Oklahoma doctors forced to amputate woman's limbs after tick bite

SHAWNEE, OK -- A woman says she lost all four of her limbs because of a tick bite, ABC affiliate KOCO-TV reports.

Jo Rogers' family says she visited Grand Lake in northeast Oklahoma in July. While there, she was bitten by a tick.

Four days later, Roger thought she had the flu. A day after that, she realized it was something much worse.

"She was shaking her hands because they hurt, her feet hurt," said Rogers' cousin, Lisa Morgan. "They tested her for West Nile Virus and for meningitis."

Rogers' body then went into shock.

"By Saturday morning her hands and feet were turning dark blue and black," Morgan told KOCO-TV.

Doctors then discovered Rogers had contracted Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. The disease is treatable with antibiotics, but that treatment has to start within the first five days of infection.

Instead, the disease quickly spread. Doctors had no choice but to amputate her limbs to prevent the infection from getting to her vital organs.

Rogers, who is a 40-year-old mother of two teens, is now trying to stay positive.

"You're still with us, you're going to get to watch your boys grow up and you've got a lot people pulling for you," Morgan told Rogers after her surgery.