Teen Doesn't Realize She's Experiencing Symptoms of Septic Shock. Now She's Living as Quadruple Amputee (Exclusive)

The teen had no idea what her body was fighting when she first went to the hospital

• At 18, Amalie was working on her education and her career while managing life with Crohn's disease

• What Amalie believed to be a regular complication from her illness was actually the early signs she was going into septic shock

• Amalie is a quadruple amputee as a result of sepsis and tells PEOPLE how she's learned to manage her life after her health emergency

A teen girl navigating chronic illness and a new phase had her life changed by an infection.

Amalie Henze, who goes by @amalie.moira on TikTok, was managing life with Crohn's disease last fall. The 18-year-old was figuring out her education and working part-time helping set up weddings before her life was changed.

"I'd been in and out of the hospital at that point, pretty frequently, for constant obstructions in my small bowel. I was trying to manage that and figure out a plan to finish high school and just continue my life," she tells PEOPLE.

In early October, Amalie began feeling unwell but believed she was experiencing a bowel obstruction, which was common with her Crohn's.

"On October 8th, when I initially went to the emergency room, my mom and I thought that I was having another bowel obstruction because the symptoms, for the most part, were the same. I got admitted and it was the same routine we did every time I got admitted for bowel obstructions. They immediately put me on IV morphine. They put a feeding tube, a G-tube and tried to get all the built-up fluid out of my intestines. It wasn't until I got admitted into an actual room that I started to experience other symptoms I never had before with bowel obstruction," she says.

"The main one was that I was getting weird cramping in my bladder. I knew something wasn't right, so I looked at my mom and told her that I loved her. Moments later, when the nurse went to go take my blood pressure, they couldn't get a read on me. That's when they noticed my hand starting to turn purple and they both realized that I was going into septic shock."

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Related: Kentucky Mom Whose Limbs Were Amputated After Kidney Infection Smiles as She Starts Physical Therapy: 'Great First Day'

Amalie says what happened next is blurry as she was "in and out of consciousness most of that time."

"I didn't know about the sepsis or the septic shock until after I finally came out of the coma, which was when doctors gave me the rundown of what had happened."

"After they realized that sepsis was involved, the doctors thought it was the best idea to put me in a medically-induced coma to give me the best chance at fighting the infection."

After a series of "weird dreams," she awoke and learned she'd been in a coma for approximately three weeks. She knew that something was happening with her limbs, but it would be a little while before she learned what was going on.

"I knew something was going on with my limbs because the doctors and nurses and my family were very conscious about not letting me see what my hands and feet looked like at that point," Amalie recalls.

"It was definitely overwhelming to learn that I had to get my hands and feet amputated. I remember when the doctors first told me. It was definitely a shock," she says.

"I think the scariest part, though, was probably when I did see what one of my feet looked like at the time because I just remember looking down and saw dark black. It didn't really make sense at the time, so it was definitely very frightening. But I found reassurance through my family and through the nurses and doctors telling me about prosthetics and how so many people are able to live their lives normally with their prosthesis."

Amalie was dealing with a lot, physically and emotionally, as she wrapped her head around what her life would look like moving forward.

"I was transferred three times. I was in the ICU at one hospital, then I got transferred to an ICU at a different hospital, because that's where they had to do all of my amputation surgeries. And then from there, after I was really well-healed, they transferred me to the rehab facility for amputees."

During four months of hospitalizations, Amalie was focused on "a lot of healing."

"I was on TPN, which is nutrition you get through your veins, for a long time. I was also on a feeding tube. It was a very long process trying to get used to not being able to move around because I was bedridden for a lot of my hospital stay."

"I had a trach in, so I had to do a lot of respiratory therapy to learn to breathe on my own again. I couldn't talk while I had the trach in, so once I got it out, I had to manage talking differently because my voice was pretty strained," she says.

"Once I was put into a rehab center for amputees, I basically worked on getting muscle back and being able to move around with my new body," Amalie continues.

"It was definitely really strange. I had to relearn everything because there was so much I couldn't do independently. I had to learn to rely on my family members a lot more to help me do basic things, like going to the washroom, showering and eating."

Amalie also had the experience of sharing the news with her friends, which was initially a challenge.

"I was used to feeling a bit more isolated when it came to other people my age because I have been suffering with my Crohn's disease for so many years now. That alone kept me from school and the whole social aspect of being a teenager," she acknowledges.

Once she did share her situation, her friends were "very supportive and came and visited me at my house, even though I really couldn't do much."

"It's hard to relate to a lot of people my age, but I think there was definitely a blessing through all of this to have gone through such a traumatic thing. Through that happening, I've definitely learned who my actual friends are and who is willing to put in an effort to understand what I've been going through, as much as they can," Amalie shares. "It's definitely been an adjustment, but I'm glad to have the people I have in my life now."

Early on, Amalie grappled with an occasional "overwhelming feeling of almost being scared."

"I didn't really understand why this happened or what my future was going to look like. But luckily, my family has been super helpful and I have a lot of help when it comes to working on my mental health around all the medical trauma I've been through," she says.

Understanding where she can exert her independence has been one of the greatest challenges of this journey thus far.

"Being less independent has been really hard to adapt to because I've always been a very independent person. Having to rely on my family for a lot of my basic needs has been super hard," Amalie admits.

"I find myself feeling really bad for my family members, because I feel like I'm taking up all their time. They've definitely been really good at reassuring me that everything's okay and they want to help."

Amalie's family and friends worked to support her throughout the time of her medical crisis. In a fundraising effort, they were able to raise $11.000 toward her lower extremity prosthetics.

"Learning how to use my legs was hard, but also a lot easier than I expected. If I had to say I have one advantage, it would be being a double amputee, with both legs because it's an easier process of learning how to use both prosthetics than it was for other people in my program who only had to learn to use one," she says.

"I'm so grateful to have them and see the support that I have in my community. It has been helpful and meant a lot."

Her next goal, both in her medical and financial journeys, is to get upper extremity prosthetics.

"It's just a matter of funding at this point because they are very expensive to get," she says, noting she's lucky to have the help she's gotten already.

In trying to find her way, she looked to TikTok and saw an opportunity to share what she's been through.

"When I got my first ever surgery, which was for my ileostomy bags, I definitely found comfort through creators on TikTok who also have ileostomy bags and had very similar stories to myself. They definitely helped me become more confident with my ileostomy bag," she recalls.

"So, I think they were my main inspiration for wanting to share my journey with septic shock and becoming a young amputee. I would love to be that kind of person for other young amputees, as those influencers were for me when I was going through a really hard time."

Amalie has found TikTok to be a "reassuring" place to share her journey.

"I did feel super lonely in the beginning of all this. But because I started posting my journey publicly, I've been able to actually meet and become mutuals with some fellow quad amputees who are closer to my age group, which has been really great," she says.

"People have also said super nice things to me and that they look up to me and honestly, that meant the world. It feels like I have a purpose now to keep sharing my story and hopefully to inspire others and give them the reassurance that I needed."

Many of Amalie's followers praise her great sense of humor and positive attitude through everything life has thrown her way.

"I've always been a pretty positive person and I really enjoy making people smile and laugh. My mom was telling me how even before I got my trach out, I kept making jokes and cracking her up even during the hardest time. So I just think it's really good to know that even through trauma, you can still laugh at yourself and make light out of really dark things," she shares.

Though she's been through a lot of hard times, Amalie does feel like there are some silver linings to the changes in her life in the last 10 months.

"Because all of this happened, my Crohn's disease was able to actually go into remission, which is super great because I've been dealing with so many medications trying to get it in remission, these past three years. So that's definitely been a weight lifted off my shoulders that's allowed me to focus more on my journey as an amputee and trying to understand my new body," she says.

"Now that I'm in a stable medical state, I'm looking forward to being able to do so much more. Last year, I was able to get my prosthetic and get used to it and now, I'm looking forward to meeting new people and getting to enjoy my life a little bit more."

Amalie says that she's "feeling a lot better and more confident" these days, and tries to square the "whys" with her gratitude.

"My biggest takeaway is that I don't know if it happened for a reason, but I feel like this happening to me was definitely an opportunity to realize I can help inspire people by sharing my story. For septic shock, there's only a 28% rate of survival. The fact that I was able to survive it definitely means something," she says.

"I'm not sure what that necessarily is yet, but I hope that in the future, I can keep making my difference in the community of young amputees, or any young person who goes through medical trauma."

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