Flesh-Eating Bacteria Victim Scheduled to Leave Hospital
Aimee Copeland, a 24-year-old who picked up the "flesh-eating disease" after a zip line accident, is schedule to leave the hospital Monday.
Aimee Copeland, the 24-year-old Georgia woman who has been battling a flesh-eating bacteria, is scheduled to be released from the hospital Monday, according to CNN.
Copeland's father, Andy Copeland, told CNN that his daughter will enter a rehab facility before returning home.
"She's real excited," Copeland told CNN's Erin Burnett. "She's been seeing those four walls inside that hospital for a long time."
Doctors amputated most of Aimee's hands, one of her legs and one of her feet to stop the infection. She's also had multiple skin grafts. She now has to learn how to perform everyday tasks without hands and feet, Andy Copeland told CNN.
Andy Copeland, a native of Spartanburg, posted on his blog last week that his daughter was improving and was able to spend some time outdoors at the hospital.
Aimee's ordeal started May 1 when she cut her leg severely after falling from a homemade zip line. She picked up a typically fatal bacterium from the water that eats away at the skin. The infection caused a condition called "necrotizing faciitis," more widely known as "flesh-eating disease."
Andy Copeland started a website and blog for his daughter after the incident where he posts updates on her condition, photos and information about donations and blood drives.
One blood drive in honor of Aimee was held at the University of South Carolina in June as part of "Border Bash," a blood drive competition between USC, where Copeland graduated in 1983, and the University of Georgia, where Aimee attended school as an undergraduate.
Kevin Quinn
10:35 am on Friday, July 6, 2012
Flesh eating disease
When I was in Africa I ran into a girl who had a Flesh eating disease all over her right arm, the top of her chest, and half way down her back.
I had brought some medicine with me from the U.S. in case I got sick in the middle of nowhere. So I gave her some “Bactrin” which is an anti-biotic similar to Penicillin, and a bar of Ivory Soap. I told her that the Bactrin would help fight the disease on the inside, while the Soap would fight the disease on the outside.
I explained to her that there were little tinny bugs inside the scabby disease that were eating through her skin, and that she needed to soak off in water as much of the scabby disease as possible. And then put a little bit of water on top of the bar of Ivory Soap and rub it to make a paste, and dab the paste on the raw open wounds. I told her that it would burn like hill for a minute or so, but then it would start to feel much better. I told her to leave the soap on the wounds all the time to keep them from getting infected, and to wash it off and apply new soap twice a day.
I had to leave to work on a dam project, but 8 weeks later I returned to her village and it had killed the disease. You could see the new skin on her back and there was no ugly scaring or discoloration of skin.