Stepping Stones: Christine Caron

In the swish of a dog’s tail, she faced enormous medical adversities. “One word,” she maintains, “got me through”.

While playing tug-of-war with her four dogs, one of her Shitzus barely punctured her left hand with its teeth. Christine properly disinfected the wound. A nick that brought no pain or discolouration, she thought nothing further of it. However, all her loving pets continued to lick the wound, perhaps sensing that she was already feeling physically low, unaware that she was fighting walking pneumonia.

With her immune system depleted, she suffered a rare reaction to the bacteria capnocytophaga canimorsus, which rarely affects humans, and sepsis set in. Confused and ill, she was driven to a local emergency clinic. Doctors told her that portions of her face, her kidneys and all four of her limbs needed to be amputated to stay alive.

“BELIEVE is the word that brought me through, my mantra, and my message. BELIEVE in whatever you BELIEVE in; BELIEVE in it wholeheartedly.”