Woman whose legs locked and bent backwards was 'left to rot and die' after debilitating diagnosis
In the coming months, a 21-year-old woman will undergo surgery to have both her legs surgically amputated.
For the last eight years, Megan Dixon has battled everyday agony which stems from a freak illness that forced her legs to become fixed at 45 degrees.
Dixon was just 13 when, in 2019, she first fell poorly with both whooping cough and glandular fever.
"From there I got worse and worse," she recently recalled to the press. "I started to go into a comatose-like state. When I was 16, I stopped being able to sit up by myself, and I started to lose the ability to speak. My paediatrician was concerned I'd had a stroke, so I was rushed to hospital.
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"I was supposed to be in for tests over four days - I came out a year and a half later."
At 18, Dixon was slowly losing her ability to talk, move and see. Eventually, she became paralysed from the neck down and required a tube for feeding.
Staff at Bristol Hospital diagnosed her with functional neurological disorder (FND), a condition that stops the brain from being able to send and receive proper signals from the body.
"I could feel my bones in my legs grating together, but I kept being told the pain was in my head, and it wasn't real," she recalled. "I was silently screaming for 24-hours a day. When I went into a coma-like state, I had no idea what was going on. No one could wake me up."
Dixon added: "My legs were completely locked straight, and even under anaesthetic, they couldn't bend my knees. My left leg had started to bend the wrong way by ten degrees."
The case has long dumbfounded doctors, who've been unable to establish a cause for her heartbreaking condition. Despite this, after discharging her from the hospital three years ago, they referred her for physiotherapy, hoping this might be able to treat her legs.
After countless appointments, however, Dixon's knees remained locked.
"I had essentially been left to rot and die in bed," she claimed. "My family complained about my care, and I was sent to a private nursing home specialising in neurological disorders.
"I was completely paralysed from the neck down, and I had to work on getting all of my functions back, but equally, my legs got worse and worse."
Unable to carry out basic, daily tasks, the Cambridgeshire local now feels she has no choice but to have both of her legs removed above the knee.
"I can't walk on my own, so I have to bum shuffle everywhere or use my wheelchair," she explained. "Getting from the floor to the bed is absolute agony for me because of the weight and pressure through my knees.
"I have to be carried to the bed or the toilet, and simple tasks take me so much longer.
"I'd seen six different surgeons and was turned away by five. When I finally found a surgeon to help me, it had been so long that the damage in my knees was irreversible."
Dixon went on to claim: "It was the hardest when I met with the amputee clinic and they said amputation was my best and only option.
"I was hoping deep down they would say there was another way. But this is my reality now, and I haven't fully come to terms with it yet."
Her double leg amputation is now scheduled for August.
Ahead of the procedure, Dixon also set her sights on raising enough money to purchase an electric wheelchair, which she hopes will restore her independence following surgery.
"Despite not being able to walk since I was 14, I've only really been in a wheelchair since I was 19 because I spent so long bed-bound or in a coma," she explained.
"I want to be able to go out with my partner, visiting the zoo, and have him by my side holding hands - as opposed to being on a day out with my carer. This is my last resort and my only option."
At the time of writing, Dixon's GoFundMe page sits above her £5,000, at £6,928.
Rhianna Benson