Woman left ‘fighting for her life’ with toxic shock syndrome – doctors eventually discovered ‘traumatising’ cause
A mother of-two was left fighting for her life after contracting deadly toxic shock syndrome from an old tampon that had been stuck inside her for up to a year.
Anna Osborn, 30, from Indiana, had no idea that the menstrual product was lodged in her vagina, collecting lethal bacteria—and doctors symptoms like pain and fever down to recurrent urinary tract infections.
The ordeal began in October 2023, when the therapist first began suffering severe pelvic pain.
She visited the GP, who prescribed antibiotics, assuming the problem was a bacterial infection.
But within a few months Ms Osborn found she was getting ‘constantly sick’, suffering back-to-back fevers and extreme fatigue.
The doctor simply prescribed more antibiotics.
She said: ‘Every time I finished an antibiotic dose, I immediately started getting sick again. I knew my body was fighting something.’
‘Doctors just couldn’t figure it out.
Ms Osborn went to numerous hospital appointments to try and get a diagnosis and treatment plan for her pain
The mother was prescribed back-to-back antibiotics to treat what doctors thought was a recurrent common urinary tract infection
‘I was told I must just have a low pain tolerance or I’m being over dramatic. I was just brushed off by a tonne of doctors. It felt like my organs were shutting down. There was no other way to describe it.’
She considered the possibility that her IUD, an intrauterine device inserted into the womb to prevent pregnancy, was disloged and that this was causing the pain.
In February last year, doctors finally performed a vaginal exam to check for complications related to her birth control.
‘This was the first time a doctor had done a vaginal exam’, Ms Osborn said.
What the doctor eventually discovered left them both ‘traumatised’, she said.
‘The doctor had never seen anything like this before. She saw a little piece of something and thought maybe this is the endometriosis.
‘She started pulling on it, then I heard her say “oh my god, I think it’s a tampon”. She pulled the entire thing out and we were both in complete shock.’
Doctors originally dismissed her pain, telling her that she was being dramatic and must have a low pain threshold
Ms Osborn is now urging women to advocate for their health if they feel like anything is wrong
She wasn’t entirely sure how long the tampon had been stuck inside her, but said that she hadn’t used one since 2023, just after she got her IUD inserted.
She said: ‘When they put the IUD in, I was already not feeling well. It’s so hard to tell but knowing I had so many issues before this, I would date it back as far as six months to a year.
‘I didn’t notice it at all [during sex]. The body tissue had grown over it. I didn’t feel anything. I even had a smear in the year before and nothing was mentioned,’ she added.
Ms Osborn was then immediately treated for toxic shock syndrome, which is thought to affect just one in every 100,000 people.
The condition is a life-threatening response to toxins produced by bacteria like Staphylococcus aureus (staph) and group A streptococcus (strep).
When a tampon is left in for more than eight hours, bacteria has a longer amount of time to multiply.
Tampons, especially high-absorbency ones, can stick to the vaginal walls, causing tiny abrasions that bacteria can seep into and enter the bloodstream. Once in the body, the S. aureus bacteria permeates the bloodstream and infects bodily tissues, which can also lead to tissue death and necessitate limb amputations.
When staph infects the body, a massive immune response is triggered, driving inflammation and worsening symptoms like fever and muscle aches.
Toxic shock can be deadly due to the breakneck speed at which it ravages the body and ramps up the immune system.
Severe drops in blood pressure caused by shock can mean inadequate blood flow to vital organs such as the heart and kidneys, causing widespread damage.
TSS can also cause mini blood clots to form in the bloodstream, further reducing blood flow to organs.
And the heart may struggle to pump blood effectively due to the severe drop in blood pressure, potentially leading to cardiovascular collapse.
Prompt diagnosis and treatment is crucial for preventing death due to toxic shock, which can be fatal in 30 to as much as 70 percent of cases.
Thankfully, Ms Osborn made a full recovery. But she believes she would had died if she hadn’t ‘pushed’ her case with doctors.
She is now urging all women to advocate for their health if they think something is wrong.
‘I didn’t even know toxic shock syndrome was real and actually happened to people. I just asked ‘is my body rotting from the inside out’? I didn’t know what was going to happen to me. It was so scary,’ she said.
‘I say to other people just follow your gut. If you feel like something is wrong, then keep pushing.
‘I’m glad I didn’t just give up and go with the UTI diagnosis. I really felt the need to advocate for myself and my health. It kept me alive. ‘I wouldn’t be here otherwise.’
