Farm4Profit Podcast
F4F - One Legged Mommy - Josie Wendel
Episode Summary
In this gripping episode, @theoneleggedmom, Josie Wendel, shares her incredible story of resilience and triumph after facing a life-altering medical crisis. Launching with an overview of her harrowing amputation experience, Josie becomes the beacon of strength as the only survivor of a rare strand of necrotizing fasciitis. Josie, a dedicated farm wife and mother of three, walks us through the fateful day in 2015 when a sudden illness changed her life. Her vivid account of symptoms, medical interventions, and the challenging journey to recovery unveils the strength that defines her.
Episode Notes
@theoneleggedmom Instagram 32.7k TikTok 1M YouTube ___ Twitter ____
- Launch
- Had her entire leg amputated up to her hip joint, and she also had the muscles and tendons cut out of her arm - Had 28 surgeries during the nearly 2 months she spent in the hospital - 4th person in US to have this, and the only one to survive
- Review – text line – Mike from the East Coast
- I’ve listened since 2020 and I always learn something new on the profit shows. Thanks for taking the time and effort you put into every show. “Go Hawks”
- Josie Wendel
- Where are they from, what do they farm
- How’s the family - do they farm with family?
- Josie Wendel - Mom of 3 - Farm Wife - 31
- What are they up to today? – Mom night out?
- Amputee
- In 2015 was diagnosed with a rare strand of necrotizing fasciitis and become an amputee after less than 24 hrs of feeling sick
- Woke up at 3am on April 3, 2015, with aches and a fever
- Assumed she had contracted a late-season flu and called off work while their 10-year old son went with his babysitter
- At noon she developed painful muscles spasms that lasted hours
- Spent 6 hours taking hot showers because it was the only thing that made her feel better
- When her husband arrived home at 6pm, she made the decision to go to the ER
- Waited in the emergency room as it was full at the time
- Her parents got the hospital around 9:30 pm
- Found a football sized bruise on her left shin after ripping the blankets off of her leg (wasn’t there 4 hours ago)
- Life flighted to another hospital around midnight
- 1st surgery she had a 5% chance of coming back out
- Amputated below her knee with goal of preserving her quality of life
- Ended up needed at hi disarticulation, an amputation where the entire leg all the way up to the hip joint is removed
- 2 day after surgery displayed symptoms of necrotizing fasciitis in her forearm - rushed to surgery then
- Took out all the muscles and tendons from the top of her arm to clean it out
- Put a skin graft on top of her arm
- When her husband wasn’t at the hospital with her he was home making adjustments to it to make it handicap accessible
- She was in the SICU for 3 weeks before being moved to the burn unit for 2 more week
- Spend last weeks in the rehab unit
- Sent home on May 21, 2015
- Only saw her son twice in the hospital
- Had her entire leg amputated up to her hip joint, and she also had the muscles and tendons cut out of her arm
- Had 28 surgeries during the nearly 2 months she spent in the hospital
- 4th person in US to have this, and the only one to survive
- Today:
- Works on the farm
- Running the tractor
- Cattle chores
- Playing with her kids
Word association - Take the word we share and say the first thing thing that comes to mind connecting it to agriculture
- Coffee Kids Bacon
- Steak Cattle School
- Vodka Traffic Circle
- Chapter Text Sweat
- Sentiment Houseplant Harvest
- Pumpkin Museum Laughing
- What’s next for them?
- What can our listeners do to help?
- What can we do to help?
What does she like most about farmers?