A model has warned people who use tampons after she almost died and lost both of her legs to Toxic Shock Syndrome (TSS) at 24.
Lauren Wasser, from Los Angeles, was changing her tampons regularly but still contracted the syndrome that caused her body to start shutting down in a matter of hours.
Victim Impact Statement
‘People think they’re invincible, no one is off-limits, TSS can happen to anyone at any time,’ she said speaking with Brittany Hockley and Laura Byrne on their podcast Life Uncut.
Lauren claimed many tampons on the market are ‘full of bleach dioxin, chlorine’ and the products marked as 100 per cent cotton are ‘still sprayed with pesticides’.
‘We’re putting that inside of us at such a delicate time and it creates a perfect storm. It takes one of those toxins to get inside your body and start acting like the flu and shutting down your organs, it’s lethal, it’s dangerous,’ she said.
She Now Has a Mission
‘It’s my goal and life mission to make sure that not only is this information out there but women have these conversations amongst each other, create the dialogue and check in with each other because knowledge is key.’
She Was Found Face Down in Her Apartment
Lauren claims she was changing her tampon regularly, every four hours, during one cycle in 2012 when she started to experience flu-like symptoms and a high fever.
Her mother called in a welfare check after not hearing from her for a few hours.
The policeman who checked on her saw she was sick right away but didn’t think she needed to go to hospital.
Lauren was found face down in her apartment hours later only 10 minutes away from death.
She was rushed to hospital where she suffered two heart attacks and was put into a medically induced coma as her organs were failing.
