{"id":734204,"date":"2026-06-30T04:55:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T04:55:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/734204\/"},"modified":"2026-06-30T04:55:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T04:55:15","slug":"teen-becomes-triple-amputee-following-common-illness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/734204\/","title":{"rendered":"Teen becomes triple amputee following common illness"},"content":{"rendered":"

A common illness has turned one teen\u2019s whole world upside down.<\/p>\n

Kaydin Baldwin from Kerrville Texas, was 13 when she contracted the flu \u2014 a disease that somewhere between 32 and 57 million people had between October and the end of May, according to the CDC<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But her condition turned dire, leading to 117 days in the hospital \u2014 and a harrowing triple amputation.<\/p>\n

\"Thirteen-year-old14-year-old Kaydin Baldwin had already spent over 100 days in the hospital before her health took a turn for the worse. Gofundme<\/p>\n

Baldwin\u2019s flu progressed, and she developed both strep pneumonia and sepsis, a life-threatening response to the infection. Doctors made the crucial decision to amputate her right arm and both her legs in order to save her life.<\/p>\n

While rare, several complications<\/a> can arise from influenza, including severe, life-threatening bacterial infections.<\/p>\n

Kaydin\u2019s developed necrotizing pneumonia<\/a>, a rare form of bacterial pneumonia that affects those with weakened immune systems.<\/p>\n

This infection, typically caused by Streptococcus pneumoniae or Staphylococcus aureus bacteria, can start off with flu-like symptoms<\/a>, but quickly become catastrophic.<\/p>\n

\u201cMulti-organ failure, 117 days in the hospital, she coded for two minutes,\u201d Kaydin\u2019s mother, Amanda Baldwin, told KENS5<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The teen, who recently celebrated her 14th birthday in the hospital, has been fitted for prosthetic limbs and will need to complete inpatient rehabilitation before heading home.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a matter of moments, everything she knew \u2014 running around with friends, doing everyday tasks, dreaming about her future \u2014 was turned upside down,\u201d her sister, Arieanna Valdez, said on a GoFundMe<\/a> that was set up to help with Kaydin\u2019s medical bills, prosthetic limbs, home modifications and other expenses.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe is still the same bright, funny, and strong girl we\u2019ve always known, but now she faces challenges no child should have to face. She is learning how to navigate the world all over again, with courage that inspires everyone around her.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"KaydinThe teen had her right arm and both legs amputated after suffering a bacterial infection from severe flu complications. Gofundme<\/p>\n

While more than 32 million Americans<\/a> dealing with influenza last year, between 390,000 and 800,000 were hospitalized, according to CDC data. There were also between 24,000 and 81,000 reported deaths.<\/p>\n

Though most people recover within a matter of days or weeks, some may develop moderate complications<\/a> like sinus or ear infections.<\/p>\n

Other more severe complications can include inflammation of the heart (myocarditis), brain (encephalitis) or muscle tissues, as well as multi-organ failure of the kidneys or respiratory system.<\/p>\n

The flu can also worsen chronic health conditions, like asthma or chronic heart disease.<\/p>\n

Warning signs of a more serious complication can include difficulty breathing, persistent pain in the chest or abdomen, dizziness, confusion, seizures, severe weakness or muscle pain and a fever or cough that improves at first, then returns or worsens.<\/p>\n

Bacterial infections that develop from the flu are often treated with prescription antibiotics, although these don\u2019t work on influenza as it\u2019s a viral infection.<\/p>\n

Public health concerns rose last winter around the increase of \u201csuper flu\u201d diagnoses<\/a> \u2014 the subclade K<\/a> variant of the H3N2 influenza A virus \u2014 with hospitalizations seeing a spike in admissions around the country.<\/p>\n

While similar to flus of previous years, doctors were particularly worried about how fast and strong symptoms came on and how contagious the illness was.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A common illness has turned one teen\u2019s whole world upside down. Kaydin Baldwin from Kerrville Texas, was 13…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":734205,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[13346,12990,10642,97,55447],"class_list":["post-734204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-amputation","tag-bacteria","tag-flu","tag-health","tag-infections"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=734204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734204\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/734205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=734204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=734204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=734204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}