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3 Charlotte moms lean on each other after losing limbs

All three local women with an unlikely bond. All moms and all survived near-death experiences.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- They are three Charlotte-area women with an unlikely bond.

All moms, all survivors of near-death experiences that left them with missing limbs. The three women -- Tiffany Johnson, Saronia Drayton and Kristan Seaford -- are all working together to help each other.

"We have something in common that other people don't," Kristan said.

Tiffany lost her right arm in a terrifying shark attack while scuba diving in the Bahamas last summer. Kristan lost both her arms, left leg and right foot after the flu turned into sepsis that almost killed her and Saronia lost her all four of her limbs in a similar fight for her life.

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"It's great because you can have somebody to call when you're feeling down," Saronia said. "Family is great but they don't sometimes understand how you're feeling."

Kristan was first. She remembers being in the hospital five years ago when another amputee came to visit.

"Before I knew it, she was pulling her pant leg up and showing me her prosthetic leg," Kristan said. "It was at that moment, that, 'Aw! She was normal, lead a normal life.' It was at that moment, I gained so much hope. That my life wasn’t over.”

Now she’s doing the same for Tiffany and Soronia.

“My hope is that it helps them to talk to me as well," Kristan said.

Tiffany remembers the time she first heard from Kristan.

“She had given me a call and just said, 'hey, if you're struggling in any way to do a task, I've probably figured it out because I've been doing this for awhile. Call me, there’s no point in you sitting there getting frustrated,'” Tiffany said.

Kristan adds, “There are certain things that we get that other people can’t. We get how hard it is to be fed, we get how hard it is to learn to do things that are frustrating because it takes a long time to learn to do things you never had to think about before.”

She gave Saronia the courage to get out of her wheelchair and start walking with her new legs.

“You feel a certain way," Saronia said. "You're down and depressed. When you see somebody, she's somebody that inspires you to say, 'I can do this, I can walk again.'”

The women all work with the team at OrthoCarolina and once a month, they are usually together at the amputee clinic.

“It's been inspiring to me to know that life does go on but I think we’re all kind of inspiring each other at different points,” Tiffany said.

These three women are continuing to stay together to help empower one another.

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