Saturday, May 19, 2012

Reports on Georgia Flesh Eating Bacteria outbreak

Aimee Copeland's family requests privacy

11:52 p.m. Friday, May 18, 2012Overwhelmed by the worldwide response to her suffering, Aimee Copeland's family has, for now, retreated into a cone of silence, a hospital spokeswoman said Friday.
Enlarge photo
Aimee Copeland (from left) and her family -- mother Donna, father Andy and sister Paige -- before Aimee contracted a rare bacterial infection. Public reaction to her plight overwhelmed the family.
Family photo, Family photoAimee Copeland (from left) and her family -- mother Donna, father Andy and sister Paige -- before Aimee contracted a rare bacterial infection. Public reaction to her plight overwhelmed the family.But those caught up in the Snellville woman's struggle can still follow it via an elaborate running account on a Facebook page maintained by her father, Andy Copeland.
By Friday, the page had more than 54,000 "likes," a number that swelled by the hundreds from hour to hour.
The University of West Georgia student, who lost her left leg after a zip-lining accident resulted in a rare bacterial infection, is hospitalized at the Joseph M. Still Burn Center in Augusta. Hospital officials are releasing no details about her progress, saying only that she remains in critical condition.
According to a lengthy Facebook entry posted by her father Friday, Aimee Copeland..
http://www.ajc.com/news/gwinnett/aimee-copelands-family-requests-1440555.html

 

Georgia woman loses hands, remaining foot to flesh-eating bug

By the CNN Wire Staff
updated 8:03 PM EDT, Fri May 18, 2012-- Doctors' attempts to combat rare, aggressive bacteria that have infected a University of West Georgia graduate student have suffered a further setback: 24-year-old Aimee Copeland's remaining foot and both her hands were amputated, according to a blog on the school's website.
Prior to the surgery, a website posting by Copeland's friend and fellow psychology student, Ken Lewis, explained the reason: "Aimee's fingers and remaining foot will have to be amputated because of dead blood vessels, not because of necrotizing fasciitis," he wrote...
http://www.cnn.com/2012/05/18/health/georgia-flesh-eating-bacteria/index.html?hpt=hp_t3

Aimee Copeland faces more amputations for flesh-eating bacteria

By Meg Mirshak
Staff Writer
Friday, May 18, 2012
The 24-year-old woman fighting a flesh-eating bacteria at an Augusta hospital learned Thursday that she needs more amputations to aid her recovery.
Aimee Copeland’s father, Andy Copeland, said doctors recommended that she lose her hands and remaining foot because of the added risk of infection, according to an update posted Friday morning on a Facebook page dedicated to the young woman.
In the Facebook post, Copeland said he and his wife explained to their daughter that she would need the amputations.
“Aimee, I do not want anything to happen to you. Your mind is beautiful, your heart is good and your spirit is strong. These hands can prevent your recovery from moving forward,” Copeland said on the Facebook post.
After carefully examining her hands, Aimee Copeland mouthed three words understood by her family: “Let’s do this.”
“Aimee shed no tears, she never batted an eyelash. I was crying because I am a proud father of an incredibly courageous young lady,” her father said.
Aimee Copeland, of Snellville, Ga., contracted the flesh-eating infection May 1 when she gashed her leg after falling from a homemade zipline that broke over the Little Tallapoosa River.
Doctors at the Joseph M. Still Burn Center at Doctors Hospital amputated her left leg. She is still listed in critical condition at the hospital....
http://chronicle.augusta.com/news/health/2012-05-18/aimee-copeland-faces-more-amputations-flesh-eating-bacteria?v=1337394575

New SC mom hospitalized with flesh-eating bacteria

COLUMBIA — Days after giving birth to twins, a South Carolina mother has been hospitalized for what doctors say is a rare flesh-eating infection.
The development follows the similar affliction of Georgia graduate student Aimee Copeland, who lost her left leg and might lose her fingers. But experts say the South Carolina case, though serious, is less severe than the Georgia one and caused by a different bacterium.
Lana Kuykendall, 36, gave birth to healthy twins at an Atlanta hospital last week. When the family returned to its home in Piedmont, the mother – who is also a paramedic – noticed a pain and rash on her left leg.
As the spot began to spread, Kuykendall went to a local hospital, where she has since undergone several surgeries but was improving Thursday.
“She’s stable,” Darren Kuykendall, the woman’s husband, told The Associated Press in a phone interview from Greenville Memorial Hospital.
The condition is called necro­tizing fasciitis, the same disorder that has Copeland fighting for her life at the Joseph M. Still Burn Center a couple hours away in Augusta. Doctors say Copeland, 24, has lost a leg and could lose all her fingers from the infection that spread days after she suffered a deep cut while zip-lining.
Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease expe...
http://chronicle.augusta.com/news/health/2012-05-17/new-sc-mom-hospitalized-flesh-eating-bacteria

Cartersville man fighting off flesh-eating bacteria
CARTERSVILLE, GA ( CBS ATLANTA) -
Bobby Vaughn, 32, works as a landscaper in Cartersville, but is recovering at an Augusta hospital today after flesh-eating bacteria invaded his body earlier this month.
"It went from the size of a little peanut to a grapefruit fast, whatever it was," said Vaughn. "I lost a lot of tissue that was in there. I've had a total of about five surgeries. I've had two there, and I've had three here in Augusta."
Emory University medical doctor Walter Ingram sees at least one to two patients a month at Grady Hospital with the flesh-eating disease.
"Two bacteria are known to spread rapidly within hours - strep and clostridia. Those two strains of bacteria are very rapidly spreading, and in a matter of six to eight hours they can spread to an entire leg," said Ingram..



More  video on 3rd patient Bobby Vaughn  http://www.myfoxatlanta.com/video?clipId=7290670&autoStart=true&
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