For Christine Caron there was no greater present this Christmas than being back home with her family after spending more than six months hovering between life and death.

The 50-year-old single mother of four from Ottawa, Canada, made headlines in May when she had three of her limbs amputated after experiencing an extreme allergic reaction to a dog bite.The woman went into septic shock and spent six weeks in a coma. When she finally woke up in July, Miss Caron was told by doctors that she would lose an arm and both legs.Caron had spent the past five months in recovery. A few weeks ago, she finally returned home to her family - just in time for her son's birthday and for Christmas.‘Just to be home and healthy and have my whole family together and that everybody stays that way. I'm so happy I made my 50th year. I mean I just made it clawing,’ Caron told CBC.ca. Christine Caron has been fitted with prosthetic legs and will soon get an artificial arm, which she hopes to put to good use by re-learning to drive a car and jog.Since being discharged from the hospital, the 50-year-old moved her family from their old two-story home to a more easily accessible bungalow in Ottawa’s Beacon Hill North.Caron said that after coming so close to dying, she takes nothing for granted and recognizes beauty in the most mundane things - like snow falling outside her window.The resilient, irrepressible woman also has not lost her sense of humor.‘Everyone was complaining about having to shovel. Now, granted I didn't have to go out there,’ she quipped. ‘I had an excuse this year.’  For Caron, the nightmare started May 22 when one of her four dogs, a small Shih Tzu named Buster, nipped her hand during a playful tug of war.   The woman thought nothing of the tiny nick and let one of her other dogs lick her injured hand - a fateful decision that nearly cost Caron her life.  Three days later, Ms Caron felt dizzy. She went to bed that night and woke up only six weeks later at The Ottawa Hospital. As it turned out, the comatose patient went into septic shock after her wound became infected with Capnocytophaga canimorsus - a bacterium common in dogs' saliva. Ms Caron's extreme reaction to the bacteria left doctors fighting to save her life. The medical team at Ottawa Hospital were forced to put her into an induced coma for six weeks.The septic shock caused blood flow to be restricted to her limbs, turning them black, and left doctors with no choice but to amputate them.  Capnocytophaga canimorsus is common in the saliva of both dogs and cats. It is normally not seriously harmful to healthy adults.  It has been estimated that 1million Americans are bitten by dogs every year with chance of infection from canines varying between 3 and 20 per cent. Health Canada said in the last 40 years, only 200 people in the world have gone into septic shock for the bacterium. Caron's reaction could be attributed to that fact she had been unknowingly battling pneumonia at the time of the incident, which suppressed her immune system, Ottawa Sun reported.Things could have turned out even worse for the woman: the infection nearly claimed her lips, nose and right hand.Caron has revealed that after the amputations, she was depressed and even contemplated suicide, but focusing on her four children gave her a will to live. What followed next were months of gruelling physical and occupational therapy at the Ottawa Hospital Rehabilitation Centre, where Caron worked tirelessly to regain her strength and learn how to walk on her prosthetic legs. The 50-year-old has more trials ahead of her: she is awaiting a surgery on her damaged right hand and skin grafting. Since Caron did not have health insurance to cover her mounting medical bills, her family have been collecting donations on the site FundRazr to pay for her costly treatment.Since July, the Carons have raised nearly $96,000, and counting. (dailymail.co.uk)ANN.Az