This Model Losses Her Leg After Using Tampons

I found this very sad story on Diply.com and its a must read. This bright model Lauren losses her leg after using tampons. How this is possible is surprising. Read the story below....
By the time she was 24-years-old, Lauren Wasser had, what most would term "it all." As the child of two models, she was 5'11" with blonde hair, blue eyes, and she even had a full basketball scholarship for college. However, she also had a budding modelling career which she chose over the scholarship and everything from there seemed to be smooth sailing. Lauren, at the time, was living in her own Santa Monica apartment and was integral to the shiny LA social scene. 

Lauren told VICE in an interview "everything was based on looks...I was that girl, and I didn't even think about it." 

Everything seemed to be ideal for her and would have remained that way if it weren't for a fateful day when she was feeling quite unexpectedly off. It felt like a type of flu but what it actually was, she would've never been prepared for.

Contributing to her discomfort, Lauren had her period and needed to head to the drugstore where she picked of her go-to tampon brand, Kotex Natural Balance, which she had always used. 

Later on she attended a friend's party with hopes of regaining her spirits. Instead, her ailments worsened and, becoming very uneasy, she decided to head home.

When she got to her place, she did what anyone feeling unwell would have, went straight to bed. It wouldn't be until a day later that she awoke because her mother (who lived in another town) had become so worried that she sent police in for a welfare check with a friend too. 

Lauren was immediately rushed to the hospital with a 107 degree fever. When she arrived, doctors said she was 10 minutes away from death. 

Lauren had suffered a massive heart attack, unbelievably. The doctor immediately asked if she had a tampon in and she did at the time. When it was sent to the lab, she tested positive for toxic shock syndrome (TSS), a disease forms through a combination of bacterial infections and is not restricted to female affliction. 

Lauren was in critical condition and with her life at risk to the point that doctors were telling her mother to pray and prepare her casket. She was then put into a medically induced coma and when news leaked onto Facebook, friends and acquaintances lined up all around the hospital to pay their respects. 

It wasn't until about this point that doctors decided the best bet for recovery was to amputate her leg. 

While Lauren was hospitalized, her mother issued a massive lawsuit invloving the Kimberly-Clark Corporation, who's the manufacturer and distributor of Kotex Natural Balance tampons as well as Krogers and Ralph's grocery stores that sell the brand. Her mother's complaint states that the defendants are "negligently, wantonly, recklessly, tortuously, and unlawfully responsible in some manner" for Lauren's hospitalization for TSS. And according the VICE, a spokesperson for Kimberly-Clark declined to comment for the article because the company "does not comment regarding ongoing litigation." 

Tampons, for the most part are made from highly synthetic materials like rayon and plastic which--in combination with a tampon's absorbency--can create the ideal breeding ground for staph bacteria to flourish.  

Following the surgery, Lauren obviously had a very difficult time coping. She said "I wanted to kill myself when I got home...I was this girl—and then all of a sudden I don't have a leg, I'm in a wheelchair, I have half a foot, I can't even walk to the bathroom. I'm in a bed, I can't move, and I felt like those four walls were my prison." However, what kept her from self harm was the thought of her 14-year-old brother and she stated "I didn't want him coming home, finding me, and knowing that I gave up."

Obviously the healing process--both mentally and physically--has been a tremendous feat and isn't over yet and the family's legal team still hopes to make a point about the risks of using synthetic materials in the tampon industry as a whole. Further, Lauren will of course still have some struggles but has come to terms with her altered life and is able to embrace it now.

In fact, when asked if she she still plays basketball she responded, "if you have game, you have game forever."