A blood clot has put Paralympic snowboarder Amy Purdy in an impossible position: deciding whether to save her kidney or her leg.
“That basically is the decision I have been given over this last day after entering the hospital with sudden pain in my calf,” the 39-year-old wrote on Facebook on Sunday, February 24. “I have been hit down multiple times in my life but this time by far has been the hardest.”
Purdy continued: “I went from snowboarding 6 hours a day, working out & traveling the world to what I thought was just a simple mechanical issue with my left leg. When I entered the hospital this weekend with my leg cramping we found out that it’s a much bigger problem [than] that.”
The Dancing With the Stars alum explained that because of how much she uses her prosthetic — and perhaps because her prosthetic presses on the artery on the back of her knee — she has developed a “massive blood clot” extending from her hip to the bottom of her leg.
The clot is the latest medical setback for Purdy, who developed meningococcal meningitis and septic shock at age 19 and had to have her spleen and one of her kidneys removed and her legs amputated below the knee. When she was 20, her father donated a kidney to her, but now it’s that donated organ that’s complicating the treatment of the blood clot, the Las Vegas native told Facebook fans.
“The contrast dye in the procedures can injure my healthy transplanted kidney which has been the biggest gift of my life and health,” Purdy wrote. “So there’s the risk that to try to save my leg, we are risking my kidney.”
Purdy, who has also dealt with rhabdomyolysis and brachial neuritis diagnoses in recent years, revealed on Facebook that she and her family members “are exploring every option” but admitted that optimism hasn’t been coming easily. “Yes … this is heavy s—t,” she wrote. “Yes, I’m more scared [than] I’ve ever been & yes staying positive doesn’t seem as easy this time.”
“I’ve cried from the depths of my soul over the last two days & I’m sure my husband has seen a side of me he never wants to see again,” the silver medalist added, referring to Daniel Gale, whom she married in August 2015. “Please send any extra love, prayers and thoughts this way … I could use them!”
