When you have an ingrown toenail removed, the last thing you’re thinking is that someday, in the aftermath, you’ll be facing amputation surgery. And yet that’s precisely what happened to a British teenager recently.

Hannah Moore, now 19, suffered through “three years of hell” that began as a simple toenail issue.

Moore had her toenail surgically removed in 2012, after it had bothered her for months on end. But within a few days, she was experiencing even worse pain, and even the slightest touch of her right leg left her in tears.

Oddly enough, there were no signs of infection, but the pain was real enough. Soon, however, doctors diagnosed her with a rare, but unbearable condition: Complex regional pain syndrome, or CRPS, which is sometimes triggered by minor surgery.

The condition caused her entire foot to turn black and scaly before it developed a flesh-destroying hole in the middle of her foot.

The chef trainee then underwent years of treatments but all of them failed, the UK’s Daily Mail reported. That left Moore with only one real solution in her mind: complete amputation up to her knee, despite her doctor’s advice against having the surgery.

Because Britain’s healthcare system is socialistic – that is, taxpayer-supported – it’s a “public” system subject to treatment rules (and rationing) imposed by health bureaucrats. So in order to have the amputation surgery, she had to “go private,” meaning she had to schedule and pay for the procedure herself. The operation cost £5,000 (about $6,200). Doctors warned her that the pain could return to the remaining part of her leg, but she made the decision to proceed anyway rather than continuing to suffer the pain she was enduring.

Moore told the paper it was the best decision she’s ever made, and now her life is back on track.

“I couldn’t be happier now that I’ve had my leg amputated,” she said, adding that she was never frightened but rather “excited” to finally get it taken care of.

She said that the past three years of her life have been “an absolute nightmare.” She also said it was hard to fathom how much her life had changed just because of a simple ingrown toenail.

Before it was all said and done, Moore was on 40 different medications for her condition.

Moore added that she paid for the operation herself with help from her family, because “NHS [Britain’s National Health Service] refused” to do so.

Sources:

DailyMail.uk

NINDS.NIH.gov

Science.NaturalNews.com