“Everyone was very happy to see me,” he said. “The doctors told them that I might not make it, and there was a lot of concern that I would never wake up. My family was extremely happy, I could hear them cheering, and then the nurses came in and started cleaning me up.”

However, the joy quickly turned to sadness when Armstrong discovered that his feet were both completely black. Doctors informed him they would need to amputate his legs, as the sepsis had eaten away at his feet and was spreading to his legs, making them unsalvageable.

On December 23, Armstrong underwent a three-hour surgery to amputate both legs and spent a month recovering in the hospital.

Recalling the moment he woke up after the surgery, he said, “Initially when I woke up, I thought my legs were still there, and then I came to realize they weren’t. I felt down my leg and realized that my legs weren’t there. I asked the nurse, and she confirmed that I had my legs amputated.”

“She told me that my family was waiting for me and kept reminding me of them, which anchored me,” he added.

With that motivation, Armstrong left the hospital on January 14 and attended the Sky Ridge Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation clinic in Colorado for another 16 days. Now reliant on a wheelchair for the rest of his life, he is determined to become proficient in triceps and shoulder exercises that will aid his mobility, describing them as his ‘lifeline.’

“It was a hunting trip with friends that turned into a bit of a nightmare,” Armstrong said. “Sadly, dinner was enough for the burn to get strep A.”