Aimee Copeland – the Georgia college student who lost both her hands, a leg, and a foot to flesh-eating bacteria – is finally taking morphine, according to her father Andy Copeland.
Andy says that, in recent days, his daughter has been suffering through the worst pain of her entire tragic ordeal.
Aimee contracted necrotizing fasciitis after suffering a deep gash in her leg when she fell from a homemade zipline on May 1.
Andy Copeland says his daughter sometimes cries from the pain of her numerous amputations, but stops because the crying hurts her stomach.
She had resisted taking pain medication until recently.
Doctors have removed some of the skin covering Aimee Copeland’s abdomen and hip, leaving a large wound that has been covered with sterile bandages ahead of a skin graft.
“The area of her wound, which I saw for the first time on Sunday during a dressing change, is massive,” Andy wrote in a blog post, adding that the wound looked clean and red, meaning small blood vessels had made it to the surface, prepared to greet a transplanted layer of skin.
Andy Copeland acknowledged that Aimee’s scheduled skin graft today could likely be one of many.
“Aimee’s wound repair is a life-long process that will require ongoing attention and medical care,” he wrote. “However, the surgery today will bring her one step closer to her biggest challenge yet: rehab.”
Once her wound heals, Aimee will being learning to live with prosthetics.
“This important step in Aimee’s recovery process will take months to complete,” Andy Copeland wrote. “But I have no doubt that she will give it the same focused effort and determination that she gave to attain an A average throughout her master’s program – the same effort that, thanks to God’s help, has allowed her to recover to her current condition.”
Aimee Copeland is being treated at Doctors Hospital in Augusta.
More in the video below.
Related articles
- Aimee Copeland Fights Flesh-eating Virus While Refusing Pain Meds (huffingtonpost.com)
- Women with flesh-eating disease refuses pain meds (foxnews.com)
- For Aimee Copeland’s dad, an agonizing Father’s Day – Atlanta Journal Constitution (ajc.com)
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