who lost both legs and an arm as a child [and] is poised to become a doctor for children. Kellie Lim, who became a triple amputee at age 8 because of bacterial meningitis, is to graduate from UCLA's medical school on Friday, and she plans to focus on childhood allergies and infections disease. . . .

The Michigan native, 26, does not use a prosthetic arm and manages to perform most medical procedures - including giving injections and taking blood - with one arm. She walks on a pair of prosthetic legs.

Raised by a blind mother in suburban Detroit, Lim went through years of wheelchairs and painful therapy after toxic shock from the meningitis claimed her limbs and three fingertips on her remaining hand.

Lim recently saw her childhood medical file, and learned that doctors had given her an 85 percent chance of survival. Just five months after the amputations, Lim returned to a normal school. Born right-handed, she learned to write and work with her left.

"I hate failing," she said. "It's one of those things that's so ingrained in me."