[Updated at 3:57 p.m. ET] A University of West Georgia graduate psychology student is fighting for her life with flesh-eating bacteria after falling off a homemade zip line and cutting her leg, CNN affiliates WSB report and WXIA report.
Aimee Copeland, 24, fell off a homemade zip line near a friend’s home in Carroll County, Georgia, on May 1. Doctors at a hospital in Augusta were forced to amputate most of her right leg on Friday after the bacteria destroyed her leg muscles and moved into other parts of her body. She stopped breathing and at one point and had to be resuscitated, her father, Andy Copeland, told WSB.
On Thursday, Andy Copeland told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that her hands and her remaining foot also will have to be amputated.
But he said she was showing improvement at a hospital in Augusta and was "extremely responsive, coherent and alert" on Thursday, the AJC reported.
The AJC reported that Copeland contracted Aeromonas hydrophila in the deep gash in her leg after the zip line broke.
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Can see it now commercial for a cure.Help Ive fallen and Im being eatin up
veteran jerk!
Humor is not for every situation. This is one of them. Way un-cool.
Wow. You are quite the comedian. Have a little sympathy for pete's sake.
idiot response.
Have you no decency, fool?
That home made zip seemed like fun and games until someone loses a leg.
Veteran – your comment doesnt deserve a response.
yet you responded?
What is a zip line ???
A zip line is, in its simplest form, a cable between two trees, one end higher than the other, and a handle hanging from a pulley that one holds and slides down the inclined cable. Fancier versions have things like harnesses for the users, etc. I've never tried the fancy kind, but thesimple sort - a platform 20 feet up a tree and a line with a T-bar handle to grab - is a whole lot of fun.
Aeromonas hydrophila can be eliminated using one percent sodium hypochlorite solution and two percent calcium hypochlorite solution.
Antibiotic agents such as chloramphenicol, florenicol, tetracycline, sulfonamide, nitrofuran derivatives, and pyrodinecarboxylic acids are used to eliminate and control the infection of Aeromonas hydrophila.
Why don't you rush to the hospital and take charge of the case? Or at least give them a call and tell them what they should be doing?
Just ignore them when they tell you that you don't know anything about medicine. I'm sure they're wrong about that, too.
Even though that can kill the bacteria, if she stopped breathing once, that means it has entered her blood, unless her body is able to kill it off fast enough, she will die as you cannot injest enough nor put that into your blood and it work... withouth killing you as well.
Thank you doctor Wikipedia.
I'd like to point out that chloramphenicol is not available in the United States because of a rare, but fatal reaction in which the bone marrow stops producing anything including red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets. Still available in other countries, it probably works well for many bugs since it's lack of overuse has deprived them of any chance to develop resistance.
please pray or think with all of the good people wanting her well. think her name in your mind and push your energy in the geographic direction of where she is.
Sending her and her family many thoughts of love and peace with hopes for a miracle...
Prayers and positive thoughts going out to Aimee and her family.
Hate to see this happen to such a hot piece. Never the less, I'd hit it.
Wow. Were you born in a ghetto?
Maybe you could find a stray dog?
I wouldn't be surprised if she actually picked up that bacteria at the hospital. Hospitals are where most of that come from. I know someone who almost died because of it after picking it up in the hospital during a surgery. Such a shame. Why didn't the hospital prescribe a preventative type of antibiotic when she went to the hospital the first or second time?
Gee I am sure the hospital didn't think about giving her an antibiotic the first two times around. Maybe you should volunteer your time to help them think of such things Einstein.
Good to know a homemade zip line only costs a leg and not an arm as well. Lighten up everyone and go back to your convents and confession booths and pray.
Most of the comments posted are just disgraceful. What a tragedy this is! We can only hope for a medical miracle. Positive thoughts and prayers go to Aimee and her family. Get well soon, Aimee!
Because people can sit at their computers and anonymously post idiotic comments without anyone knowing who they are...they're never going to go away.
A flesh eating bug in Georgia?
You can get that anywhere.
Any deep cut needs to be seen by a doctor immediately, and this is why. Life is a fragile thing, and people die every day; try not to be one of them.
poor girl. hopefully she can recover and have some sort of decent quality of life after this.
I hope she survives. Too sad.