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  • Aimee Copeland Released from Hospital, Begins Physical Therapy

    Aimee Copeland, the 24 year-old college student who contracted necrotizing fasciitis following an accident on a homemade zip line, has finally been released from the hospital after months of treatment. However, according to her father, Copeland isn’t headed for home just yet. Instead, she’s scheduled to spend several weeks at a rehabilitation facility, where she will learn how to navigate the world in a wheelchair.

    Copeland, who spent two-month fighting for her life at Joseph M. Still Burn Center at Doctors Hospital in Augusta, Georgia, lost her left leg, right foot, and both hands after contracting the deadly disease. However, despite these loses, Copeland remains positive about her life, especially after doctors originally predicted a grim outcome for the twenty year-old.

    Although Copeland has struggled to stay alive over the past few months, there’s still quite a bit of hard work ahead. “The first step is to provide patients with self independence. Right now, someone has to feed her, help her with hygiene, turn on lights, open doors. But some simple devices can help her do these things herself,” Dr. Alberto Esquenazi, chief medical officer of MossRehab in Philadelphia, explained to ABC News.

    The ultimate goal of this strenuous rehabilitation is to prepare Copeland’s body for prosthetics. According to Esquenazi, her skin should heal enough over the next few weeks for doctors to take the next step. Her father, Andy Copeland, believes that his daughter is up for the challenge, which will also include graduating from the University of West Georgia this year.

    “And she feels the challenge will create a tremendous opportunity not just for her to learn more and to gain more from this but to learn more that she can use to help others along the way,” he said to Good Morning America.

  • Flesh-Eating Disease Strikes Again: New Mom Fights For Her Life

    Although it has been called “extremely rare”, the bacterial infection that caused Georgia college student Aimee Copeland to lose her leg last week has now been found in a South Carolina woman who recently gave birth to twins.

    36-year old Lana Kuykendall had to be rushed back to the hospital after being discharged because she had severe pain in her leg. Doctors found an unusual spot on the back of her leg, and it was spreading rapidly. Known as necrotizing fasciitis–the bacteria which also causes strep throat–the disease was showing signs of spreading elsewhere on her body and has required four surgeries to contain. She is in critical condition today in South Carolina.

    Her husband, Darren, says he talks to her every day in an effort to keep her fighting the bacteria and is devastated that his wife has barely seen their newborns.

    “I tell her how good she’s doing, and how strong she is, and that she’s a fighter. She can make it,” he said. Kuykendall has been stabilized but has a long way to go towards recovery.

    Aimee Copeland, who had to have her leg amputated last week as a result of the bacteria, is still in critical condition but is beginning to show signs of improvement after a stint in a hyperbaric chamber, which is helping restore her circulation. She was zip-lining over Little Tallapoosa River in Georgia last week when the line snapped, cutting her leg open. After receiving staples to close the gash, she returned to the hospital complaining of severe pain and was given antibiotics, to no avail. Several surgeries have now been performed to keep the bacteria–which lives in warm water and is usually the cause of diarrhea or vomiting–from spreading to other parts of her body.

  • Flesh-Eating Disease Victim Likely To Lose More Limbs

    The college student who lost her leg after a zip-line accident last week will likely have to face more amputations, doctors say.

    24-year old Aimee Copeland was riding a homemade zip-line near Little Tallapoosa River on May 1st when the line snapped and cut her leg open. While it was a deep enough gash to require stitches, Copeland had no cause for concern after she went to the hospital to get stitched up. What she didn’t know, however, is that a form of bacteria had been introduced into her bloodstream that spread directly to her muscle tissue and began to deteriorate it.

    The scariest part is that the bacteria is a common one–Aeromonas hydrophila–which usually just causes stomach troubles like diarrhea and can be found in fresh water areas, which is likely where Copeland picked it up. She happens to be highly susceptible to infection from it, and once it was introduced to an open wound, it spread like wildfire through her system. Doctors say it’s likely now that she’ll lose her other foot and both hands, although since a scare where her heart stopped on Friday, she’s actually started recovering and shows signs that she understands when she is spoken to. She remains in critical condition.

    Although an infection such as Copeland’s is very rare, it is considered deadly since the mortality rate among victims is around 60%.

    Aimee’s father, Andy Copeland, acknowledge that his daughter has a hard road ahead of her, but that he is grateful she is alive after initially being given a slim chance to survive.

    “I couldn’t conceive of what it would be like for my daughter to lose her hands and the only other foot she has, as well, and that appears to be what is going to happen,” he said. “The most important thing is my daughter is still alive.”