NEW YORK (1010 WINS/AP)  -- A mother of three has filed a $100 million lawsuit saying a Brooklyn hospital didn't properly diagnose and treat a potentially deadly bacterial infection that left her legally blind and a quadruple amputee.


Sonia Rincon reports

Tabitha Mullings, 32, went to Brooklyn Hospital Center on Sept. 14 suffering from abdominal pain and side pain, according to her attorney Sanford Rubenstein.

She says emergency room doctors told her that she had a kidney stone and sent her home. She called 911 twice in 24 hours, but Mullings says ambulance workers determined she did not need to be hospitalized.

Mullings was brought back to the emergency room the next day and by that time the infection that developed was raging -- cutting off the flow of blood to her extremities, Sanford said. Gangrene developed in her hands and feet so they had to be amputated in order to save her life, according to Sanford.

The infection also attacked her optic nerve causing her to become legally blind.

Sanford, on behalf of Mullings and her family, is suing the hospital over what he calls a "medical mistake." Also named in the suit is the New York Fire Department, New York Emergency Services and the City of New York.

Mullings was moved to a rehab center on Friday where she will be fitted with prosthetic hands and feet. As she was leaving the hospital, an emotional Mullings told reporters, "My goal is to walk out of this hospital with my hands and my legs, walk out of here before Christmas so I can spend it with my beautiful children and family."

"Tabitha Mullings is a woman who shows amazing strength and courage in her determination to raise her three children and live as normal a life as possible," said Rubenstein.  

Brooklyn Hospital Center would only say that it deeply sympathizes with Tabitha and her family, and that it would be inappropriate to discuss details of her care, 1010 WINS' Sonia Rincon reported.