Man wakes from surgery to discover leg has been AMPUTATED following freak accident

A man who woke up to find his leg had been amputated during an emergency surgery says he was repeatedly told nothing was wrong and was sent away from a hospital four times.

Zach Haynie had a freak accident which caused his leg to swell and turn bright red, but medics continued to send him home, only acting when his condition had deteriorated so much he needed to be raced into the operating room to save his life. The 30 year old said: “I was sitting there for maybe five minutes, and a doctor came down and said they were going to have to amputate my leg.

“I was blown away. I was in shock. My jaw was going up and down. I was shaking. I finally calmed down and accepted the fact I was going to lose my leg.”

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Zach was helping his mum load boxes into his truck for a yard sale in Lubbock, Texas when the accident happened. He had just packed the final box when one slipped from the pile and landed directly on his ankle. He decided to go to the hospital, but doctors insisted there were no breaks or fractures.

Zach’s foot and ankle only worsened over the following days. During his final visit to a different hospital, Zach was told he had compartment syndrome in his leg, a painful condition that occurs when pressure in the muscles builds to dangerous levels. Surgeons said they couldn’t perform any type of surgery as it risked infection and the need for amputation – sending him home once more.

He underwent a life-saving amputation a month after the accident on December 9, 2024, having his right leg removed just above the knee. And Zach later found out it wasn’t the ankle sprain that cost him his leg, it was a hidden blood disorder triggered by the injury. While doctors still haven’t pinned down the exact condition, they believe it had been lying dormant for years until the trauma set it off.

Zach, who previously worked at a swimming pool distribution company, said: “I figured out from my doctor that it wasn’t the sprain that caused me to lose my leg. It was some sort of blood disorder that I had where my red blood cells were eating each other.

“The ankle was that spark that exposed the blood disease. The sprain had nothing to do with it – it triggered this disorder that they don’t know what it is. It lit this fire and caused me to lose my limb.”

The rare and undiagnosed condition was rapidly destroying his tissue, and Zach was told his organs were also under threat. He said: “There was a line drawn right at my knee. Then it was amputated right up my thigh.

“It was spreading up my leg and all the way into organs and killing off my organs. I told them I didn’t want to die but accepted I was going to lose my leg. When I woke up from anaesthesia, I looked down and saw my leg was gone, I was baffled, like – what the hell happened to my leg?”

Zach spent the following days and weeks trying to come to terms with the life-changing procedure. He says he now suffers from phantom pain, a phenomenon which makes you feel a body part you no longer have.

He said: “Even right now, I have pain where my foot is - and I don’t even have a foot. I have pain and feeling in my calf and knee like they’re still there. The pain is crazy. It’s a lot, but ultimately, I knew that that’s where I was supposed to be.

“My leg being gone – yeah it sucked, but it saved my life. I’m not going to say I’ve been straight positive and joyous through it all because I haven’t.”

Zach is now hoping to have a prosthetic limb, using . He said: “I’ve kept a very good outlook on everything that’s happened. I see it as a story that I can use to tell – to help other amputees who are struggling mentally."