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" After a long battle and facing many unfortunate events, Los Angeles native Karen Crespo&amp;#039;s dreams of walking down the runway came true\u2014and she made history while she was at it. Crespo, 31, was featured in fashion designer Carrie Hammer&amp;#039;s showlast Friday, making her the first quadruple amputee to model in New York Fashion Week. Crespo&amp;#039;s career as a nurse at a prominent Los Angeles Hospital was cut short when she was only 28 years old because she contracted a severe form of bacterial meningitis. To save her life, doctors had to amputate her arms and legs. Crespo was in acoma for the next 15 daysand then spent five months in the ICU. After seeing that Hammer had a wheelchair-bound woman in her fashion show this past February, Crespo decided to reach out to the designer, thanking her for proving that &amp;quot;beauty comes in all shapes and sizes.&amp;quot; Hammer then invited Crespo to strut in her latest show, &amp;quot;Role Models, Not Runway Models,&amp;quot; but Crespo couldn&amp;#039;t walk: The $100,000 prosthetic limbs she had ordered were stolen from her doorstep. Hammer helped her get custom-made limbs by calling the prosthetics company, allowing Crespo to walk in Hammer&amp;#039;s show. Crespo toldToday.com, &amp;quot;Maybe this is why everything happened to me. Maybe I&amp;#039;m supposed to inspire or make a difference in someone else&amp;#039;s life, someone who has a disability, or maybe just someone who had a lot of self-doubt.&amp;quot;  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.womansday.com/style/fashion/a7719/first-quadruple-amputee-walks-new-york-fashion-week-runway/>