A man has revealed how he needed both of his legs amputated after burning himself cooking pasta on a camping trip. Max Armstrong, 40, was camping with his friends at Kiowa, Colorado, US, in December 2024, when he burned his thumb on a frying pan while preparing dinner. Though he didn't think anything of it as first, within a few days his his left leg started to swell up, his toenails began turning purple, and he was left in excruciating pain.

By the sixth day he was rushed to hospital - and once he got into the emergency room, his eyes started rolling back in his head. Doctors at AdventHealth Parker confirmed that strep A bacteria had entered his burn and quickly developed into sepsis, a potentially deadly condition. Max was placed into an induced coma for six days and transferred to another hospital in Denver, Colorado, which had better facilities. When he woke from the coma on December 13, Max says his feet were both completely black and doctors told him they would be impossible to save. On December 23, 2024, Max had a three-hour operation to amputate both of his legs.

After spending more than a month recovering in hospital, he was finally able to go home to his wife, Megan Armstrong, 42, and learn how to live life in a wheelchair. Max, a business owner, from Franktown, Colorado, said: "It was a hunting trip with friends that turned into a bit of a nightmare. I grabbed a skillet [frying pan] wrong and my thumb touched the hot part, I could feel it burning as I moved it to the table but I didn't want to drop it.

He admitted that at first he "didn't think much" of the injury from the frying pan, as he had received "burns, scrapes and cuts from living in the outdoors and being outdoors my whole life". He shared: "After dinner, I cleaned up the burn, put a bandage on it and left it. Sadly, dinner was enough for the burn to get strep A.". Going on to describe how he felt after his amputation, Max said: "Initially when I woke up, I thought my legs were still there and then I came to realise that they weren't. I felt down my leg and realised that my legs weren't there, I asked the nurse and she confirmed that I had my legs amputated. She told me that my family was waiting for me and kept on reminding me of them which anchored me.".

Max will now rely on a wheelchair for the rest of his life and has been learning triceps and shoulder exercises at a rehabilitation centre to help him with mobility. Max said: "They give you physical rehabilitation three times a day every day. There is a lot of triceps work and shoulder exercises. Now I am in a wheelchair my shoulder and triceps are my lifeline.". Get email updates with the day's biggest stories.