A third victim is recovering from a flesh-eating bacteria in a strange surge in the rare condition after a Georgia student lost her leg, a foot and both her hands and a new mother of twins was left fighting for her life.
Bobby Vaughn, 32, has lost two pounds of flesh from his groin and back after he caught the aggressive bug when he got a cut on his side after falling out of a tree in Georgia.
Aimee Copeland's fight against the condition has risen to national attention after the 24-year-old student caught it after cutting herself on a homemade zip-slide into Georgia's Little Tallapoosa River at the beginning of this month.
Lana Kuykendall, 36, contracted the condition in South Carolina just hours after giving birth to twins on May 11.
Lucky to be alive: Bobby Vaughn watched his infection grow from the size of a peanut to the size of a grapefruit
Two victims: Aimee Copeland, 24, (right) was infected when she was cut after falling from a homemade zipline. Lana Kuykendall (left) came down with the disease after giving birth to twins
Mr Vaughn is currently being treated at Doctors Hospital in Augusta, Georgia, the same place where Miss Copeland is still fighting for her life after doctors were forced to amputate one of her legs, one of her feet and both her hands.
Miss Copeland, 24, became infected after she received a cut after falling from a homemade zip-line into the river east of Atlanta.
Her father announced on Sunday that she was able to breathe for 10 hours without a respirator, a new milestone in her long road to recovery.
Lana Kuykendall, 36, was hospitalized with necrotitis faciitis just hours after she was released from Emory University Hospital after giving birth to twins there.
She is in critical but stable condition after undergoing seven operations to remove dead and infected tissue from her leg.
Two pounds of flesh: Mr Vaugh had to endure five surgeries, but doctors believe they have removed the infected tissue
AIMEE COPELAND'S LIFE SPARED BUT HER LIMBS ARE AMPUTATED
Aimee Copeland, pictured, a 24-year-old graduate student at the University of West Georgia, suffered a nasty cut on her thigh when her zipline broke and she plunged into the Little Tallapoosa River, east of Atlanta.
Doctors stapled the wound shut, but it became infected with a flesh-eating bacteria on May 4.
Surgeons amputated her leg, but by then the disease had spread rapidly.
On Saturday, they also amputated her foot and both hands.
Now she finally appears to be on the mend, despite being in critical condition.
She breathed on her own for 10 hours on Sunday, the first time since being admitted to the hospital.
NEW MOTHER LANA KUYKENDALL CLINGING TO LIFE
Lana Kuykendall, 36, pictured with her husband, had been home just 13 hours after giving birth to twins at Emory University Hospital when she noticed a painful spot on her leg last on May 11.
Mrs Kuykendall is a paramedic and her husband Darren is a firefighter, so they recognized quickly that something was wrong.
Her husband rushed her to Greenville Memorial Hospital in South Carolina.
While they waited to be seen, the couple watched in horror as the spot on Mrs Kuykendall's leg grew a quarter of an inch in one hours.
She has now undergone seven surgeries to remove the infected tissue and is currently listed in critical condition.
Doctors say that despite the strange surge in cases of the rare disease, the three infections are not related.
Both Miss Copeland and Mr Vaughn are at Doctors Hospital because it has one of the most renowned burn clinics in the country.
Because of the nature of the injuries the flesh-eating bacteria causes, burn doctors have experience removing damaged tissue and repairing it with skin grafts.
Mr Vaughn, a landscaper from Cartersville, said he realized immediately after he received the cut that something was wrong.
'I just out of the blue wasn't feeling real well, and I went over and sat in my truck for a minute, and I was feeling real hot, and I started vomiting, you know, so we just stopped for the day,' he told CBS Atlanta.
However, when the infection, which began the size of a peanut, grew to the size of a grapefruit, he went to see a doctor.
Like Miss Copeland and Mrs Kuyrkendal, Mr Vaughn was rushed into emergency surgery, where doctors cut out as much of the infected tissue as they could.
'I lost a lot of tissue that was in there. I've had a total of about five surgeries,'' Mr Vaugh told the TV station.
Vaughn said he's slowly recovering after doctors managed to stem the spread of the rare infection.
'I was told I was just a day or two from being dead or losing entire parts of my body,' he told NBC 11.
NECROTIZING FASCIITIS: WHAT CAUSES IT, AND WHAT ARE THE SYMPTOMS?
Necrotizing fasciitis, more commonly known as 'flesh-eating disease', is a rare but extremely vicious bacterial infection. 'Necrotizing' refers to something that causes body tissue to die, and the infection can destroy skin, muscles and fat.
The disease develops when the bacteria enters the body, often through a minor cut or scrape. As the bacteria multiply, they release toxins that kill tissue and cut off blood flow to the area.
Because it is so virulent, the bacteria spreads rapidly throughout the body.
Symptoms include small, red lumps or bumps on the skin, rapidly-spreading bruising, sweating, chills, fever and nausea. Organ failure and shock are also common complications.
Sufferers must be treated immediately to prevent death, and are usually given powerful antibiotics and surgery to remove dead tissue. Amputation can become necessary if the disease spreads through an arm or leg.
Patients may undergo skin grafts after the infection has cleared up, to help the healing process or for aesthetic reasons.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2147707/Bobby-Vaughn-victim-of-flesh-eating-bacteria-Georgia.html#ixzz1vYPZnmaQ
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