Lauren Wasser is a model and actress based in Los Angeles. But in 2012, she became something else: a survivor of toxic shock syndrome.
The young woman contracted the disease and lost a leg to it five years ago. She first came forward about her story back in 2015. Since then, Lauren has become an incredibly inspirational figure to many.
The beautiful model has been open about her experience and now works as an activist to spread awareness about the perils of toxic shock syndrome (or TSS). She has also inspired so many people by refusing to allow being an amputee and TSS survivor to impact her career. She continues to work as a model, even signing major campaigns.
Unfortunately, Lauren recently announced tragic news. Nearly five years after her terrifying ordeal, she will soon lose her second leg as well.
Scroll through to learn about Lauren's shocking story and to read her important warning.
Some readers may find a few of the following photos emotionally upsetting. If you do not wish to see evidence of Lauren’s TSS hospitalization, please click back to the LittleThings homepage.
Thumbnail Photo: Instagram / Lauren Wasser
[H/T: Daily Mail]
In October 2012, Lauren's life changed forever.
Lauren recounted her horrifying story in a recent essay for InStyle.
On October 3, 2012, Lauren was just 24 years old. She awoke feeling a bit off, but put it down to having the flu. She was on her period at the time and remembers changing her tampon that day.
Suffering from a high fever, she went to bed early that night. When she didn't answer her mom's calls, the police were sent over to her house for a welfare check, where they immediately realized something was wrong.
After the officer left, Lauren called her mom and went back to bed. When the police returned later for another welfare check, Lauren was found facedown on the floor, completely unresponsive and with a dangerously high fever.
Lauren was rushed to the hospital, put on life support, and placed into a medically-induced coma for a week and a half.
Once the doctors got her TSS under control, they worked on saving her limbs.
Unfortunately, gangrene had developed in Lauren's right leg and was spreading quickly. Gangrene also badly damaged the heel of Lauren's left foot and all five of her left foot's toes.
At the time, Lauren recalled, the doctors recommended amputating both of her legs. But she chose to fight to save her left leg, opting only to have her toes amputated. Only the right was removed completely, in a below-the-knee amputation.
In the years since her awful experience, Lauren has recovered.
She has even reestablished a thriving modeling career.
In December 2015, a few months after coming forward about her TSS survival story, Lauren was in the news once again.
Lauren appeared in Nordstrom's 2015 holiday catalog, donning athletic wear and sneakers, in her first major campaign since losing her leg.
In the majority of Lauren's modeling photos, her prosthetic leg is on full display.
At the time of the Nordstrom campaign, Lauren told People that she was grateful to the brand for "giving me the opportunity to share a different side of beauty as well as create change within the fashion industry by going against the norm."
It's incredible to see what Lauren has overcome and how passionately she is now fighting to be an advocate for TSS awareness.
Sadly, her struggles are still not over. In her InStyle essay, Lauren also revealed the heartbreaking news that she's expected to lose her left leg too.
"I’m in daily excruciating pain […] my left foot that has an open ulcer, no heel, and no toes," she revealed in her essay.
"In a few months, I’m inevitably going to have my other leg amputated. There’s nothing I can do about it. But what I can do is help make sure that this doesn’t happen to others," Lauren wrote, voicing her support for the Robin Danielson Act, a bill that requires feminine hygiene product companies to disclose tampon ingredients and their long-term health effects.
"I am writing this in hopes that you will understand that we, as women, need more education about TSS. It is time that we, as consumers, demand safer products and more transparency about what is going into our bodies," she continued.
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