Brie Bauer, strep toxic shock syndrome (STSS) and DIC survivor

· Already a mother of two, with a third on the way, a pregnant Brie felt ill and went to the hospital.

· She had a raging infection – streptococcal toxic shock syndrome brought on by strep A and later a blood clotting condition.

· First, doctors had to deliver baby Beau at just 27 weeks with an emergency C section.

· Ten days later, she woke up to learn her baby was fine, but she was in a dire state. She only had a 10 percent chance of survival and was transferred to The University of Kansas Health System.

· A partial amputation turned into multiple limbs, then it became a quadruple amputee.

· But she knew that was the only way to survive and she took it in stride.

Reid Bauer, Brie’s husband

· He appreciates the support from the NICU team and the importance of having their son in the same room as Brie.

· They had to make home modifications to accommodate Brie, including making things more accessible.

· They are very appreciative of the support from the care team and family and community.

Dr. Chase Hall, pulmonologist and critical care physician, The University of Kansas Health System

· Streptococcal toxic shock syndrome is a severe infection caused by group A strep.

· It releases toxins that cause multi-organ failure and profound hypotension, requiring lots of fluid pressors to keep the blood pressure up. Your kidneys can fail -- liver, lungs, basically all organ systems can be involved.

· When there is a severe infection, the body can shunt blood to essential organs, which can lead to amputations.

· It's just a sign of how remarkable the body is. The body knows that you're really sick and there's not enough blood and not enough blood pressure to get that blood to all the organs and all the parts of your body. And so, it picks what's the most important to keep you alive.

· This is an amazing story of resilience and perseverance and being an advocate for yourself. She and Reid and the family, and they were huge advocates, which is important when you're in the hospital, to be an advocate for yourself.

· On the medical side, just recognizing how severe these infections can be and how quickly they can progress, we're talking 24-48 hours can be life or death, so having a high index of suspicion and getting the right treatments going as fast as possible is important.

Dr. Julia Slater, medical director, Burnett Burn Unit, The University of Kansas Health System

· There were several medical teams involved in Brie’s care, including ICU doctors, pulmonologists, infectious disease doctors, hematologists, and many more.

· Team and collaboration among medical teams and the patient and family is extremely important.

· It's just so great to highlight of what teams can do together and how important teamwork is in our medical care, both the teamwork of myself with my

colleagues, medical, surgical, but the teamwork of us working with Brie and with Reid and all of their family, and really getting together so that we can give her the best care.

· I can come up with a plan, but if it's not in line with her or what's working for her, it's not going to be the best plan for her.

Casey Pickering, nurse manager, The University of Kansas Health System

· At the peak of her teams, there were 27 services and consults that were managing her and that was a level of complexity we had never experienced.

· Professionally, she challenged so many of us to think bigger, to be better collaborators with our peers and to do things differently.

· I don't think I've ever seen an advocate like her. She's such a fierce advocate for herself, and the way that she did that made us think differently.

Holly O’Brien, chief nurse anesthetist, The University of Kansas Health System

· In anesthesia, we often see people for such brief periods of time, so to get to see Brie in her spirit and watch her progress to discharge and meet her wonderful family was incredible for me.

· What made it challenging also made it amazing.

· It was a gigantic care team, and Brie had such complex medical issues, coupled with so many surgical needs, and the ability to see all these teams rally and communicate and collaborate in ways I haven't seen before was impressive.

· It literally took all of us, and I also think that goes to her and her family -- it was such a reminder to our teams and all of the teams of what we can do when we really collaborate and communicate and focus on the patient