With complete control of the basketball, Wendy Passfield zips around the court in her kitted-out sports wheelchair.
The mother-of-two glides effortlessly around the opposing team, as spectators to the match erupt in applause.
It has been 17 years since Wendy contracted a hospital ‘super bug’ — prompting the ultimate amputation of both her legs above the knees.
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And, despite a staggering 101 surgeries to try to control the drug-resistant infection, the future is likely to hold even more operations.
The litany of surgeries began after a hospital accident which happened soon after the birth of Wendy’s second child, a son born by C-section.
Health care workers trying to lift Wendy, whose lower body was still numbed, “dropped” her, resulting in injuries to her lower legs, the mum says.
During a subsequent hospital stay for surgery, she says she contracted an antibiotic-resistant infection.
It’s this ‘super bug’ that has prompted years of health issues, as surgeons continue to try to control it.
But on the basketball court, the now 48-year-old Wendy is a force to be reckoned with.
And, to children aspiring to be wheelchair sport stars like her, she is their biggest cheerleader.
Wendy took up wheelchair basketball after noticing a specially designed wheelchair at the gym she was attending as she sought to regain her fitness.
“It was the day that changed my whole life,” Wendy tells 7Life, about having spied the chair.
“There is so much sport out there for able-bodied kids but not a lot out there for the disabled.”
Health troubles
Wendy’s health troubles began in 2007 following a scheduled C-section with her second child.
After her newborn was taken into the special care nursery, the mum was eager to see her little son, but could not manoeuvre herself into a wheelchair because of the effects of the anaesthesia.
Health care workers tried to move Wendy into the chair but, she says, they “dropped” her and she fell to the floor.
Staff then tried to reposition her back into the bed, Wendy says.
“I told them it was fine, it was no dramas,” she says.
She was wheeled to the nursery where she spent the next few hours cuddling her baby.
But it soon became apparent she was not fine at all.
Three hours later, the mum, now resting in her hospital bed, looked down at her feet.
“My ankle was one way and my leg was the other,” she recalls.
Scans showed Wendy’s legs were riddled with broken bones. She needed surgery.
Eleven days later, she was taken to theatre to mend her shattered bones across both her feet, ankles and legs.
It was during this hospital stay that she contracted the antibiotic-resistant infection.
The ‘hospital super bug’ quickly took hold of the surgical site and spread uncontrollably.
Doctors tried to stop the infection spreading — but amputation was the only solution.
What followed was years of operations, where Wendy says surgeons continued to “cut bits” off her legs in the hope of controlling the infection.
She says she became reliant on prescription painkillers while doctors removed centimetres of her leg at a time.
“They will never be able to kill the infection, I just have to live with it,” Wendy says of the super bug, which she says will ravage her body forever.
“I don’t know when it will flare up again.”
Now, after more than 100 surgeries, both her legs have been amputated above the knees.
Mental health struggles
Wendy confesses that, three years ago, she had had enough of the constant surgeries — she hit rock bottom and could not get out of bed.
She also contracted the life-threatening blood infection sepsis.
“I called the kids and told them I didn’t think I was going to make it,” she reveals.
“I was so sporty before, loved netball, and now I couldn’t even walk.”
Remarkably, Wendy pulled herself out of her mental health struggles and began searching for disability community support.
She also enrolled in a CrossFit gym specialising in workouts for those who live with disabilities.
Wheelchair sport
With the help of an exercise physiologist — who guided Wendy into using a sports wheelchair — she reinvented herself.
She says seeing the specially designed wheelchair changed her life.
She pulled herself out of her internal darkness and began focusing on not just her own health, but helping others.
The determined mum began playing wheelchair basketball and, in her free time, coached and advocated for more access to sports chairs for those who needed them.
Joining forces with the charity Sporting Wheelies, she believes sporting chairs can change lives, like it changed hers.
She has now taken her cause to schools to help educate able-bodied children on how challenging the lives of their peers who live with a disability can be.
“I bring a chair and get the kids to hop in it and they can see how hard it is,” Wendy says.
Using her own experience, she continues to encourage children living with a disability to never give up.
“I like to tell them that if I can do this at 48, they can do this at their age,” she says.
“If ol’ Nanna Wendy can do it, you can too!”
You can support Sporting Wheelies via donating to help those in need.
For further information about depression contact beyondblue on 1300 224 636 or talk to your GP, local health professional or someone you trust.