Some updated reports on the Ga. / S.C. Flesh Eating Bacteria Disease

Some updated reports on the outbreak

Woman with flesh-eating disease takes own breaths

1:48 PM, May 21, 2012 |  ATLANTA -- The father of a Georgia woman fighting a flesh-eating disease says his daughter is now able to breathe on her own, a milestone that sent the family's spirits soaring.

Aimee Copeland is now focused on taking each breath without the aid of a ventilator, which will help her lungs recover...

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http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/georgia/article/257164/5/Woman-with-flesh-eating-disease-takes-own-breaths

Georgia flesh-eating bacteria patient breathing on own: father

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?"

http://health.yahoo.net/news/s/nm/georgia-flesh-eating-bacteria-patient-breathing-on-own-father

She still feels like she has fingers, he said, a phantom sensation that sometimes occurs after the loss of limbs. Doctors had already amputated most of her left leg.
But she's maintained her positive outlook since the amputations, inspiring loved ones at her hospital bedside in Augusta and strangers around the globe, her father said.
"Her message doesn't reside in her ability to use her hands, it's her ability to use her heart and her mind," he said.
"I just thank God my daughter is alive."  

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http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/05/21/2809826/woman-with-flesh-eating-disease.html

Vigil held for mom with flesh-eating bacteria

Updated: May 21, 2012 8:46 AM EDT

 

Lana Kuykendall with her newborn twins before getting sick in Greenville. (Courtesy Janelle Alier)

GREENVILLE, SC (FOX Carolina) -

A Greenville woman remains in critical condition after contracting a form of flesh-eating bacteria.

Greenville Memorial Hospital said Sunday that Lana Kuykendall remained in critical but stable condition while undergoing treatment and surgeries to fight necrotizing fasiicitis. She was admitted earlier in May, just after giving birth to twins at a hospital in Atlanta.

During a press conference Sunday afternoon, Kuykendall's brother Brian Swaffer said his sister was still sedated and in intensive care.

Hospital officials said she has now undergone seven debridement surgeries to remove dead tissue from her legs, and the family says she's fortunate to have the infection localized to that area of her body..

more

http://www.wistv.com/story/18566919/friends-and-family-hold-vigil-for-flesh-eating-bacteria-victim

Seventh surgery for Piedmont mom

 

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 Officials say risk of infection from flesh-eating bacteria spreading to other patients is negligible

A Piedmont woman diagnosed with flesh-eating bacteria after giving birth to twins May 7 has now undergone seven surgeries as the disease has spread to both legs.
Lana Kuykendall was in critical but stable condition at Greenville Memorial Hospital on Sunday afternoon. Hospital officials say she’s had debridement surgeries — which trims dead or diseased tissue from around a wound — as a result of the necrotizing fascitis Kuykendall found on the back of her left leg four days after she gave birth in an Atlanta hospital.
The 36-year-old’s brother, Brian Swaffer updated the media Sunday afternoon on his sister’s condition at a gathering at GHS.
“We’d just like to say thank you to the entire community for rallying around Lana, Darren and their two children,” Swaffer said. “Thank you for offering up prayers.”

Swaffer and hospital officials revealed the bacterial infection has spread to both legs, but has not touched any vital organs. Swaffer said Kuykendall is intubated and sedated and has spoken little since her hospitalization.
“I don’t know what she knows,” about her own condition, he said. “She has responded at times.”
Kuykendall, a paramedic, recognized the lesion on the back of her own leg and decided to seek medical attention which resulted in the first surgery just 90 minutes after her arrival. Necrotizing fascitis is a fast-spreading infection. Her infection was caused by Group A Streptococcus, which is a bacteria that causes everything from strep throat to scarlet fever...

More http://www.greenvilleonline.com/article/20120521/NEWS/305210008/Seventh-surgery-Piedmont-mom?odyssey=tab%7Ctopnews%7Ctext%7CFRONTPAGE&nclick_check=1

An Upstate mother of twins battles flesh-eating bacteria

Lana Kuykendall remains in critical but stable condition while undergoing treatment and surgeries to fight necrotizing fasiicitis.

pics

http://www.foxcarolina.com/slideshow?widgetid=53235

Third flesh-eating case brings focus to deadly condition

 Updated: May 21, 2012 5:06 PM EDT

By Michelle Jones - email

Landscaper Bobby Vaughn is not sure how he contracted the flesh-eating bacteria. (Source: WGCL)

 

Lana Kyukendall is sedated in a Greenville, S.C. hospital. (Source: WHNS)

 

Aimee Copeland was treated in an Atlanta hospital for her leg injury before falling ill to a flesh-eating bacteria. (Source: WGCL)

ATLANTA (RNN) - A Cartersville, GA, man has become the third case of necrotizing fasciitis to make headlines in recent weeks, coming just after a 24-year-old Georgia woman lost her foot and both hands to the condition.

Bobby Vaughn, 32, is in Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta after receiving five surgeries to treat flesh-eating bacteria that attacked his groin. Vaughn works outside and said he was not feeling well one day, and went to his truck and began vomiting.

"It went from a little peanut to a grapefruit fast, whatever it was," he told WGCL-TV in Atlanta.

Necrotizing fasciitis is a serious and severe infection of the deeper layers of skin that spreads easily across and to the subcutaneous tissues. It is quick and progressive and destroys the tissue it attacks.

It can be caused by several types of bacteria, including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureas, or MRSA.

Emory University physician Dr. Walter Ingram said he treats at least two patients per month for various strains of flesh-eating bacteria.

"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.

University of West Georgia student Aimee Copeland contracted the flesh-eating bacteria when a May 1 zip-line accident left her with a large gash in her leg.

After several surgeries, Copeland was taken off her ventilator last week, and is now breathing on her own with the help of an oxygen mask and a tracheostomy. She is awake and in good spirits, although she has lost both hands and her lower leg. Doctors have said her other foot will need amputation, as well.

Copeland's father, Andy Copeland, broke the news to Aimee that she would lose her hands, and she did not blanch.

"Let's do this," she told him.

Aimee Copeland was first treated for the cut in an Atlanta hospital, receiving 22 staples to close the wound. Three days later, she returned to the emergency room in severe pain.

Copeland was flown to the Joseph M. Still Burn Center at Doctors Hospital in Augusta, GA, where she was treated for the flesh-eating bacteria caused by group A streptococcus. Group A also causes more benign conditions such as strep throat.

It is unknown whether she contracted the bacteria in the original accident or at the hospital where she received treatment, but the wound is believed to be the entry point.

New mom Lana Kyukendall of South Carolina has had seven surgeries to clear her system of the bacteria, but no amputations. She gave birth to twins on May 7 in Atlanta, but returned to a hospital near home a few days later after noticing a rapidly growing bruise.

"We don't know what the next day is going to bring, so we're just trusting the Lord," her brother Brian Swaffer told CNN on Sunday. "We're taking it one day at a time."

One in four people - about 1,800 - die from necrotizing fasciitis every year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

 About 11,500 contract the disease in a year. There are hundreds if not thousands of cases every year that don't make headlines.

However, some flesh eating bacteria have been observed with increasing frequency.

Medical professionals emphasi...   http://www.foxcarolina.com/story/18572979/third-flesh-eating-bacteria-case-makes-headlines-bug-is-not-uncommon