Vaccine
A person measures a dose of COVID-19 vaccine on May 14 in Sant'Angelo Lodigiano, Italy.
Emanuele Cremaschi / Contributor/Getty Images
  • A Texas man ended up with both legs amputated after getting COVID-19 which led to sepsis.
  • Pepe Forina, 56, had pre-existing vascular problems that made him vulnerable to complications.
  • Forino said "stupidity" kept him from getting the vaccine and warned others to learn from him.
  • See more stories on Insider's business page.

A man who survived COVID-19 but lost both legs in the process blamed "stupidity" for his decisions not to get vaccinated.

Pepe Forina, 56, who had pre-existing conditions like diabetes and hypertension, lost both legs to sepsis after being hospitalized with COVID-19, Texas local news station KRGV reported.

"I looked at my feet and my feet were black," Forino said, per the outlet.

Asked why he didn't get vaccinated, he said "stupidity basically, I didn't believe in it."

"It's a choice, a choice that I made poorly," Forina said, per KGRV. "Learn from me, and hopefully you won't be in the same situation that I'm in."

COVID-19 vaccines are known to greatly reduce the risk of hospitalization and death from the disease.

A picture of Forina can be seen in the tweet below.

On August 9, two weeks after being admitted to a hospital in Edinburg, Texas, Forina's family received a call saying he might not make it through the night, per KGRV.

Forina, who has a peripheral vascular disease associated with diabetes, survived but had his legs amputated above the knee after contracting sepsis, per ValleyCentral.com.

The decision to have his legs was a "no-brainer" because the alternative was death, he said, per ValleyCentral.

"He shouldn't be alive," Federico Vallejo, a doctor at the DHR Health hospital where Forina was treated, told the outlet. "The odds were against him. It's actually quite amazing that he had recovered."

Vallejo warned that it is not uncommon for patients like Forina to have this type of complication.

Forina said he was happy to be alive after thinking that the disease was going to kill him, per KGRV.

Read the original article on Business Insider