Aimee Copeland
What started as a simple gash on a young woman’s left calf brought about by a zipline accident is now horribly threatening her very existence.
This is the story of Aimee Copeland, 24, of Snellville, Georgia, and a graduate psychology student at the University of West Georgia, who was kayaking with friends along the Little Tallapoosa River in Carrollton, but stopped and got lured to riding a home-made zipline.
Unfortunately, during the ride, the line snapped sending her down and in the process suffered a deep cut on her left calf.
She sought medical treatment and beside the two dozen staples she received for closing the wound, she also was given pain killers and antibiotics.
Feeling more intense pain days after, a friend took her to an emergency room, and it was only then that she learned of the shocking diagnosis given to her by the doctors that she was suffering from necrotizing fasciitis, a rare flesh-eating bacteria that can destroy skin, fat and muscle.
Physicians told the young woman the infection had already spread to her thigh and hip, and that her whole leg would have to be amputated.
Miss Copeland was flown to the Joseph M. Still Burn Center in Augusta, where doctors performed a high-hip amputation of her left leg and removed further infected tissue from her abdomen.
During the procedure, Aimee went into cardiac arrest but was resuscitated. She, however, remains battling for her life inside the intensive care unit.
The doctors are now left with the daunting thought that because of the virulence of the bacteria, perhaps her hands and right foot might also be cut off, if only to save her life.
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