Teen inspires with hope after quadruple amputation wwltv.com

DALLAS - One 19-year-old teen from Richardson has kept up her hope after getting an infection that left her a quadruple amputee.

The unimaginable happened to Whitney Mitchell. An infection led to the amputation of all her limbs. But, she said she doesn't want pity. Instead, she wants your full attention.

Mitchell had just graduated from Berkner High School in Richardson. Her dream was to become a dancer, but everything changed in November when she became very sick. Her doctors thought it was a virus, and she went into septic shock.

"When I woke up, I saw that my hands were black, greenish and my feet were too," she said.

Blood was not flowing into her extremities. Her doctor said he would have to amputate her arms below her elbows and her legs below her knees.

"I was really upset," she said. "But, after a while, I thought about it and I didn't want to sit there and cry and be depressed about it because there are reasons why things happen."

"At nights, it's kind of hard," said Patricia Kirven, Whitney's mother. "You're kind of reliving what has happened. What are you going to do? How are you going to help her? There's nothing you can do to change the situation. You try to make it better for her."

Whitney endures strenuous daily rehab at the Baylor Institute for Rehabilitation in Dallas. On Friday, she will get to go home, but it will be to a new house. Her mother had to find a new house, one that is wheelchair accessible.

"I'll feel like a teenager again because I really don't feel like one in the hospital," she said. "So, I've been waiting for this day to come for a long time."

Through it all, Whitney has managed to keep a smile on her face. Everyone from her mother to her nurses said she's a powerful inspiration.

"There's nothing that can stop her," said her mother. "She will just have to figure out a different way to do things."

"I could have not been here," Whitney said. "I could have been dead. I was just happy I was alive to just see my family."

Whitney vows to dance again, and no one in her life doubts her.

"People take things for granted," she said. "They don't really pay any attention."

Whitney said she's paying attention to everything with her new outlook on life since her surgery.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Whitney Mitchell
• quadruple amputee
• Teen
• Amputation
• Dallas Texas
• Berkner High School
• dancer

[trishasinbox]

Hello this is my daughter.. i ask as a mother to please don't allow her images to be use for sick purposes.. Yes, she is public news, but she is young, innocent and deserves to have the best life possible and not with people leering with ulterior motives. I have found her pictures used by people on yt and other places trying to exploit her images for sexual purposes.. God have mercy on them!

[frizzinizz]

We love you Whitney =]

[Bruuski]

Contact Bella in Massachusetts. She is a young teen who also lost four limbs to illness. Her spirit is remarkable!!!!

[best496]

im scared now. please dont happen to me

[thee11thhour]

WOW! Great story. God doesn't give us anymore than we can handle....she has proven this!

[albertsbuttons1]

@trishasinbox God bless BOTH of you

[tripleamputee3]

amazing girl

[The391956]

Whitney can sing instead of dancing in a wheelchair,

she just has to get some singing training.

[CaneFu]

This is terrible.