The Condition of Aimee Copeland – The Flesh Eating Bacteria Patient – Improved

Aimee Copeland, a girl from Georgia, battling a rare type of flesh eating infection was now could take breaths on her own, said her father on Monday. She was also focusing on breathing without using ventilator that would supposedly recover her lungs. Her father thanked God for her being alive in spite of going through such a critical condition.

The girl, 24, developed an atypical condition known as ‘necrotizing fasciitis’ after cutting he leg by falling from a homespun zip line over a small river located in West Georgia on May 1. She was taken to the doctors who did twenty-two staple to close her wound. However, her condition did not improve. Rather it was worsened over the next couple of days. So, she was hospitalized again and diagnosed to be infected with ‘necrotizing fasciitis’. The bacteria responsible for her condition was ‘Aeromonas hydrophila’ that usually thrives in warm and fresh water like the river where she was zip lining with her friends.

Doctors had to cut off major part of her left leg. Her hands were also amputated because of infection. However, the girl bravely faced the situation and when she was informed about the possible amputation of her hands and the remaining foot, she replied, ‘Let’s do this’.
The latest news is that a landscaper from Georgia has also affected with the same disease and got admitted into the Augusta hospital where Aimee is fighting for her life.

The name of the 32-year-old man is Robert Vaughn who was infected with ‘necrotizing fasciitis’ after hacking his thigh while cutting weeds on May 4. Vaughn was also given primary treatment but his condition worsened in the next day that led him to hospital again. It took total five surgeries for removing more than two pounds bacteria-infected tissues from Vaughn’s wound.

Three cases of flesh-eating diseases were found in Georgia within three weeks. On May 11, another 36-year-old woman called Lana Kuykendall was infected with the same disease after giving birth to twins at a hospital in Atlanta. Her condition is reported to be critical but stable.

The spokeswoman of Doctor’s Hospital Barclay Bishop said that it was not uncommon to have patients like Vaughn or Aimee. She added that in 2011, patients infected with ‘necrotizing fasciitis’ made up almost 8.5 percent of the total intensive care patients of the hospital.

The president of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases Dr. William Schaffner said that the bacteria worked by producing muscle-dissolving enzymes and it worked in so deep down inside the tissues that the affected patient could not recognize it immediately. According to him, the existence of serious pain is the only way to recognize this deadly infection. Even a superficial injury can inflict severe pain in case of this bacterial infection.