Local Woman Survives Rare Flesh Eating Bacteria
Woman battles flesh-eating disease after accident
Georgia college student battles flesh-eating bacteria
Local Woman Survives Rare Flesh Eating Bacteria
By: Hollie Hojek
hhojek@kcautv.com
Jane Bisenius says she probably would have waited to get the red spot on her arm checked out by a doctor, but she admits now that it was timing and immediate treatment that saved her arm, and ultimately, her life.
About a month ago, Bisenius, from Storm Lake, was with her two daughters in Omaha, when she recognized a red spot on her arm, about the size of a quarter.
"It wasn't itchy... it wasn't hot, it wasn't inflamed... it was like gee that's funny, how all of a sudden I have that blotch there," said Bisenius.
But just a few hours later she began to feel sick, and that red mark on her elbow rapidly grew to the size of her hand. Luckily she was with her two daughters who knew something was wrong and encouraged her to it immediately go to the doctor. Less than 72 hours later, Bisenius was flown to Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha. She was diagnosed with a flesh eating bacteria, known as necrotizing facitis. For the next six days, Bisenius was placed inside a hyper barric oxygen chamber, to try and stop the bacteria from spreading.
"It just forces the oxygen through this whole wound, of course it forces oxygen through your whole body as well but the pure oxygen really stimulates healing..." said Bisenius.
Just about three weeks after her treatment, Bisenius is having the staples removed from her arm...and thanking her lucky stars for how things turned out.
"Seventy-eight percent of the people who get this die! And in most cases, need some sort of amputation to stop the progression of it, so not only to be alive, but to not have any amputation, is a miracle!"
Bisenius says her advice to people is if you notice anything out of the ordinary, call your doctor immediately.
http://www.kcautv.com/story/18246484/local-woman-survives-rare-flesh-eating-bacteria
Woman battles flesh-eating disease after accident
Doctors say a woman fighting a flesh-decaying bacteria she contracted after a zip line accident will lose her hands and remaining foot to the infection.
But Aimee Copeland's father says the 24-year-old college student is improving.
Andy Copeland told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution ( http://bit.ly/ITgEtP) on Thursday his daughter is "coherent and alert." Doctors treating her at an Augusta hospital say there is no indication of any brain damage and her lungs are slowly healing, but her hands and remaining foot will have to be amputated.
Copeland cut her leg after falling from a homemade zip line May 1.
The University of West Georgia graduate psychology student was diagnosed Friday with necrotizing faciitis, a bacteria that destroys human tissue. She lost most of her right leg to the infection.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2012/05/10/national/a121627D89.DTL#ixzz1uZAHB9so
Georgia college student battles flesh-eating bacteria
ATLANTA (Reuters) - A Georgia college student was in critical condition on Thursday suffering with a rare, flesh-eating bacterial infection following a zip line accident last week.
Aimee Copeland, 24, was kayaking and zip-lining along the Little Tallapoosa River near Carrollton, Georgia, on May 1 when the line broke and she suffered a cut to her calf, her father, Andy Copeland, wrote in a Facebook posting.
Emergency room doctors closed the wound with 22 staples and released the woman, a graduate student at West Georgia University, her father wrote.
The next day, Copeland complained of severe pain and returned to the emergency room where she was given a prescription pain killer. The pain continued and the following day she went to a doctor who gave her a prescription for antibiotics. The doctor also ordered a magnetic resonance imaging test which was negative, her father said.
Last Friday, Copeland was pale and weak and went to a hospital where doctors diagnosed her with necrotizing fasciitis, a rare flesh-eating bacterial infection.
She was transferred to a burn center in Augusta where doctors amputated most of one leg, Andy Copeland wrote, describing his daughter's condition as "without a doubt the most horrific situation that a parent can possibly imagine."
Necrotizing fasciitis is often initially overlooked by doctors because it invades tissue deep inside the wound while the outer wound appears to be healing normally, Dr. William Schaffner of the Vanderbilt University Medical School told Reuters.
"This often is a very subtle infection initially," he said. "These bacteria lodge in the deeper layers of the wound. The organism is deep in the tissues and that's where it's causing its mischief."
On Thursday, Copeland was still listed in critical condition, said Barclay Bishop, spokeswoman for Doctors Hospital in Augusta.
"Aimee is awake, understands everything and is nodding her head to questions!" a posting on her university blog said Thursday. "Aimee is still on her life support, and we are waiting to hear more about how she is doing today."
(Editing By Tom Brown and Bill Trott)
Aimee Copeland, the Georgia student battling flesh-eating disease after a zip line injury, is showing signs of recovery, her family said today. But the 24-year-old is still fighting for her life, relying on a ventilator to breathe.
"Her condition is still critical," Copeland's father, Andy Copeland, told reporters at a press conference in Augusta, Ga. "If they were to unhook the ventilator, I don't know that she could breathe on her own."
Aimee Copeland was riding a homemade zip line near the Little Tallapoosa River May 1 when the line snapped, causing a gash in her left calf. Bacteria that burrowed deep into the wound caused necrotizing fasciitis, a rare but deadly infection that on Friday forced doctors to amputate her leg.
"It's a miracle she made it past Friday night," Andy Copeland told ABC affiliate WSBTV.
Copeland may also lose her hands and her right foot, her father said.
"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," he told WSBTV. "The most important thing is my daughter is still alive."
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Although she's still on a ventilator, Copeland's is alert and able to nod and shake her head, according to a Facebook page dedicated to her recovery.
"Seeing Aimee this morning was so refreshing," wrote Copeland's sister, Paige. "My hope for her recovery is stronger than ever!"
The bacteria thought to have triggered the infection, Aeromonas hydrophila, thrives in warm climates and fresh water, like the river where Copeland was kayaking and zip lining with friends. But experts say it rarely causes flesh-eating disease.
"This bacteria is a common cause of diarrheal illness," said Dr. William Schaffner, chair of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn., and president of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases. "For it to cause a deep wound infection that dissolves tissue, that's not common."
Although the infection is rare, it's extremely dangerous. Mortality rates for Aeromonas-related necrotizing fasciitis are upward of 60 percent, according to a 2010 report published in the journal Clinical Microbiology Reviews. The sooner the infection is diagnosed and treated, the better the prognosis.
After the accident, Copeland went to Tanner Medical Center in Carrollton, Ga., cleaned the gash and closed it with 22 staples. She returned to the hospital the next day complaining of severe pain and was sent home with a prescription for painkillers. She returned again and was given antibiotics. During her fourth visit Friday, she was diagnosed with necrotizing fasciitis and her leg was amputated.
After the amputation, Copeland was flown to Joseph M. Still Burn Center in Augusta, Ga., where her recovery has been touch and go. Tuesday, one week after the accident, her heart stopped beating. Doctors were able to resuscitate her, but said her chance of surviving the infection was "bleak," according to the family's Facebook page.
But today, the family was optimistic.
"She looks so much better," said Paige Copeland, holding back tears of joy. "I just told her if she keeps improving like this, she'll be out of here in no time."
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-rt-us-usa-georgia-infectionbre84919q-20120510,0,7775754.story
