Tennessee Toddler Loses Both Legs After Rapid Sepsis Onset

Kory Paige Loden reported that her daughter Mady, then 18 months old, went to bed appearing healthy on a Monday night in October 2023. The next morning the child showed lethargy and reduced appetite. By evening her feet and lips had turned blue and her torso skin began to mottle.

Urgent-care staff immediately transferred Mady by ambulance to a local hospital. She was later airlifted to a children’s hospital 90 minutes away. Doctors requested permission to restart her heart if cardiac or respiratory arrest occurred during transport.

Within the first 48 hours physicians placed Mady on life support and performed heart surgery after discovering an interrupted inferior vena cava. They also identified that she had been born without a spleen. Laboratory tests later confirmed the sepsis was caused by streptococcus pneumoniae.

Mady experienced kidney failure and progressive darkening of her limbs. Attempts to restore blood flow were unsuccessful. One leg was amputated in early December 2023 after nearly two months in the hospital.

A second amputation of the remaining leg occurred several months after discharge when surgeons could not preserve the Achilles tendon. Two-and-a-half years later, Loden stated that Mady moves quickly with or without prostheses and shows no memory of the prior events.

Loden noted that Mady had sepsis without fever and that the entire progression occurred within roughly 24 hours. She continues to recount the case publicly to encourage earlier recognition of similar symptoms in other children.