This is one of those truly unimaginable events; who might have in their wildest nightmares believed that a casual tooth-scratch from a beloved pet would result in multiple limb amputations? It can happen.

It happened to a 49-year-old single mother of four who also happened to have four canine companions in her home. Playing tug-of-war with two of those beloved dogs resulted in a casual accident that left Christine Caron with a slight wound on one of her knuckles where her little three-year-old Shih Tzu grazed her.

Two days later Christine Caron fell into a coma that lasted a month and a half. When she woke from that coma doctors informed her that all of her limbs would have to be amputated. She would become a quadriplegic. How do you absorb that information other than to fall under the mind-saving delusion that you are in a deep sleep emulating awareness and if you struggle hard enough you'll wake up from a nightmare that is plaguing you?

The Public Health Agency of Canada advises that the infection that assaulted Christine Caron has occurred a mere 200 times worldwide since 1976. The bacteria Capnocytophaga canimorsus is common in dog saliva. Despite which it rarely leads to human infection. It did with Christine Caron. When her other three dogs sensed her injury they all lined up helpfully to lick the wound.

A life-altering event ensued. And then, when Christine Caron was feeling her most helpless, one of the surgeons said he was able to detect life in her right hand. That arm and hand could be saved. And rehabilitated, so in time she would be able to use it again, despite the loss of her other limbs.

Christine Caron, 49, lost her legs and one arm after she contracted an infection from a dog bite in May.  Photograph by: Cole Burston , Ottawa Citizen