Woman has leg amputated after falling down stairs at home

A mother has endured four years of ‘hell’ after having her leg amputated following a catastrophic fall in the stairs.

One morning changed the life of Louise Bird, 43, forever.

The last thing Louise remembers is running up the stairs to get a book for one of her children Alanna, now 20, and Alexander, now 16.

Louise, from Lanark, Scotland, felt her leg ‘snap’ and she was rushed to the hospital where she was fitted with a metal plate and cast.

But this was just the beginning of ‘four years of hell’ as she developed an infection which failed to heal.

At Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow, Louise was told she could lose her leg.

To save it, she was fitted with an Ilizarov frame she spent six months with before it was removed.

She said: ‘I thought that’s it. I can walk again.’

However, her hope came crashing down after the doctors discovered she had osteomyelitis – an infection in the bone.

‘I couldn’t cope with more pain anymore’

Louise said she could feel her leg ‘getting swollen and hot.’

In late 2020, she had a nine-hour operation to remove 9 cm of the infected bone and to fit her with another Ilizarov frame.

She endured the ‘cage’ for two years.

But Louise said she was in constant pain and unable to leave the house apart from doctors’ appointments.

Her husband Alex Bird, 43, who Louise described as her ‘rock,’ became her carer.

She told of the moment she decided to have her leg amputated: ‘I was in agony.

‘I was in so much pain and I couldn’t cope with the pain anymore.

‘I decided that I’d have my leg amputated.’

In June 2022, Louise underwent the amputation.

After the procedure, she felt ‘relieved,’ but she had to spend seven weeks in hospital to heal an infection in her stitches.

Muscles have come away from her stump, making it difficult to find a prosthetic which fits her and Louise struggles to walk.

‘It’s just unlucky,’ she said.

She is now scheduled to have another surgery in January to remove more of the limb to make it the ‘right shape’ in January as doctors have tried to find a prosthetic that fits.

Louise said: ‘The only time I go out is for doctors appointments.