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Back in February, 27-year-old Jo Gilchrist found herself with an incredible back pain that just wouldn't quit. She thought it was from bad posture, but it kept getting worse and worse until the young mom had to be airlifted for emergency surgery.

"I honestly thought I was going to die," she told Daily Mail. "The pain was worse than childbirth."

As doctors eventually discovered, Gilchrist had caught a serious community-associated MRSA infection that had attacked her spine. She's been at Brisbane's Princess Alexandra Hospital ever since, where doctors are desperately trying to rid her body of the bacteria.

Gilchrist will be confined to a wheelchair for the rest of her life and has a feeling she knows where she caught the antibiotic-resistant form of golden staph.

"The only thing we can put it down to is the makeup brush," she said of the tool she borrowed to cover a pimple. "My friend did have a staph infection on her face and I was using her brush just before. I had no idea that could happen, I used to share with my friends all the time."

But despite the unlucky choice and the three months she has remaining in the hospital before she is cleared to go home, Gilchrist considers herself lucky it went to her spine. She said the consequences would be worse had it gone to her limbs, which would have made it difficult or impossible to live independently and care for her 2-year-old son, Tommy.

"I feel like I have a second chance at life," she said. "Everything happens for a reason, I've definitely got my fight back for life."

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