Woman Contracts Flesh-Eating Bacteria After Zip Lining Accident
It was a zip lining accident that went from bad to much, much worse.
Just one week ago, Aimee Copeland, 24, was enjoying a trip kayaking down a creek with some of her friends in Carrollton, Ga. But when Copeland stopped to ride on a homemade zip line along the water, the line snapped and cut a large gash in her left calf.
Now the University of West Georgia graduate psychology student is in critical condition after a flesh-eating bacterium entered her body through the wound in her calf, causing her leg to be amputated Friday night, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported…
The pain still did not subside, so a friend drove a “pale and weak” Copeland to Tanner Medical again Friday morning. When she arrived, an ER doctor diagnosed her with “necrotizing fasciitis” - a flesh-eating disease of the deep layers of the skin - in her damaged leg.
“The surgeons advised me that they wanted to try to save her leg, but at this point saving her life took precedence,” Copeland’s father wrote on the Facebook page. “They removed all of the infected tissue and advised that she would have limited, if any use of her leg.”