In the wake of Aimee Copeland’s battle with a potentially fatal form of flesh-eating bacteria, it now looks like a second, and even a third case of the rare disease is being reported.
You may recall that Aimee, 24, contracted the disease after falling from a zipline and sustaining a deep gash in her leg that required staples. She has lost her left leg, part of her abdomen, and will likely lose several fingers to the disease.
Now, a South Carolina woman is undergoing treatment for the infection, and is critical but stable condition at Greenville Memorial Hospital, a hospital spokeswoman said.
Lana Kuykendall, 36, “underwent her fifth debridement surgery to remove necrotic, or dead, tissue from her lower leg,” said Sandy Dees, senior media relations coordinator for Greenville Hospital System University Medical Center.
Last Friday, Kuykendall was diagnosed with necrotizing fasciitis.
A team of surgeons are now monitoring her condition, which is typically managed by surgery and antibiotics.
“She remains very ill but stable,” says Dr. Bill Kelly, the hospital epidemiologist.
Kuykendall was healthy when she gave birth to twins on May 7 in Atlanta, but later went to the hospital near her South Carolina home after noticing a rapidly expanding bruise on her leg, according to her husband, Darren. Doctors there removed dead tissue from her legs and she was put on a ventilator.
To add fuel to the fire, a third case of flesh-eating bacteria has emerged with ties to Georgia.
A landscaper from Cartersville is now in critical condition at Doctors Hospital in Augusta battling the disease. Interestingly enough, that’s the same place Aimee Copeland is being treated.
Bobby Vaughn was hurt at work when he fell from a tree two weeks ago and suffered a cut to his side.
“He got a cut on his side and took himself to the hospital. My son said he was throwing up…They treated him, he chose to leave. He got up the next morning it had spread,” said Amanda Nicholson, Vaughn’s ex-wife.
Nicholson said that Vaughn spent approximately a week at Cartersville Medical Center. She says the infection quickly spread from his abdomen to his upper back. He was then taken to Doctors Hospital in Augusta.
“It was kind of scary at first because, for some reason it was like every two days, when they would go to check, it was spreading still – and so finally that was when they sent him to Augusta,” said Nicholson.
According to Nicholson, Vaughn has undergone five surgeries as doctors remove nearly two pounds of infected tissue.
A number of bacteria can cause this rare condition, which attacks and destroys healthy tissue and is fatal about 20 percent of the time, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
So where is this bacteria coming from? Is this the price we pay for being a nation that hands out antibiotics like candy? Are the “super-bugs” finally here and coming for us all – or are these really just “isolated” incidents?
Unfortunately, only time will tell.
More in the videos below.
Related articles
- Zip Line Accident Causes Georgia Woman to Lose Leg to Flesh-Eating Bacteria (VIDEO) (blippitt.com)
- Aimee Copeland Will Lose Fingers to Flesh Eating Bacteria after Zip Line Accident (VIDEO) (blippitt.com)
- South Carolina woman struck by flesh-eating bacteria disease (dailystar.com.lb)
- As the flesh-eating bacteria attacks more people, how common is it? (whptv.com)
- Second case of flesh-eating bacteria reported in South Carolina (theextinctionprotocol.wordpress.com)
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