SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — After more than three months in the hospital and a rehabilitation clinic, a young Georgia woman who survived a rare fleshing-eating disease returned home to a family dinner and a wheelchair-accessible house now equipped with an exercise room and private elevator.
Aimee Copeland, 24, had been away from her family’s home in Snellville outside Atlanta since May 4, when doctors diagnosed her with the life-threatening infection she contracted after gashing her leg while zip lining over the Tallapoosa River. Both of Copeland’s hands, her left leg and her right foot were amputated at a hospital in Augusta. Then Copeland moved to the Shepherd Center in Atlanta for nearly two months of learning to move, eat, bathe and care for herself without prosthetic limbs.
With two trips in the family car to haul all of her things, and the bumper nearly dragging on the ground, Copeland moved back home Wednesday, her father said.
“It was almost like you were bringing a kid home from college,” Andy Copeland said in a phone interview Thursday. “When we got back home, Aimee rolled around in her room and she was really laughing it up.”
Comments are not available on this story. Read more about why we allow commenting on some stories and not on others.
We believe it's important to offer commenting on certain stories as a benefit to our readers. At its best, our comments sections can be a productive platform for readers to engage with our journalism, offer thoughts on coverage and issues, and drive conversation in a respectful, solutions-based way. It's a form of open discourse that can be useful to our community, public officials, journalists and others.
We do not enable comments on everything — exceptions include most crime stories, and coverage involving personal tragedy or sensitive issues that invite personal attacks instead of thoughtful discussion.
You can read more here about our commenting policy and terms of use. More information is also found on our FAQs.
Show less