'Nightmare bug bite left me fighting for life with organs shutting down' A woman who woke up with a bug bite was forced to have her fingers and toes amputated after her organs shut down.
The side effect meant most of her fingers and toes were reduced to “short black stumps” – and four months after the bite, Cathrine had nine toes and seven fingers amputated.
The small bite caused terrifying complications, as Cathrine’s organs began to fail, causing dry gangrene – a condition where the tissue becomes dry and shrinks due to lack of blood flow and parts of the body turn black or a shade of blue or purple.
While she survived the scare and was given prosthetics for her fingers and shoe inserts for her toes, life had changed forever – with Cathrine’s mental health declining and her marriage breaking down as a result.
Cathrine, who lives in Christiana in the North West province of South Africa, has had more than a decade to adjust to her new life following the bite in December 2013.
