Krystina Pacheco celebrated her pregnancy with a photo session in which she is seen happy with her husband and their two-year-old son.
At the end of October 2022, she had her second child, a girl, after a caesarean section without complications.
But shortly after returning to her home in Texas, the young woman suffered a fever and other symptoms that forced her to return to the hospital.
His condition rapidly worsened after he developed a rare, life-threatening infection that
forced doctors to amputate both feet and both hands in November.
Pacheco, who worked as a school psychologist for the Pleasanton, Texas School District, suffered toxic shock, a rare and deadly complication from bacterial infections.
The woman had to be connected to a machine to breathe and clean her blood after various organs failed, her husband, Jacob Pacheco, told local news outlet KSAT in December.
Since then, she has recovered and her health condition is stable, but she has had to undergo multiple skin grafts and reconstructions around her knees and other areas, her husband said.
"She tries to be positive because she wants to go home with our two children,"
he said.
"The doctors are amazed by her attitude."
toxic shock syndrome
Toxic shock syndrome,
a rare but serious bacterial infection
, is caused by "toxins produced by the bacterium
Staphylococcus aureus
(staphylococcus), but the disease can also be caused by toxins produced by a group A streptococcus bacterium," according to the Mayo Clinic.
The syndrome can affect women, men, and children.
Some of its symptoms are fever, vomiting, diarrhea, headache, disorientation, seizures, and a rash on the palms of the hands and soles of the feet.
Complications from him can cause
shock
or toxic shock, as happened with Pacheco, and lead to kidney failure or death.
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Among the risk factors for this syndrome, doctors cite skin injuries, recent surgeries, use of tampons and menstrual cups, among others, although
in the case of this mother of Latino origin the cause is still unknown, her husband said.
“It could have happened for a number of reasons, so we are still trying to figure out how it happened,” he explained to KSAT.
“The intravenous line in her arm got infected, it could have been from the cesarean section.
We do not know".
According to Pacheco's husband, the woman underwent all limb amputations on the Monday before Thanksgiving, after the infection blocked blood flow to them.
The support of a caring community
In a post on his social media, Jacob Pacheco, who works as a teacher and soccer coach at a school in Pleasanton (Atascosa County, south of San Antonio), announced a fundraiser to help pay for the medical treatments for his wife, who will also
need prosthetics.
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Activities organized at St. Andrew's Catholic Church on January 14 included a sale of food, cakes and raffle tickets.
The family is also taking donations directly through the Zelle and Venmo apps by scanning the QR codes on the image shared by him on his social media accounts.
“We are very grateful to everyone, but we still have a long road ahead of us,”
he wrote.
"Please keep thinking and praying for my beautiful wife."
In a family photograph posted on January 1 on Krystina Pacheco's Instagram account, it reads: “They (my family) are everything I fight for.
2023 be good to us”.
