Flesh-Eating Victim's Home Makeover

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Flesh-Eating Bacteria No Cause for Panic, Experts Say

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Georgia flesh-eating bacteria patient breathing on own: father

Reuters – 16 mins ago ATLANTA (Reuters) - A Georgia graduate student fighting a rare flesh-eating bacterial infection she contracted after being injured in a zip-line accident nearly three weeks ago is breathing on her own without the help of a ventilator, her father said.

The struggle to save 24-year-old Aimee Copeland from necrotizing fasciitis - a bacterial infection that can destroy muscles, skin and tissue - has been chronicled by her father, Andy Copeland, in a blog on the university's website.

"She has been off of the ventilator for over 10 hours," Andy Copeland wrote late on Sunday. "In other words, she is breathing completely on her own! How cool is that?"

Copeland, a student at West Georgia University, slashed her calf when the zip-line snapped May 1 along the Little Tallapoosa River near Carrollton, Georgia. Emergency room doctors closed the wound with 22 staples and released Copeland, but she was diagnosed with the infection after her conditioned worsened.

Surgeons amputated Copeland's left leg at the hip. Last week, she mouthed, "Let's do this" when told her hands and remaining foot would have to be amputated, her father wrote on Friday.

It is unclear from Andy Copeland's postings whether the additional amputations had already occurred. A hospital spokeswoman has declined to comment on the woman's condition.

In his Sunday night posting, Andy Copeland said he was reducing the time he spends on media interviews.

"Two of my most important responsibilities are to pray for and provide financial support for my family," he wrote. "Everything else, including blog posting, organizing blood drives and conducting media interviews is secondary."

Different bacteria can cause necrotizing fasciitis. Health experts say the "flesh-eating" infection is not communicable.

Two cases of flesh-eating infections have been reported recently in South Carolina as well.

A new mother of twins, Lana Kuykendall, 36, was admitted to Greenville Memorial Hospital on May 11, days after giving birth, with a painful spot on her leg that was ultimately diagnosed as necrotizing fasciitis.

Her brother, Brian Swaffer, said Kuykendall had undergone at least seven operations, was sedated, and only opened her eyes "a little bit, at times."

A former South Carolina fire chief, Glenn Pace, told a local television station he had been battling a flesh-eating bacteria since early April and had three surgeries on his foot.

A 1996 report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated there were 500 to 1,500 cases of necrotizing fasciitis annually in the United States, with about 20 percent of them fatal. The National Necrotizing Fasciitis Foundation has said that estimate is probably low.

(Reporting by David Beasley and Harriet McLeod; Editing by Cynthia Johnston)

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Georgia woman with flesh-eating disease in "critical" condition

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Parents read lips of woman with flesh-eating bug

The parents of a young Georgia woman battling a flesh-eating bacterial infection said Monday they've learned to read lips and are communicating with their daughter despite a breathing tube in her throat.

Speaking on NBC's "Today" show Monday, Andy Copeland said his daughter Aimee told them she was thirsty, and that ice cream was the first thing she wants when she's able to eat on her own.

"We just take it each day at a time," he said. "My daughter's strong, she really is."

Aimee Copeland, 24, has already lost most of her left leg and will lose her fingers. Doctors hope to save the palms of her hands, which could allow her to someday use prosthetics, her father said in an online update.

"Aimee is alert and trying to mouth questions," Andy Copeland wrote on a website created to provide updates to friends and supporters. "Her breathing tube has been reoriented to increase her comfort and allow them to try to read her lips. She said: 'I can't talk!' We told her it was because of the tube, and we explained the need for it. 'Take it out!' She also asked 'What happened?' and 'Where am I?'"

She contracted the rare infection, called necrotizing fasciitis, after falling from a broken zip line and gashing her leg on May 1.

She was in critical condition Monday in the Joseph M. Still Burn Center at Doctors Hospital in Augusta, hospital spokeswoman Stacey Snyder said.

Infections by so-called flesh-eating bacteria are rare but sometimes can run rampant after even minor cuts or scratches. The affliction can destroy muscle, fat and skin tissue. The bacteria that infected Copeland is called Aeromonas hydrophila.

Aimee Copeland hasn't been told of the exact extent of her injuries, but she has asked how long she has been in the hospital, her father told the "Today" show.

When told that she's been hospitalized for several days, she expressed concern about completing coursework at the University of West Georgia, where she's a graduate student, her father said. She also worried about missing work at a cafe in Carrollton.

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Online:

http://uwgpsychology.org/2012/aimee-copeland/

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