Yahoo Lifestyle Hiker's 'Little Burn' from Camping Skillet Leads to Double Amputation — but He Vows to Get Back on the Trail (Exclusive)
In less than a month, outdoorsman Max Armstrong developed sepsis and lost both of his legs — but, he says, "things can be overcome"
Max Armstrong, 40, was camping with friends when he sustained a small burn on his thumb while removing a skillet from the campfire
His ankle began to swell two days later — the start of a life-threatening sepsis infection that would lead to his legs being amputated below the knee
With the help of prosthetics, he hopes to be hiking mountains again by next year
At first, Max Armstrong paid no attention to the "little burn" he got on a camping trip.
The 40-year-old from San Diego — who now lives in Castle Rock, Colo. — had previously sustained plenty of minor injuries in the wilderness. In 2016, he spent 151 days walking from Mexico to Canada. “I got a lot of cuts and scrapes and abrasions and little burns and all kinds of things during that trip,” Armstrong tells PEOPLE.
But while camping with friends on Dec. 2, 2024, he suffered an injury that would be like no other.
“I just was transferring the skillet from the campfire to the table and burnt a portion of my thumb in the process,” he said. "It was a little burn. I didn't think anything of it at the time."
Two days later, Armstrong says his left ankle started to swell — something he attributed to “getting out of the camper wrong. I just thought I twisted it.”
Courtesy of Max Armstrong
At the same time, the burn wasn’t healing, Armstrong tells PEOPLE, even though he’d been putting antibiotic cream on it and keeping it bandaged. When he started “talking crazy” in his sleep and his toenails turned purple, “I knew I had to go to the emergency room.”
On the way to the hospital, Armstrong checked his symptoms online. He realized he could have sepsis — a life-threatening condition where the body responds improperly to an infection.
Courtesy of Max Armstrong
Max Armstrong with his wife, Megan, hiking in Hidden Mesa, Colo., before his injury.He later learned from doctors they believed strep A bacteria had gotten into the burn before he could clean and bandage it — a "small amount of time," he recalls.
Once he got to the emergency room, his eyes started rolling back in his head, he says. Doctors confirmed that it was indeed sepsis. “By the end of the night, I was in a medically induced coma.”
Armstrong’s mother, as well as his wife Megan, stayed by his side for six days as he remained in the coma. He progressed to toxic shock syndrome, and “the body really quickly started to eat away itself.” Doctors told them to be prepared for the possibility that, “I wasn't gonna make it.”
Courtesy of Max Armstrong
Max Armstrong was placed in a medically induced coma due to sepsis.Related: Ashley Park Says It’s a 'Miracle' She Recovered from Septic Shock: 'I Pushed Myself Too Far'
When he woke up from his coma on Dec. 13, he said, “my feet were black” and felt like they were being “crushed.” Doctors started floating the idea of amputation, Armstrong, says, "but they would bring it up in passing casually.”
Still, “I knew it was a thing. And at first I was like, ‘No, there's no way they're taking my feet,’ ” he shares. But when he tried to walk in physical therapy, it was “so painful” that “I started to come around to recognize that the feet weren't gonna be an option to keep.”
His mom tried to show him the bottom of his feet to help him decide.
“My mom was taking photos. And they looked so black and the veins were cooked. They just looked like they'd never be able to be used again,” he explained. “It was a tough choice."
Courtesy of Max Armstrong
Max Armstrong shares a photo of his leg amputation.Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
Armstrong says the necrosis was growing. If he acted soon, doctors would still be able to amputate below the knee — which makes prosthetics easier to use. “You can still control whether it bends or not, and you just need the straight prosthetic — rather than something that's a little more involved, and a little more expensive and a little more robotic,” he explains.
On Dec. 23, he had surgery to remove both legs below the knees. Armstrong, who is a therapeutic coach for men who’ve been released from prison through his business Raise Up Recovery, tells PEOPLE he “came to terms with it as being a medically necessary part of my journey.”
"I've seen the entirety of this process as a spiritual journey," he says. "This was just the next step in that process. It was not something that I wanted to do, but I knew that it had to be done."
Courtesy of Max Armstrong
Max Armstrong with his dog Kodiak.As he looks ahead toward recovery, Armstrong hopes to hit the trails again — with a 14,000-foot elevation in mind. A GoFundMe has been established to help him with the cost of advanced prosthetics and to "make accommodations for accessibility in daily life, including building a lift in his home and modifying his vehicle."
His attitude remains positive.
“There's no question in my mind that I will be hiking in the mountains by this time next year,” Armstrong tells PEOPLE. “I really do feel like this journey was an opportunity for me to prove to others that things can be overcome."
Until then, he says, “I dream most about just hiking around my house with my dogs — just going on a long walk.”
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