Father sees 'miracle' as Aimee Copeland fights flesh-eating bacteria

[Galraedia]

Source: MSNBC

Doctors in Georgia may be able to save more of flesh-eating bacteria patient Aimee Copeland’s limbs than originally thought, her father said in a blog post Saturday.

Copeland, 24, of Snellville, Ga., remained in critical condition Saturday at the Joseph M. Still Burn Center at Doctors Hospital in Augusta, spokeswoman Barclay Bishop told msnbc.com.

Burn Center doctors removed Copeland’s left leg and tissue from her abdomen Tuesday to fight the spread of a rare infection from necrotizing fasciitis. She went into cardiac arrest and was resuscitated.

Copeland developed the infection after a May 1 accident on a homemade zip line left her with a gash on her calf that Carrollton, Ga., emergency room workers closed with 22 staples

Read more: http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/12/11678595-father-sees-miracle-as-aimee-copeland-fights-flesh-eating-bacteria?lite

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Photos of Aimee

[earcandle]

1. WTF? Flesh eating bacteria from a wound treated at an emergency room in Georgia? What are they

manufacturing there? Is she an activist? Someone should look into this one as a potential crime. Anyone else come down with this disease?

[Ian David]

2. Ever hear of Occam's Razor? n/t

[Lucky Luciano]

21. LOL! Some people see a conspiracy in everything. nt

[sakabatou]

5. Dunno if you're read that wrong or being sarcastic

She didn't get the bacteria from the hospital. It was from wherever she got the wound.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

9. further info for you

How she possibly contracted it
Doctors believe Copeland contracted the bacteria -- Aeromonas hydrophila -- last Tuesday in the incident along Georgia's Little Tallapoosa River. When the zip line broke, Copeland likely was exposed to the bacteria in the river through her open wound, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reported.
When her leg was stapled shut, the bacteria was closed inside, reported the paper.


Her case is extremely rare, medical professionals say. Most people who encounter the bacteria have minor stomach or skin irritation, according to the Atlantic Journal Constitution.
Copeland's classmates wrote on their Web page that she had been diagnosed with lupus several months ago, an autoimmune disorder. Compromised immune systems make it more difficult to fight off infections and may have contributed to Copeland's severe reaction.http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/10/116421

[Dont_Bogart_the_Pretzel]

15. Just what's in Georgia's Little Tallapoosa River water?

Yuck!

[wordpix]

20. that IS the question. But since we've had a war on the environment for decades in this country

plan on it continuing.

Industries dump anything and everything in rivers and air and if citizens fight them, they get their phalanxes of lawyers and paid Congresspeople to do battle while the industries sit back and watch their money go to work.

There you have it.

[Galraedia]

3. According to updates Aimee’s father, Andy Copeland, has been posting online,

Aimee fell from a homemade zip-line during an afternoon of swimming with friends in Georgia’s Little Tallapoosa River last Tuesday. Copeland reportedly gashed open her leg so deeply that doctors had to use 22 staples to seal the wound.

Source: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/05/11/georgia-woman-fights-for-life-against-flesh-eating-bacteria.html

[Politicalboi]

4. I wonder if they could use this

To help her skin heal faster.

http://gizmodo.com/5749968/the-skin-gun-that-sprays-new-skin-on-burn-victims-is-real

[Alameda]

6. Wonderful invention.

I didn't look at the video, squeamish, but the it's great to hear they have come up with something like this.

[Zoeisright]

7. It would be a 'miracle' if she got better without medical intervention.

Since she's being treated by doctors, it's medicine that's making her better, not some imaginary being.

[emilyg]

8. It's both.

[AtheistCrusader]

14. Uh-huh. Sure.

[emilyg]

16. Why not - you don't know anymore than I

do. I believe in God miracles and in medical miracles.

[AtheistCrusader]

17. Do you realize what that kind of message does to the countless people around the country whose

children didn't survive the night tonight?

It's meaningless nonsense, and it causes harm. Humans being unable to save a child is one thing, it's quite another to fill survivors with doubt about whether they prayed hard enough, or if god was punshing them for something, etc.

[wordpix]

23. the invisible man is performing miracles with His bacteria causing the girl's amputations?

Sorry, I don't buy it.

Atheists DO know that no man in the sky exists, either in our atmosphere or in outer space. That's a scientific fact. At least we haven't found him, despite our ability to send out telescopes that can see objects hundreds of thousands of light years away.

Where is YOUR evidence the invisible man exists?

[tabasco]

19. If so, then God put the flesh-eating bacteria in the wound

that tried to kill this girl.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

10. indeed

[roguevalley]

13. let her family have their comfort

[LanternWaste]

26. I believe 'miracle' is an approprate descriptor.

If 'miracle' also means "a wonder; marvel; a wonderful or surpassing example of some quality", it then seems an appropriate descriptor, which doesn't appear to specifically deny the actions of the medical staff.

[azurnoir]

11. my hopes for Aimee and her family and hope that she can survivor with more of her limbs intact

the love and strength of her friends and family will help I know as

I too am a survivor of the same infection, it happened 15 years ago after the birth of my son via C-section obviously I lost no limbs but did have to undergo months of reconstructive surgery's on my abdomen

[onecent]

18. My heart goes out to this young lady...we need her on our side.

Great sign. Blessings to the family in this trying time.

[magical thyme]

24. I remember seeing that picture of her with the sign months ago

here on DU. I guess in one of the occupy threads. I had no idea it was her. Now I feel like it's somebody I know.

While this sort of infection is rare, I do wonder about the emergency room giving her pain killers and sending her off. It feels like this should have been caught much sooner.

[du_grad]

25. I work in clinical microbiology

Necrotizing fasciitis is most commonly caused by Group A beta streptococci (Streptococcus pyogenes). This is also the organism that causes strep throat but in some wounds, it can produce toxins and start rapid necrosis, or breakdown, of the underlying tissue.

I have seen Aeromonas hydrophila in a few wounds and other cultures over the course of my 37 years in the lab. I did not know, however, that Aeromonas could cause necrotizing fasciitis until a fellow worker posted a link about this poor girl on my Facebook page.

Aeromonas is known in the micro world as a "water bug." It is common in the environment. The fact that this wet zip line snapped and inoculated it deep into the tissue of her leg is tragic. I am surprised that she wasn't put on any antibiotics in the ER when they did the stapling, but that is just speculation. I am not a doctor and don't know how wounds like this are normally treated.

If it were ME, and I had a deep wound, I would insist on an infectious disease consultation on any sort of deep wound, especially after reading this article.

Bacteria is literally everywhere. We had no means to fight it until sulfa and penicillin were discovered in the 1930's. Unfortunately, overuse of them might put us right back where we started, but that's another thread.

[Iris]

27. Another post up thread says she was diagnosed with lupus several months ago

I still don't understand the lack of antibiotics

[du_grad]

28. I don't either.

When she came in it probably looked like a "clean" wound so they irrigated it and stapled it shut. The fact that she came back complaining of pain should have sent up some warning signs to somebody, I would think. I would suspect that the surgeons dealt with the original wound. Surgeons don't turf to medicine docs (of which infectious disease is included) unless they have to. I'm sure the hospital she's at is reviewing their ER procedures on wounds as we speak