She’s a teenage triple amputee who survived complications from the flu that nearly killed her.
She’s a teenage triple amputee who survived complications from the flu that nearly killed her.
Now, after losing both legs and her right arm, Kaydin’s family is struggling to get the wheelchair-accessible transportation she needs just to make it to doctors, therapy and everyday life.
Kaydin Ruiz is 14 now.
She just started her freshman year of high school in Texas.
And her mom Amanda reached back out to me because the girl so many of you prayed for earlier this year is still fighting through a life that changed completely on February 1st.
What began with Flu B and pneumonia spiraled into septic shock and multi-organ failure.
Kaydin went into cardiac arrest.
She endured ECMO, dialysis, multiple brain bleeds, five intubations, a tracheotomy, necrotizing pneumonia and complete blindness in her right eye.
Then blood flow to her limbs was so badly damaged that she ultimately lost both legs and her right arm.
Amanda says she and her husband watched their daughter go through things no parent should ever have to witness.
“We watched our baby go through the most unimaginable things that will be imbedded in our minds forever.”
After 117 days, they finally wheeled Kaydin out of the hospital attached to nothing.
That was a huge victory.
But surviving was only the beginning.
Amanda says losing her right arm has been especially devastating for Kaydin.
She had spent three years learning to draw.
She played the French horn.
Those were things she loved, and now she is trying to figure out how to reclaim parts of herself while also learning how to live as a triple amputee.
Kaydin has her prosthetic legs now, but Amanda says her body remains weak and unstable after everything it endured.
She is relearning how to stand, shift her weight, balance and eventually walk.
Her prosthetic arm is still a process that will take months.
And through all of this, she is trying to be what she is: a 14-year-old freshman.
Amanda told me something that hurt to read:
“She feels defeated most days.”
But she keeps going.
And her family says the prayers and encouragement from people who have followed Kaydin’s journey on my page have helped more than most of us probably realize.
“She has an army of prayer warriors from all over the world walking beside her.”
Now that family is trying to solve a very practical problem.
Kaydin has 10 specialists in Houston, Austin and San Antonio, and her family still does not have a reliable wheelchair-accessible vehicle to get her where she needs to go safely.
They have raised about half of what they need.
If you prayed for Kaydin when she was fighting to stay alive, don’t stop now that she’s learning how to live.
Leave her some encouragement below.
Pray for strength, confidence, balance and for the day she takes those first independent steps on her new legs.
What would you want her to know right now?
