Flesh-eating infection victim leaves hospital months after losing limbs

She will now have to learn to move using a specially-adapted wheelchair.

Miss Copeland fell from the zip wire on May 1 and received a deep cut to her
thigh. The wound was stitched up but days later, still in pain, she visited
a physician who diagnosed her with necrotizing fasciitis.

She was airlifted to hospital in Augusta, Georgia, where her leg was amputated
almost immediately.

Her father has said that at first doctors gave her just a slim chance of
survival and the family was repeatedly told it was unlikely that she would
live through the night.

Mr Copeland, who kept a regular blog on his daughter’s condition, called her
survival a “miracle”.

She spent weeks sedated and breathing on a respirator, unable to speak, while
undergoing amputations and skin grafts to replace large patches of infected
skin.

Later she had her remaining foot and both hands amputated.

Her father has previously described his daughter’s rare infection and the
consequences of it as “the most horrific situation that a parent can
possibly imagine,”

A week ago, hospital officials upgraded Miss Copeland’s condition from serious
to good.

Her parents last weekend were able to take her outside the hospital’s doors in
her wheelchair – her first time outdoors since she arrived at the hospital
in May.

After she learns to move herself with a wheelchair, Miss Copeland will move on
to another round of therapy in which she will learn to use prosthetic limbs.

Her father said she was looking forward to the time when she will be able to
return to the hospital, using her prosthetic limbs.

“She’s a very determined young lady,” her father said. “When
she sets her mind to something, she achieves it.”

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