Mom Cindy Mullins walks first time with new prosthetics after losing all four limbs to sepsis
Brave Kentucky mom Lucinda “Cindy” Mullins — who lost her arms and legs to a rare sepsis infection following a routine elective surgery to remove kidney stones — has taken her first steps in new prosthetic legs.
Mullins, 41, shared a video Wednesday of her walking out of a room at the Cardinal Hill Rehabilitation Hospital in Lexington sporting a pair of new, bright pink prosthetic legs.
The clip, a re-creation of a scene from “The Princess Diaries” that reveals a complete “Princess” makeover, shows nurses waving the prosthetics before Mullins takes several steps with a walker — without any assistance from two nearby nurses.
Mullins can be seen smiling as she takes a few small steps through a doorway while holding onto the walker.
The mom of two boys spoke of how she was fitted for prosthetics, which would be replaced with “pink sparkly ones,” in a May interview with WKYT.
“It is hard. It is very hard to learn to walk in these. I have short ones now,” she said.
She was also recently retrofitted with robotic arms that will move when she shrugs her shoulders.
“I have hard days. There are definitely very hard days where I just want to sleep or cry or feel sorry for myself,” Mullins said. “But there are more good days than those that are bad days.”
Now, she celebrates smaller victories, like being able to take control of the television.
“Just, to hold the remote and change the channel. Now that is pretty exciting,” she said.
Photos shared to a GoFundMe for the family show Mullins beaming with her first prototype arm, which she can be seen in later photos using to grab things from a basket.
Walking and being able to use her arms marks a massive milestone for Mullins, who had to get her limbs amputated after she became septic following a routine kidney stone procedure just before Christmas.
Mullins, who is a nurse, was sedated for days in a dire condition, with doctors saying she’d be able to survive at the cost of her limbs.
The mom of two has shared reports of her progress to TikTok and Facebook ever since, celebrating milestones like learning to eat and walk once again.
“But, again, I still am not angry. I have not questioned what happened to me. God chose me for a reason. He’s going to use me for big things,” she told WKYT.
