Aimee Copeland "very responsive," but to lose hands and other foot to necrotizing fasciitis, says report
Aimee Copeland, 24, is currently at JMS Burn Center in Augusta battling necrotizing fasciitis.
/ FacebookAimee Copeland, 24, battles flesh-eating necrotizing fasciitis following zip-lining accident
In a post written Thursday afternoon, Aimee's classmate Ken Lewis provided an update for those following the tragic story, saying Aimee unfortunately will need her hands and her remaining foot amputated because the blood vessels have died.
Last week doctors had performed a hip-high amputation on Aimee's left leg. Not all the news was bleak, with Lewis writing that Aimee is responding to specific commands and has even selected the music she wants to hear.
"The neurologist says that there is no indication of any brain damage," Lewis wrote. "The cardiopulmonologist says that her lungs are slowly healing."
Aimee's sister Paige also wrote an update today on the Facebook page their father had set to raise awareness about Aimee's condition.
"Seeing Aimee this morning was so refreshing," Paige wrote Thursday afternoon. "Her eyes are wide open and she is nodding or shaking her head to the questions we ask. My hope for her recovery is stronger than ever!"
According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, a "Love Aimee" vigil is being held tonight at the University of West Georgia campus. Blood donations are also being accepted at the JMS Burn Center in Augusta where she has been hospitalized since last Friday.
Last Friday, emergency room doctors at Tanner Medical Center in Carrollton, Ga., diagnosed Copeland with necrotizing fasciitis. According to the Journal-Constitution, Copeland received a nasty cut on her leg last Tuesday on a homemade zip line she was using that broke as she and her friends kayaked along the Little Tallapoosa River in Carrollton.
Doctors closed the gash with 22 staples, but her conditioned worsened over the next few days until she was eventually hospitalized and diagnosed with the disease. The paper reports the bacteria that caused the disease was Aeromonas hydrophila, which is typically found in freshwater.
Symptoms of necrotizing fasciitis include a small red painful lump or bump in the skin that changes to a very painful rapidly growing bruise (sometimes within an hour), and the center of the bruise may become black and die, or break open and ooze fluid. Other symptoms include fever, sweating, chills, nausea, dizziness and shock. Immediate treatment, such as with powerful IV antibiotics or surgery is necessary to prevent death.
WebMD has more on necrotizing fasciitis.
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http://www.phageinternational.com/phagetherapy/infectionsphagetherapy.htm
That's not realistic. What is the reality, however, is the blatant overuse of antibiotics creating these monster bugs, and the insufficient first response of the emergency room physician in this case.
What a heart-breaking story...
EmpireGeorge-_____---- said, "One thing you could learn from this, is don't enter stagnant lake or pond water, or come in contact with dirt or setiment with any open sore, cut, gash on your skin......or allow the water to go up your nose.....doing that would prevent this..."
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When public health authorities do not provide practical disease prevention information, we find well-meaning individuals warning against even normal, daily activities. The effect introduces more fear, uncertainty and doubt, which complicates and delays resolution of any public health issue.
As poster EmpireGeorge already understands, to suggest we avoid bacteria in ponds, lakes and rivers is not a credible public health measure-- millions of Americans enter such potentially contaminated water every day for swimming, boating and fishing, and no outbreak of Aeromonas hydrophila has resulted.
Further, bacteria are so widely distributed, it is impossible to avoid a bacteria like A. hydrophila. These bacteria are found in both fresh water and foul, and on even the concrete floors of urban parking garages.
The real issue is lack of practical information from the CDC regarding necrotizing fascitis and its prevention and control. CDC will protest that not enough is known, but the public seems well aware our best antibiotics fail to stop the disease in too many cases. That failure, alone, would seem a rationale for a priority program to study A. hydrophila, not ignore it.
If it seems alarmist in the Aimee Copeland case to say public health authorities do not know what to do about emerging superbugs, perhaps now is the time for CBS (and other networks) to begin a public discussion about the overuse of antibiotics in animal meat production.
According to many health authorities, 80 percent of the national drug production is used on livestock, and such overuse guarantees the incubation of organisms resistant to the same drugs. In pursuit of maximum profit, drug makers sacrifice the very reliability of the drugs for which they continue to charge us so much.
The effects of drug overuse are everywhere-- antibiotics are found in not only our food, but our water. Because a constant intake of antibiotics kills much of the bacteria in the human gastrointestinal tract and depresses immunity, we encounter a wave of diseases that should have been prevented by normal, healthy immunity.
I do wear latex gloves under my normal gardening gloves most of the time, but how does one protect the hands of one's little grandchildren? Small gardening gloves are sold, but not small enough and they are just one layer of canvas or denim and there are no latex gloves for them.
But my point in writing is to give all my sympathy to Aimee. She will make a good life, I am sure, but the pain and challenges are enormous. The thoughts of millions of people are with her, and will be with her her entire life.
Thank you for such a lovely prayer. You put in words what I feel but have no words for. When I simply imagine putting myself in her mother's shoes, my knees buckly with unspeakable sorrow.
May God please have mercy.