very confident. They just enable me to carry out a range of classroom activities, which I wouldn’t otherwise be able to do.’

Kath’s arms were customised to her shape and matched her individual prosthetic requirements and design preferences.

Unlike the prosthetic hooks, Kath’s new arms use myoelectric sensors which detect muscle movements in the arm and convert them into intuitive hand movements.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at [email protected].

For more stories like this, check our news page.

Source: Read Full Article