Flesh-Eating Bacteria, Infection That Claimed Aimee Copeland's Foot, Explained (UPDATED)

UPDATED May 18: Aimee Copeland will have to have her hands and other foot amputated because of the flesh-eating bacteria, Fox News reported.

Her father wrote on a Facebook page he created that her hands "went from a splotchy purple color to a red tone and then to a pinkish flesh tone. Yesterday I had noticed them turning back to an angry red," Fox News reported.

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UPDATED May 14: Aimee Copeland will have to have her fingers amputated, though doctors may be able to restore "life back to the palms of her hands, which could allow her the muscle control to use helpful prosthetics," according to a statement on the University of West Georgia Psychology website, ABC News reported.

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Aimee Copeland, the 24-year-old Georgia student who has already lost her leg to necrotizing fasciitis, a rare, flesh-eating bacteria, is in critical condition and may also lose her hands and her other foot, according to news reports.

ABC News reported that Copeland showed evidence of an infection by the flesh-eating disease days after she went to a doctor for a deep cut she suffered from a homemade zip line fall.

Even though the doctors cleaned and closed the wound, it became infected, the Associated Press reported, most likely from bacteria at the zip line site.

"I couldn't conceive of what it would be like for my daughter to lose her hands and the only other foot she has, as well, and that appears to be what is going to happen," her father Andy Copeland told ABC affiliate WSB-TV. "The most important thing is my daughter is still alive."

The Associated Press reported that the specific bacterium that infected Copeland is called Aeromonas hydrophila. This kind of bacteria usually causes diarrhea (when people swallow water contaminated with it), and cases where the bacteria cause flesh-eating diseases are very rare, the AP reported.

ABC News reported on a 2010 study in the journal Clinical Microbiology Reviews, that showed that necrotizing fasciitis from Aeromonas bacteria has a death rate of more than 60 percent. But according to a 2007 study in the World Journal of Emergency Surgery, death rates from the condition can range anywhere from 25 to 73 percent.

The risk for necrotizing fasciitis increases when a person's immune system is already weakened; when a person has other health problems like diabetes or kidney disease; when there are cuts on the skin; when the body has decreased infection resistance because of medications; and when a person has just the chickenpox or another kind of viral infection, WebMD reported.

There are about 10,000 to 15,000 necrotizing fasciitis infections each year in the U.S., with 2,000 to 3,000 deaths, according to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.

According to the 2007 World Journal of Emergency Surgery study, necrotizing fasciitis can be hard to diagnose -- but being too slow to diagnose it carries an increased risk of death.

The first symptoms are typically seen in the first day, and include new wounds elsewhere (even though the original wound usually doesn't yet look infected), the sensation of pain somewhere near the original wound and flu-like symptoms.

Three or four days later, the part of the body where the infected wound is may start to swell up and dark marks and rashes may occur. The actual wound may also start to have a "bluish, white, or dark, mottled, flaky appearance," according to the study. And within four or five days, the body's blood pressure may decrease and may experience septic shock. The person may also become unconscious.

Treatments for necrotizing fasciitis may include antibiotics and surgery -- as Copeland received -- so that the infected parts of the body are removed and don't spread the infection elsewhere, according to WebMD. Other treatments may be needed for the other problems that come with infection -- like possible organ failure or shock -- and hyperbaric oxygen therapy may also be used to stop the body's tissue from dying, WebMD reported.

News reports did not say specifically what other treatments Copeland is undergoing aside from the amputation of her leg and the potential amputation of her hands and other foot, though ABC News noted that she breathes through a ventilator.

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Comments

[Bolt Pride]

05:59 AM on 11/17/2012

Colloidal Silver would easily wipe out these bacterias. I spent 2 years researching CS and learning the correct process on how to make it safely. Its very easy to make once you know how. Medicine needs to catch up with what most people already know and use.

[gipsiwm]

10:26 AM on 06/11/2012

I am an amputee of my entire right leg.it has been a struggle all my life.......if I had my knee it would be different.....however I have had a good and blessed life .......However I pray the Lord Jesus Christ will take Amy home because she has no idea how difficult and sad her life will be....hands and legs are very important to quality of life....life is so dificult already...piece by piece they carve away her life...can you all imagine the quality of life she will have? to pray for her to live is selfish......please if you pray for Amy pray only for Gods will for her.... there is not much life for her here........in Heaven she will be whole once more.

[Christine Shackleton]

04:43 PM on 05/21/2012

These are satan bug type which as such are very susceptible to sudden change. She should survive given they trick the organisms --all three plus

[Christine Shackleton]

04:11 PM on 05/21/2012

The keener scientists of last year brought to you via washington univ
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/image.html

from nobel prize site
http://www.nobelprize.org/mediaplayer/index.php?id=1643

[Republicrat1776]

11:48 PM on 05/16/2012

And yet still you fools believe in a loving god

[gipsiwm]

10:48 AM on 06/11/2012

I saw your post and had to reply...........yes very tragic things happen in this world it true.........but to blame mans condition on the creator of the Universe whom has the name of Jesus Christ is irresponsible......as you recall everything was perfect before the fall of mankind in the garden.......we are always looking to blame someone for things that happened to us.....I suggest you read the bible but first ask for the wisdom God so freely gives to those who ask......the bible says my people perish for lack of knowledge dont be one of them......I asks God in his mercy to open your mind heart and life to his almighty everlasting word........if you read it your life will be transformed and your understanding will increase.....

[gipsiwm]

03:15 PM on 07/01/2012

Sweetie Im not blaming anyone .if you read my post I just wanted to ask people to pray for Gods will for her.......how would you feel without quality of life? tie your hands and feet together and see how life feels......Its hard to live with a normal body missing limbs is hell...........I know the Bible............ I love the Lord........and I also pray for his will not mine.............you just misunderstood me thats all.........blessings .

[Regina B]

06:48 PM on 05/16/2012

STOP THE CUTTING!!! Why on earth didn't they use hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT)? Necrotizing fasciitis one of the 13 conditions allowed by the FDA to be treated and covered by insurance. It is a powerful natural antibiotic that has a myriad of off-label uses as well. There should NEVER be an amputation done without first using HBOT. I think there are grounds for sueing the doctors for negligence. A terrible shame for this young lady.

[Abmaj7]

01:27 PM on 05/16/2012

Ms. Copeland or her estate are poised to become very wealthy. The doctor at the hospital screwed up. He did a perfunctory cleaning and closure in the ER, and then sent her home with oral antibiotics. The closure required 22 sutures, and was done on a wound that was several hours old. This wound should have been debrided, cleaned and closed in the OR, under general anesthesia, with at least the first dose of antibiotics being given IV, (and preferably the second dose as well). Yes, necrotizing fasciitis can occur with any wound, but the chance is greatly increased when a wound is flagrantly undertreated, as in this case.

[Binks]

08:20 PM on 05/18/2012

Her life for the most part is over. Is what you wrote above protocol? It's such a waste of life.

[Abmaj7]

04:21 PM on 05/19/2012

There are no absolute protocols for wounds other than never closing a wound that is grossly contaminated. I made my post based on the probable nature of a zip line injury, which was apparently deep and ragged, with skin and its bacteria forced into the wound. A ragged injury invariably has devitalized tissue in the wound which MUST be debrided lest it act as nidus of infection and futher necrosis. There is NO WAY that the ER doctor did any kind of debridement of the quadricep or hamstring (the article doesn't state if the injury was on the front or back of the leg), simply because local anesthesia works poorly in deep tissue planes, thus the need for OR based anesthesia (regional or general). And if there is any question about viability of surrounding tissue, LEAVE THE WOUND OPEN; let it granulate over 4 to 7 days before closing it. The ER doctor was completely negligent in his assessment and treatment. The take home message here is NEVER assume the doctor knows what he is doing. Ask for treatment options and 2nd opinions. Ask the generalist to put in for a consultation with a specialist. And always remember, 50% of all doctors graduated in the bottom half of their class.

[Christine Shackleton]

11:55 AM on 05/15/2012

Poor old moderator --seen word ammonia and flummexed--
2006--world conference edinburgh--to overcome golden staph-- worlds top expert-- a dutch specialist--there is no known treatment 100 percent at given time--

[Christine Shackleton]

11:42 AM on 05/15/2012

it is silly know but in the old days of the gas works workers died of coal dust or this and that but not these bacteria -- like the cow maid and her resistance-- it is silly to think that if you rub the cloudy ammonia -shock upon shock-- over the skin near the wound and in the hot bends od the knee tc (yes it is a coolant) the bacteria will not surface and therefore complete their necessary cycle of eating the skin-- often called cloudy ammonia sold for adding to scrubbing water etc. No it does not burn adult skin

[Christine Shackleton]

10:58 AM on 05/15/2012

continued=
lymph system is bigger than and part of vascular system-- so both internal and external must occur as in 1950,s and super wound diet used to repair cells and drivcteria ae off new attack by band the virus and fungi it is hosting

[Christine Shackleton]

10:54 AM on 05/15/2012

This is very sad. Doctors must think beyond pale. They must listen to their old cold war lecturers from the universities who were satan bug forming. That for example Staphlycoccus may contain 1000 viruses inside of it as reported by Nature magazine. That making silver bandage made in germany is made especially with certain distances of its texture. That the bacterias will aim for air. That the 1950,s attitude that the very last in the wound must be removed, That fungi will attack the perphery and this must be treated. That hyperbaric aids in treatment. That the lymph expert must be involved--the lymph being a bigger s

[bdl00]

12:42 AM on 05/15/2012

This is so so sad. All I can say is I hope she makes it out alive. I bet she would be such an inspiration. And she's so so lucky she's naturally beautiful (I don't want this to sound rude.) But it means she doesn't have to put make up on and need her hands. She's naturally blessed with good looks. If I lost my hands, and couldn't put make up on, that'd be it for me. Stay storng beautiful.

[Elena Semerdjian]

02:15 PM on 05/14/2012

TEA TREE OIL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[bdl00]

12:38 AM on 05/15/2012

:/

[Christine Shackleton]

10:27 AM on 05/16/2012

purposes turpentine-- satan bugs -- the formation of the seals and bacteria spraying mini battleships Gulf of Tonking

[teresa74]

01:22 PM on 05/17/2012

Not just tea tree oil...I ridded myself of MRSA with several bacteria killers. I am not a doctor, that being said, if she were my daughter, I would have her on internally ( colloidal silver, garlic, turmeric, ascorbic acid and high doses of probiotics) Externally, tea tree oil, colloidal silver and plain active yogurt. You wouldn't want to risk failure with one treatment....these are all nasty little bugs. I wish doctors would incorporate natural remedies with their current treatments....especially when lives are at stake...what could it hurt to use as many remedies as possible, if there is a chance it will work with what is being done?

[Sprinks678]

11:41 AM on 05/14/2012

Poor girl! I hope the docs are able to save her hands. NF is horrifying!

[JubieJewels]

08:37 AM on 05/14/2012

Poor girl! GEEZ!