Tilly Lockey, 17, is a double amputee well known on social media for her bionic arms.
The ‘Hero Arms’, which were developed by Open Bionicsallowed him to gain independence and “do just about anything people can do with their hands”.
You can even change the arm covers, which Tilly often does to match her outfits and shares the result on social media.
In a recent video, Tilly shared the story of how she lost both of her hands as a baby and warned others about her symptoms.
She filmed a “Get Ready With Me” video, where the 17-year-old put her makeup on for the camera, while telling her followers how it went.
Tilly Lockey, 17, is a double amputee well known on social media for her bionic arms
She said ‘First of all, was I born like this? No I wasn’t, I was born with all four limbs and ended up getting sick when I was 15 months old.
“At first it was just cold and flu symptoms, but my mum still took me to get it checked out, so we went to the doctor and that’s when I was diagnosed with an infection. ear, I was given pills and sent home.”
She continued: ‘My mum had an idea it was something more than just an ear infection, but obviously you go to the doctor, the doctors tell you and you trust them because it are the experts.
“It’s because of her and her intuition and her motherly instincts that this is probably one of the main reasons I’m alive here today.
‘At this point I’m taking antibiotics or whatever for my ear infection, thinking that’s it, but then there was a symptom that came up at home that my family themselves must find out and that kind of sent my mom into overdrive.
Tilly’s mother knew ‘exactly what it was’ and it was much more serious than an ear infection.
She explained that her grandmother had found what is called a “sepsis rash” on her skin.
In a “Get Ready With Me” video, where the 17-year-old did her makeup on camera, she told her followers how it went.
Tilly’s mother described the rash as ‘raindrops hitting a puddle appearing on her skin in the ambulance’
People with sepsis often develop a bloody rash, which gradually grows larger and begins to look like new bruises if left untreated.
She said “the best way to describe it is kind of like blood under the skin that you see in people when they get to old age, you get little spots under the skin like bruises.”
“My grandmother called my mother to check and take a look and luckily my mother noticed it straight away, she knew exactly what it was and immediately took me to the hospital and called an ambulance.
“The reason I say fortunately is because when you see that rash, then it’s a race against time.”
Tilly’s mother described the rash as “raindrops hitting a puddle appearing on her skin in the ambulance”.
The gravity of the situation made it necessary to get there as quickly as possible, the eruption was spreading rapidly.
She continued: “Long story short, when I got to the hospital it was the worst case they had ever seen, my family had a 0% chance of survival and they started operating on me almost everything. right now.”
Tilly was diagnosed with Strain B meningococcal sepsis – This is where the bacteria enter the bloodstream and multiply, damaging the walls of blood vessels and causing bleeding in the skin and organs.
People with sepsis often develop a bloody rash, which gradually grows larger and begins to look like new bruises if left untreated
As Tilly explained, sepsis “kills your limbs from the tips.”
She concluded the video by saying: “Obviously I’m here today and it was after a week in intensive care, three weeks in recovery, a secondary infection and ten blood transfusions that I managed to get out of this. and I am here today.”
When Tilly was in the hospital, her mother promised her that one day she would have hands again – a dream that came true when she got her ‘hero arms’.
In an interview on the Open Bionics website, she said ‘I discover new things that I can do with my Hero Arms every day. There’s this thing on the Wii called Just Dance where you have to hold the Wii Remote and dance with it in your hand. Which obviously turns out to be a challenge for me.
“What I was doing was taping the Wii Remote to my arm, which really hurt when I took it off, but at least it worked!” However, now I can just put my hands together, pick up the Wii Remote and start dancing!
The TikTok video explaining his story has over 750,000 views and the comments are full of support.
One person wrote ‘Thank you for sharing sepsis awareness! You are brilliant, beautiful, well-spoken and amazing at sharing your story! Keep sharing!”
Another viewer added, “I used to work for the hospital and met you when you were there, even then you were a bright little spark!”
Referring to how she matches her makeup, one commenter said, “Using your arm as a beauty blender is so cool!”
